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March 28, 2018

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B R I A N S T E R N T H A L A N D P R A S H A N T M A L AV I Y A

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Under Armour:
Creating and Growing a New Consumer Brand

Kevin Plank, chairman and CEO of Under Armour (UA), reviewed the performance of the
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sports apparel and footwear brand he founded in 1996. At the end of Q2 2015, UA had recorded
21 consecutive quarters of over 20% net revenue growth, including 29% growth in Q2 2014.1
Revenue in 2015 exceeded Wall Street estimates, reaching $3.984 billion, up from $3.08 billion in
2014. Growth for 2017 was estimated at $4.9 billion, a 24% increase, slightly lower than the initial
$5 billion projections prior to the bankruptcy of Sports Authority.2
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Te company’s recent success could be largely attributed to three sources: international

expansion into China, Europe, and South America (totaling 10% of UA’s sales); explosive growth
of its footwear business (up 57% year-over-year for 2014–2015, driven by sales of the Curry One
basketball shoe line); and major eforts to ramp up its women’s line.

UA’s emerging success in attracting women was especially sweet given the abject failure of its
frst women’s line. Dismissed by Plank as “made by a bunch of dudes,” it never even saw the light
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of day, landing in an incinerator.3 Te company had come a long way from its failed “shrink it
and pink it” days, focusing attention on women-specifc product development backed with global
advertising campaigns that propelled UA’s inroads into the women’s sports apparel market.

When founding UA, Plank had aspirations of toppling Nike, and after 20 years in the business,
he knew they would have to attract more women to the brand to achieve that goal.4 See Exhibits
1 and 2 for comparative revenue fgures for UA and Nike. Done right, Plank predicted, “Women’s
apparel someday will be larger than our men’s apparel business.”5 His goal was $1.9 billion in UA
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sales to women by 2019.

©2018 by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Tis case was prepared by Professor Brian
Sternthal (Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University) and Professor Prashant Malaviya (McDonough
School of Business at Georgetown University). Cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not
intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of efective or inefective management. Some
details may have been fctionalized for pedagogical purposes. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials,
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of Kellogg Case Publishing.
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UA was committed to supporting its women’s business with a signifcant investment in

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advertising. Hitting the right positioning and creative tone was key to growing the brand with
women and complementing its signifcant investments in women’s product design.

Under Armour Launch and Brand Foundation:

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1996–1999
Plank’s personal experience as a University of Maryland football player provided the motivation
behind HeatGear®, the fabric technology that launched Under Armour.6 Sweat-soaked clothes
chafed athletes’ skin, making tough practices in hot weather or humid air even more intense.
Plank’s goal was to create compression shorts and super lightweight, moisture-wicking shirts that
kept athletes dry and comfortable so they could focus on their training and ultimately improve

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performance. Extending the HeatGear® insight, he expanded UA’s product line to include apparel
that helped regulate athletes’ body temperature in other weather conditions, such as the ColdGear®
technology that kept muscles warm in cold weather workouts and sports.

From the very beginning, Plank’s plan was simple: develop and produce high-performance,
cutting-edge products. UA also protected its HeatGear®, ColdGear®, ArmourVent™, and
ColdBlack® brand marks. After selling his technical sports apparel from the trunk of his car and his
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grandmother’s basement for two years, Plank opened UA headquarters in Baltimore.

Taking an unusual risk, in 1999 Plank provided UA apparel for Oliver Stone’s flm Any Given
Sunday,* which ofered a creative shot at brand awareness. To capitalize on this exposure, UA also
ran print ads in ESPN Te Magazine, a bold expenditure given that brand sales still hadn’t even
reached $1 million. Te risk paid of, however, and the football movie product placement reinforced
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the print campaign to help generate another $750,000 in sales for UA. Te growing aggressive
sports equity also paved the way for sponsorship and licensing relationships with Major League
Baseball (MLB), the National Hockey League (NHL), and a wide range of collegiate programs.

With burgeoning brand exposure and awareness in pro sports, UA then scored big-box sporting
goods distribution in Galyan’s, a major chain later acquired by Dick’s Sporting Goods. In just a
few years, UA had garnered the awareness, distribution, and licensing successes it needed to set
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up exponential growth of the brand. Tis was a remarkable accomplishment for a tiny player in a
category dominated by Nike (founded in the mid-1970s), Adidas (around since the late 1940s),
and Reebok (nationally competitive since the early 1980s).
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* A modestly successful flm that made $100 million globally, the football-based movie had strong thematic
resonance with the fedgling Under Armour brand.

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 KE1051 UNDER ARMOUR

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Consumer Market Growth: 2000–2016

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Fabric Technology Innovation
True to Plank’s vision of high-performance apparel, UA had invested heavily in its branded

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fabric technologies. Its apparel lines included SKUs with a broad range of innovations that aimed
to improve training and performance in all weather conditions:

• ColdBlack®—Sun protective clothing that refected heat and infrared rays, so even dark-
colored clothes absorbed less heat from the sun
• CoolSwitch—Fabric coating inside garments that pulled heat from skin, making skin
feel cooler

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• ArmourVent™—Mesh technology that improved breathability
• ColdGear® Infrared—Garment lining that absorbed body heat into the fabric to stay warm
longer in outdoor workouts
• UA Recharge®—Strategic compression design for muscle recovery

Although UA did not include the fabric technology marks on all of its SKUs, its marquee
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innovations—HeatGear® and ColdGear®—had a protected brand identity used in print
communications and on the website. UA had historically relied on its brand marks and positioning
to diferentiate, so it had no patentable intellectual property for any of its apparel products.

Footwear Market Entry

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After going public in 2005, UA faced additional pressure for top-line growth. (See Exhibit 1
for UA revenues.) Consistent with its clear focus on performance technology, it entered the
footwear market with Click-Clack® football cleats, an obviously technical sports line and one with
which Plank had direct experience. Backed by TV advertising, Click-Clack® captured 23% of the
$250 million football cleat market.* Staying true to its serious sports heritage, UA subsequently
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expanded its cleat business to include baseball, softball, and lacrosse cleats.

In 2008, UA took the plunge from cleats into the more mainstream footwear category of
training shoes, with an initial focus on cross-training and running. Banking on the existing
performance-driven following for its apparel line,†7 UA backed its footwear launch with a $25
million ad campaign that included a splashy $5 million Super Bowl ad introducing both the shoes
and UA’s aspiration of owning the future of athletic wear. Tis competitively risky move during a
recession had some Wall Street analysts skeptical. It was the biggest move for UA to date.
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* See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvDvuILhGws for the Click-Clack® launch ad that clarifes the name: it’s
the last sound a football player hears before stepping on the feld.
†
By 2006, UA had 43% of the total US performance apparel business sold through sporting goods stores.

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Along with signifcant ad support, UA continued its licensing and sponsorship eforts, primarily

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with college teams as it grew its line of training shoes. Plank’s Maryland alma mater signed on early,
but UA also secured big Division I programs, such as Auburn, Texas Tech, and South Florida, that
played in highly televised college conferences.

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Advertising
Tracking the progression of UA’s various ad campaigns provides insight into its positioning and
brand equity (see Table 1). Like its major competitor, Nike, (within the walls of UA, Nike’s name
was not spoken, just referred to as “our competitor”), UA had a history of sponsoring pro athletes
as endorsers. Te company had invested in robust campaigns to build and support its brand, and
its advertising impacted sales and won awards despite a budget only a fraction of its “competitor.”

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Table 1: Under Armour Advertising Campaigns
Year Campaign Tagline Link
2003 Protect This House I Will We Must Protect This https://youtu.be/skGAgy-BGE8
House!
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2006 Click-Clack® launch Click Clack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvDvuILhGws

2008 Prototype footwear The Future Is Ours https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fExGaR2J08

launch (Super Bowl spot)

2010 Protect This House I Will I Will https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRZmPzTrmrM

(multiple athletes)
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2014 Speedform™ Apollo This is what fast feels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNNsBUzOsMs

running shoe like.

2016 Rule Yourself (apparel- It’s what you do in the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDQDTPWNcQ0

focused campaign); spots dark that puts you in (Michael Phelps)
have two different taglines the light. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF6-DI35p4Y
(Memphis Depay)
You are the sum of all https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hScgyXu_9c
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your training. (Tom Brady)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd-ZtNsNiH4
(Steph Curry)

2016 It Comes from Below It comes from below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzadPEtjlbI

(footwear-focused (Cam Newton)
campaign) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klRozP9SCQ0
(Bryce Harper)
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Distribution
Prior to the 2016 bankruptcy of Sports Authority, 22% of UA sales derived from big-box
sporting goods retailers. Dick’s Sporting Goods continued to be a pivotal retail partner for UA,

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 KE1051 UNDER ARMOUR

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and UA inked a deal with Kohl’s value-oriented department store shortly after the Sports Authority

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dissolution, which analysts expected would compensate for the loss.8 However, almost 70% of
retail sales came from partners such as Nordstrom, Macy’s, and Foot Locker. UA also continued
to maintain a robust 30% of sales from its direct-to-consumer channels both online and in-store.
In 2016, it took over the former FAO Schwartz space on Fifth Avenue in New York, with plans to
open a fagship UA retail experience in 2017.

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Competitors
UA’s move into footwear was particularly aggressive given the competition it faced in that
category. In 2009, footwear accounted for 54% of Nike’s global revenue, with apparel generating
27%. By contrast, apparel dominated UA revenue (80%) with footwear contributing only 12%.

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See Exhibits 3 and 4 for revenue by line of business for the two companies. In the US, Nike
dominated the athletic footwear market with close to a 50% share, with Adidas a distant second
around 10%. UA had hovered at 2% since its launch.9 Global fgures were less available, but
triangulating across online sources, Nike appeared to have about one-third of the global market
and Adidas around 15–20%. All other players were in the single digits, with UA lumped into the
“other” category with less than 1%.
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Overall, UA continued to face competition from Nike across all its product lines. Nike
had a long history of locking up athletes early with sponsorship deals, buying its way into new
markets (e.g., acquiring hockey brand Bauer and soccer brand Umbro), and innovating technical
performance in footwear. Adidas had acquired Reebok, was a major supplier of soccer uniforms
and gear to professional teams around the globe, and had a high-profle crossover to street wear
with its partnership with Pharrell Williams. Champion posed a threat in lower-priced apparel
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with its C9 line sold in Target. Finally, outdoor apparel brands such as Columbia, North Face,
and Marmot were peripheral competitors in terms of product expertise in technical wear for cold-
weather sports.

Curry One and Connected Fitness

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Once its footwear business had traction, UA took a page out of Nike’s sub-brand playbook and
launched its Curry Signature line (akin to Nike’s Air Jordan). UA signed NBA star Steph Curry
in 2013, stealing him from Nike, which had just invested a huge chunk of its sponsorship budget
on Kevin Durant. UA’s timing was perfect; it signed Curry just before his Golden State Warriors
won the NBA championship and Curry became MVP. While apparel still drove UA’s revenues, its
footwear business grew 57% from 2014 to 2015, largely driven by Curry basketball shoes. Industry
analysts pegged Curry shoe sales higher than any athlete-named line other than Jordan, beating out
the signature lines of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.10
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On the heels of its explosive growth in the athletic footwear market, UA spent $710 million
to acquire digital health and ftness apps MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal, and Endomondo.11 Along
with UA’s internally created health and ftness app UA Record, these mobile apps, collectively
called Connected Fitness, served as a massive data repository and represented the largest health

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and ftness community in the world. UA intended to connect the user-input data on nutrition (8

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billion meals logged in 2015) and ftness activity (2 billion activities logged) to point-of-sale data
from its website to not only ofer advice on purchases but also help users make better eating and
workout decisions. According to UA, over 100,000 new users per day registered with Connected
Fitness apps.12

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Targeting Women: 2010–Present

Product
UA’s initial foray into the women’s market came in 2003. However, its “shrink it and pink it”
approach (shrinking UA’s men’s clothing, dying the products pink, promoting them to women)

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unsurprisingly failed to move product. For the next several years UA concentrated on growing its
men’s business and determining what to do in footwear. As a result, it didn’t build a concerted
strategy for the women’s market until 2010, at a time when Lululemon had accelerated the
development of the women’s athleisure market and sat atop the new clothing trend.

UA began its women’s business reboot with a new line of apparel that included compression
shorts, sports bras, shorts, and training shoes. Tis time around, however, it hired a creative team of
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women designers. Te resulting product lines felt feminine, yet also accentuated muscles and had
the same technical features as the men’s line of fabrics that touted technology-driven performance
benefts. By 2013, roughly 30% of UA’s sales were to women. UA also hired fashion brand veteran
Leanne Fremar as VP and creative director for the women’s business; she oversaw a 10-person
marketing team and a 20-person merchandising group.
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Advertising and Promotion

At the outset of its more serious eforts to promote the brand to women in 2010, UA developed
women-specifc executions of its overall brand campaigns. Its frst women-focused TV ads were
part of its Protect Tis House I Will campaign and featured alpine skier Lindsey Vonn, soccer
player Lauren Holiday, and track and feld sprinter Monica Hargrove. Spots aired on ESPN, Te
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CW, and MTV.

In 2012, UA continued its women-specifc focus with its No Matter What, Sweat Every Day
I Will campaign. Media placements moved away from sports networks, with the ads airing on
Bravo, E!, VH1, and Nickelodeon (the latter presumably to reach active moms). It used a range
of digital properties for static and rich media content in the same campaign, pushing content on
social media (Facebook and Twitter), Hulu, MTV.com, and Popsugar.com, a women’s lifestyle and
ftness site.
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In 2014, UA developed fresh insights about women’s motivations to work out and be active.
Working with Guidance Counsel, a Portland-based consulting frm, UA learned that women tended
to consider themselves to be athletic, but not necessarily athletes. Perhaps a subtle distinction,
it nevertheless spoke to women’s aspirations and how they see themselves. UA also learned that

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women see sports, physical activity, and performance as an exercise of will, introducing a particular

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mental angle UA had not yet leveraged in any of its advertising. Tese insights served as the basis
for the I Will What I Want campaign, whose goal, according to Fremar, was to celebrate women
“who had the physical and mental strength to tune out the external pressures and turn inward
and chart their own course.”13 Unlike Protect Tis House I Will, the 2014 campaign was fully
women-specifc.

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I Will What I Want frst aired in fall 2014, and featured 10 women who set their own standards
to overcome barriers and achieve their goals by sheer force of will. Created by New York agency
Droga5, the campaign featured content for TV, print, and out of home, as well as select longer-form
content promoted primarily on digital and the microsite willbeatsnoise.com. Supermodel Gisele
Bündchen, American Ballet principal Misty Copeland, and World Cup record holder Lindsey
Vonn anchored several spots. UA also created the #IWillWhatIWant hashtag to promote social

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media sharing and comments. As part of the multichannel campaign, user comments about the
spots appeared on the microsite in the background of the Gisele ad, illustrating in real time how
she tunes out criticism to focus on her own goals. See Table 2 for UA’s women-specifc campaigns
and executions.

Table 2: Under Armour Women-Specific Advertising Campaigns

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Year Campaign Tagline Link
2010 Protect This House I I Will https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4oLd7ugh6g
Will (Lindsey Vonn, Lauren Holiday, Monica Hargrove)

2012 No Matter What, Sweat I Will https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC618cAxxa0

Every Day I Will (everyday women)
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2014 I Will What I Want I Will https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-V7cOestUs

(Gisele Bündchen)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf78p2qXFoA
(Misty Copeland)

2016 Rule Yourself (apparel- You are the sum of all https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmUCu8VWsWg
focused campaign); your training. (Misty Copeland)
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spots have two different It’s what you do in the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sxNiqnKYa4

taglines dark that puts you in (Madison Kocian and US women’s gymnastics team)
the light.

UA’s recent campaigns Rule Yourself and It Comes from Below were multigender and footwear
campaigns, respectively. Capitalizing on the Olympic athletes it sponsored during the Rio games,
UA developed executions for Rule Yourself that featured Michael Phelps and Madison Kocian in
addition to signature spokespeople Misty Copeland, Steph Curry, Tom Brady, and others. Table 1
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provides links for these ads.

In addition to women-specifc product development and advertising, UA also implemented

ongoing and periodic digital promotion and content. At the same time Protect Tis House I Will
aired, UA added a Facebook fan page just for women that garnered over 850,000 likes. UA used

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the fan site to display product images and inspirational workout messages, as well as promotions

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such as rafe drawings for apparel if users posted photos of themselves wearing UA clothing and
shoes. UA had a similar women-specifc presence on Instagram and Pinterest, and used Facebook
and other social media channels to promote its What’s Beautiful competitions.

Te What’s Beautiful promotion had three iterations since 2011. In each version, the

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promotion challenged women to set training goals and meet or exceed them. It started as a microsite
where women could post their goals, document their progress with photos, and get inspiration
and support from other women. In subsequent years, UA created 19 challenges women had to
complete and document to be considered for the top prize. In the last form, UA created a What’s
Beautiful mobile app to facilitate postings of challenges, progress, transformation, and cheering
each other on. UA judged the posts, named fnalists, and chose a winner based on how well the
winner inspired and achieved. Over the years, prizes included ftness-inspired vacations to Costa

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Rica, UA gear, and year-long UA celebrity trainer and nutritionist support. Although the winning
criteria were admittedly subjective, the promotion’s popularity stemmed from the combination
of competition along with community support. Overall, the premise of “redefning both beauty
and what it means to be a female athlete” has resonated with UA’s growing female following. Te
spirit of the promotion also resonated given the broader cultural acknowledgement that women’s
professional competence was questioned and undermined far more often than men’s.
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The Road to a $1.9 Billion UA Women’s Business
UA’s women’s business had no doubt benefted in part from the growth of the athleisure
category, which had been growing at a faster rate than the overall apparel category. As a result,
although UA had worked hard on both its product line development and advertising and promotion
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campaigns, it was not clear which of its various positioning and advertising models would best
serve the brand going forward. Given its aggressive revenue aspirations, UA needed a clear strategy
to inform how to push the women’s business forward while maintaining UA’s brand diferentiation
against Nike.
No
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Exhibit 1: Under Armour Revenue ($ in millions)

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Year Revenue
2006 430
2007 606
2008 725

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2009 856
2010 1,060
2011 1,472
2012 1,834
2013 2,332
2014 3,084

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2015 3,963

Source: Under Armour Investor Relations, accessed September 9, 2016, http://investor.underarmour.com/

income.cfm.

Exhibit 2: Nike Revenue ($ in millions)

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Year Revenue
2006 14,954
2007 16,326
2008 18,627
2009 19,176
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2010 19,104
2011 20,862
2012 23,331
2013 25,313
2014 27,799
2015 30,601
2016 32,376
No

Source: Nike Investors, accessed September 14, 2016, http://investors.nike.com.

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Exhibit 3: Under Armour: Revenues by Product Category

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Source: Phalguni Soni, “Under Armour: The Nature of Its Business, Product Portfolio,” Market Realist, December
10, 2014, http://marketrealist.com/2014/12/armour-nature-business-product-portfolio.

Exhibit 4: Nike: Revenues by Product Category

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No
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Source: Phalguni Soni, “Nike Posts Revenue Growth at the Lower End of Its Guidance,” Market Realist, March 24,
2016, http://marketrealist.com/2016/03/nike-posts-revenue-growth-lower-end-guidance-3q16.

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Endnotes

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1 Under Armour Investor Relations, accessed September 10, 2016, http://investor.underarmour.com/annuals.cfm.
2 Chiradeep BasuMallick, “Here’s Why Beaten-Down Under Armour’s Stock Is a Great Value Play,” Te Street,
June 3, 2016, https://www.thestreet.com/story/13595478/1/here-s-why-beaten-down-under-armour-s-stock-is-
a-great-value-play.html.

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3 E. J. Schultz, “Ad Age’s 2014 Marketer of the Year: Under Armour,” Ad Age, December 8, 2014,
http://adage.com/article/news/marketer-year-armour/296088.
4 Ibid.
5 Elizabeth Olson, “Under Armour Wants to Dress Athletic Young Women,” New York Times, August 31, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/01/business/media/01adco.html.
6 “Te UA Story: 1996–1998,” accessed February 26, 2018, http://www.uabiz.com/company/history.cfm.
7 David Kiley, “Under Armour Steps Into Footwear Field,” Bloomberg Businessweek, updated January 31, 2008,

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http://www.nbcnews.com/id/22918627/ns/business-us_business/t/under-armour-steps-footwear-feld/#.Wqf-
JGrwZaQ.
8 Giovanni Bruno, “SunTrust: Under Armour Carries ‘Unique, Compelling Long-Term Opportunity,’” Te Street,
May 31, 2017, https://www.thestreet.com/story/14156737/1/suntrust-under-armour-carries-unique-compelling-
long-term-opportunity.html.
9 Daniel Roberts and Analee Kasudia, “Tis Chart Shows How Far Adidas Has Fallen in Footwear,” Fortune, June
5, 2015, http://fortune.com/2015/06/05/adidas-footwear-fall.
10 Camille Augustin, “Te Midas Touch: Stephen Curry’s Sneaker Sales in the U.S. Are Insanely High,” Vibe,
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March 5, 2016, http://www.vibe.com/2016/03/stephen-curry-under-armour-sneaker-sales.
11 John Kell, “Why Under Armour Is Making a Costly Bet on Connected Fitness,” Fortune, April 21, 2015,
http://fortune.com/2015/04/21/under-armour-connected-ftness.
12 Under Armour Connected Fitness, accessed February 26, 2018, http://advertising.underarmour.com.
13 Schultz, “Ad Age’s 2014 Marketer of the Year: Under Armour.”
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No
Do

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