Under Armour Key Historical Performance from an Internal Perspective

Under Armour was founded by 23-year-old Kevin Plank. Plank had just concluded his career playing Division I football at the University of Maryland. Plank inspiration for Under Armour was to find an answer for cotton undershirts that football players would have to constantly change and throw away due to their inability to absorb sweat^[1]. After exhaustive research, Plank developed the fabric know as #0037. #0037 was then cut into undershirts that Plank spent all of 1996 selling out of the back of his car as he drove up and down the East Coast. Plank’s original shirts were the first of their kind to be focused entirely on athletes, yet with little capital no marketing experience he only generated $17,000 in sales during 1996. To grow his sales, Plank reached out to the multiple NFL players that he graduated with from Fork Union Military Academy, first was Titans player Frank Wycheck and then Jim Druckenmiller, neither of which were household names, however through exclusively word of mouth advertisement, sales grew as Under Armour was the only company that had applied sweat wicking synthetic materials into athletic shirts^[2]. In 1997, Kevin developed another proprietary technology with the ColdGear fabric which was meant to keep athletes warm, dry, and light in cold conditions. With the power of positive reviews from future Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, sale orders came in faster than Under Armour could produce. In 1998 Under Armour moved to an actual warehouse in Baltimore. After finding success with individual players in the NFL, Under Armour looked for making official apparel deals with teams. First with Georgia Tech Football team and then with North Carolina State.^[3] 

By the end of 1999 Plank and Under Armour found their big break by leveraging his connections with NFL players to become the official apparel sponsor of Al Pacino’s Any Given Sunday which featured NFL player and coaches as supporting roles. Under Armour further leveraged the exposure brought by the film my taking out its first major print ad in ESPN the Magazine, which represented a massive risk at the time but led to a $750,000 growth in sales^[4]. By 2000, Under Armour was more than a small boutique operation, and the company entered talks with the Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, and the operators of the Baltimore Marathon, along with major retail outlets. In 2003 Under Armour ran its first TV ad with its now well-known slogan “Protect this House” that became a rally cry for the company as well as players on the field. By 2004 sales were over $200 million annually^[5].

On November 18th, 2005 Kevin Plank took Under Armor public raising $157 million in additional capital^[6]. Under Armour looked again to keep their brand cool and current, and just like they did with Any Given Sunday¸ Under Armour signed another deal with the wildly popular TV Show Friday Night Lights^[7]. In 2006, Under Armour entered the athletic footwear industry, capturing 23% of the football cleat market. Under Armour then expanded into baseball, lacrosse, and softball clears. In 2008, Under Armour pivoted its marketing strategy from primarily partnering with different entertainment mediums to focusing on sponsoring elite athletes. Under Armour was able to secure the rights of Ray Lewis, Lindsey Vonn, and eventually Baltimore native Michael Phelps.

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