Under Armour's Internal And Environmental Environment, Strategic Direction, Recommendations And An Implementation Plan

Under Armour’s rapid rise in the sports apparel industry under its founder and CEO Kevin Plank has surprised many. Plank has turned a company that he started in his grandmother’s basement into a powerful opposing force to Nike. The company’s competitive advantage comes through its focus on performance, and its products have been well received by athletes. The company currently enjoys a strong position as professional athletes and movie and video game creators clamor for its products.

Competitors in the industry can wreak havoc on the bottom line for a company. With rivals, a price competition usually ensues, which benefits the customers but hurts the competing businesses that share a common strategy. In reviewing rival sellers, many competitors exist within the sports apparel and footwear industry, but most of them are unable to compete with the industry giants, Nike and Adidas. They are well seated in the industry and their sales reveal this ultimate strength, however, Under Armour is putting pressure on these mammoths. In 2015, global sales of sports clothing and footwear equated to $250 billion, of which Nike grabbed $30.6 billion, Adidas held in its grasp $18.8 billion and Under Armour had a much smaller piece of the pie, at $3.9 billion globally. In reviewing these numbers, it looks like Under Armour is really subpar to the industry giants, but this is not exactly the case. Under Armour in the past couple of

In 1996, Kevin Plank, a former special teams captain at the University of Maryland had an idea for clothing that would revolutionize the way athletics would be played. In his days in college playing football and going through two-a-days, he knew there had to be a better solution to dealing with perspiration than changing his cotton shirts. Plank created a shirt with moisture-wicking performance fibers, engineered to keep athletes cool, dry, and light even in the most hot and brutal conditions. In 1997, Under Armour created clothes for all seasons, whether it’s cold or hot. As Plank began to search the East coast, he came from selling gear out of the trunk of his car to 1998 where he moved into a new warehouse ("Under Armour, Inc. - History.").

a. Under Armour’s approach towards innovation is very unique, they think and plan out their projects thoroughly in order to create a one of a kind product that could be appealing to their consumers. The company has been extremely progressive throughout the years in order to stay ahead of the other competitive companies in their targeted industry. By constantly updating and coming up with different product lines, such as compression shirts and cleats, Under Armour is able to compete with other top athletic wear company’s in their market. If

Under Armour’s success transcends to its financial stability. Based Under Armour’s fourth quarter report, the apparel company expects 2016 net revenues of approximately $4.95 billion, representing growth of 25% over 2015 and 2016

Under Armour’s business strategy towards market segmentation is broken down into three different basis; Age, Gender, Uses. The first major market segmentation is by age, different age groups demand different products and Under Armour has produced certain merchandise to appeal to each generation. The second is Gender, both male and female respectively make up roughly 50% of the market equally.To appeal to females UA produces apparel in brighter colo, as a fashion forward athletic wear. While for males they they cater toward masculine vibe of tight fitting and resistant to wear and tear. Lastly, UA segments by the range of uses for their products.

Kevin Plank, the founder of Under Armour sports apparel line is a brilliant businessman. This former college football player started making work-out T-shirts from his grandmother’s basement; seventeen years later, the company is generating billions of dollars in revenue. Kevin Plank has created a brand that is more than just a fancy success story. The Under Armour’s mission in the sporting goods industry is to “make all athletes better through passion, design, and the relentless pursuit of innovation (Thompson, 2014, C-53).” This company is more than just a fancy success story. VIRO Analysis reported, Under Armour has been growing its revenue at a rate of +20% for 5 consecutive years, which is extremely impressive. The company’s financial

In 1995 the then captain of the University of Maryland football team, Kevin Plank came up with a brilliant idea that will revolutionize the athletic apparel industry forever: microfiber T-shirts designed to wick moisture away from the skin. Almost two decades later, Under Armour is a multi billion-dollar athletic apparel market competing directly with industry giants Nike and Adidas.

Founded in 1996 by University of Maryland graduate Kevin Plank, Under Armour has become the leading supplier of the athletic performance apparel industry. Under Armour began with simple idea to create a t-shirt that would enhance athletic performance by regulating body temperature and removing perspiration

Under Armour diving head first into the relatively new world of extreme sports will allow them to be one of the first large athletic apparel companies to get involved with such a new and ever growing industry. There is a significant need for Under Armours’ technology and experience. Under Armour is one of the top sellers in sports apparel and also has brand recognition outside of the extreme sports arena. Not only is Under Armour already a household name, but it will not have to compete with sports apparel companies similar to its own. Under Armour can collaborate with sponsors like, Red Bull, Go Pro, Volcom, Skull Candy and, one of the smaller apparel companies that have less market control. Under Armour will be able to join forces with these

1. We chose to study Under Armour because of their explosive growth over the last five years in a very competitive industry. From a marketing standpoint, it is quite apparent that the company is doing well and one could assume that because the firm appears to have had great success in aggressively expanding their market share, they are by extension creating value for investors. By studying the financial information, we aimed to confirm or deny whether Under Armour is indeed creating value.

In 2015, NIKE experienced an increase of cash and equivalents from $2.2 billion to $3.8 billion. Alternatively, Under Armour encountered a decrease in cash from $593 million to $129 million. Account receivables for NIKE decreased in 2015 from $3.3 billion to 3.4 billion in 2014. As for Under Armour, account receivable enhanced from to $279 million to $433 million in 2015, which was a result of higher sales accumulated by international consumers. Recent store opening increased NIKE’s inventory to $4.3 billion compared to Under Armour’s $783 million, which came from investments in replenishment products. Moreover, Under Armour registered total assets for 2015 were $ 2.8 million that resulted in an asset turnover rate of 1.381. As a result, NIKE

The rapid success of Under Armour is not a mistake. The company dominates the performance apparel category. According to Founder Kevin Plank, “The mission of Under Armour is to make technically advanced products that are engineered with superior fabric construction, to provide proven innovation available to the masses-aimed at making athletes perform better” (UnderArmour.com). Under Armour uses many marketing initiatives including athlete endorsement, product placement, and popular culture which illustrates the success of Under Armour.

The corporate tax rate has just decreased from 35% to 21% which is good news for UA but not as much as companies that do more business in the US and also for a company that has significantly less debt than the highly leveraged Under Armour has (The Economist, 2018). Social factors are quite important for the retail industry and in 2017 a large demographic for clothing sales, teens, spent less overall and claimed Under Armour a brand they did not wear and athleisure in general to not be preferred attire anymore (Reagan, 2017). Thus, Under Armour’s demographics changed just in the last year with teenagers claiming to not be wearers of the brand, and also the trend of athleisure coming to an end. Technology is an external environmental factor that affects Under Armour, but not as much its competitors in the industry. When fitness bands were introduced the company also came out with their own line of bands that proved unsuccessful and were discontinued (Booton, 2017). Under Armour maintained their fitness apps however and they are able to have an edge over their competitors by having all of this information

Under Armour is currently one of the leading companies in the sports apparel industry whose mission is to “Make all athletes better through passion, science, and the relentless pursuit of innovation”.1 When Under Armour first broke into the sports apparel industry it was a disruptive pioneer that initially made the two giants, Nike and Adidas, a little weary. Under Armour revolutionized the sports apparel industry by creating apparel that used synthetic materials as an alternative to natural fibers, such as cotton, or other materials, such as polyester. This all-important switch to these materials resulted in a 2“shirt that provided compression and wicked perspiration off your skin rather than absorb it. A