Company Overview
Founded by Kevin Plank in 1996, Under Armour started in sport apparel industry which
aimed to provide innovative products. Based on high-tech fabric structure, their products
allow extreme moisture handling ability which is essential to all sport athletes. Offering
unique products coupled with a niche marketing approach, the company has had three
digits growth index in a long period, became one of the leaders in the sport apparel
industry with net sales of over $1.4 billion in the year 2011.
Company Strategies
Bases on the case study, I would like to discuss the company strategies in three periods.
First of all, at the starting-up term (from 1996 to 1998), the company main goal was to
define the potential market and opportunity for their products, as well as testing products
and establishing customer base. As a former athlete of University of Maryland, Kevin
Plank has wide relationships with the college and university’s athletes. His marketing
strategy was offering some product sample to his athlete network, and then making sales
through the referrals. At that stage, the main market was the school sports teams and some
high-performance athletes.
After positive responses and the very first profit, the company decided to expand the
operation financed by taking the bank loans. This action gained the Under Armour enough
capital to be able to move to the sport apparel retailer chains. By targeting on
high-performance apparels, the company sales have rapidly increased. Sales in 2005 were
over $263 million with more than $32 million net income. The company products focused
