The idea for Under Armour was born on the football field, and it has become one of the leading companies in the industry. The man behind this industry changing idea was Kevin Plank, a 23-year-old former University of Maryland special teams captain. A simple idea changed the way athletes dress forever. Being on the football team meant you were sweating continuously and Plank became tired of changing his old cotton shirts over and over again. Knowing that there simply had to be something better, he set out to create a solution.
Plank searched for the right synthetic fabrics to find the right combination that would allow athletics to keep cool and dry, while remaining light in the most brutally hot conditions. With his former teammates being …show more content…
Currently they have a product line that focuses on warm weather sports with wicking materials to keep sweat from weighing athletes down. Once Under Armour flooded the market with their revolutionary product line, every other sports oriented companies have begun to make their own versions. With seasoned companies like Nike, Adidas, Champion it’s very important to stay ahead of the technology curve. Always depending on the R&D department to come up with the next big game changer. Development of cold weather gear that has similar properties to ensure athletes such as snow boarders or skiers would be kept warm without being too warm could help to bring in new customers in an area in which Under Amour does not currently focus. While doing this driving the prices of their products down to stay in line with competition. Over the past two years, Under Armour has spent close to $1 billion buying and investing in three leading makers of activity- and diet-tracking mobile apps. Plank saw this as a way to examine the more than 150 million users to drive everything from product development to merchandising to marketing. The amount of data logged in by the app would give UA the direction they needed to develop better products, while promoting people to live a healther …show more content…
In Effort to do this Plank made the decision to move into the footwear market. This change in the company wasn’t well received by the shareholders and critics for obvious reason. UA is inherently an appeal company and moving toward a company that produces shoes against huge companies could be dangerous. Nike is inherently a shoe company that’s been around for over 50 years, which gives them a huge reputation in the market. On the other hand, UA is a small company trying to make a big small in a market that’s unknown to them. “Here is a company (UA) with no credibility in athletic shoes attacking one of the world’s most iconic and dominant brands for athletic footwear. Furthermore, Under Armour was doing so with no clear-cut product advantage and with a name that defined a totally different strategy.” (Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, and Bamford pg. 620). The shoe market is a $31-billion-dollar industry so I see what Plank set his sights on gasping some of the market. The book is a bit outdated so I would able to look up more up to date information
Plank searched for the right synthetic fabrics to find the right combination that would allow athletics to keep cool and dry, while remaining light in the most brutally hot conditions. With his former teammates being …show more content…
Currently they have a product line that focuses on warm weather sports with wicking materials to keep sweat from weighing athletes down. Once Under Armour flooded the market with their revolutionary product line, every other sports oriented companies have begun to make their own versions. With seasoned companies like Nike, Adidas, Champion it’s very important to stay ahead of the technology curve. Always depending on the R&D department to come up with the next big game changer. Development of cold weather gear that has similar properties to ensure athletes such as snow boarders or skiers would be kept warm without being too warm could help to bring in new customers in an area in which Under Amour does not currently focus. While doing this driving the prices of their products down to stay in line with competition. Over the past two years, Under Armour has spent close to $1 billion buying and investing in three leading makers of activity- and diet-tracking mobile apps. Plank saw this as a way to examine the more than 150 million users to drive everything from product development to merchandising to marketing. The amount of data logged in by the app would give UA the direction they needed to develop better products, while promoting people to live a healther …show more content…
In Effort to do this Plank made the decision to move into the footwear market. This change in the company wasn’t well received by the shareholders and critics for obvious reason. UA is inherently an appeal company and moving toward a company that produces shoes against huge companies could be dangerous. Nike is inherently a shoe company that’s been around for over 50 years, which gives them a huge reputation in the market. On the other hand, UA is a small company trying to make a big small in a market that’s unknown to them. “Here is a company (UA) with no credibility in athletic shoes attacking one of the world’s most iconic and dominant brands for athletic footwear. Furthermore, Under Armour was doing so with no clear-cut product advantage and with a name that defined a totally different strategy.” (Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, and Bamford pg. 620). The shoe market is a $31-billion-dollar industry so I see what Plank set his sights on gasping some of the market. The book is a bit outdated so I would able to look up more up to date information