Under Armour Essay

Words: 2083
Pages: 9

UNDER ARMOUR

Under Armour is a product line based company. Under Armour sells sports clothing and Accessories Company. The company is a supplier of a wide range of sportswear and casual apparel mainly focusing on hi-tech sportswear for professional athletes. The products of Under Armour Performance Apparel have become the top choice of athletes around the world to wear under their uniforms or during workouts. It all began with college football player Kevin Plank, who designed a T-shirt to draw sweat away from the body and into a lightweight microfiber fabric. Though moisture-wicking fabric was not a new concept, Plank's lingerie-feeling garments became a sensation when they kept football players at the University of Maryland, Georgia
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Under Armour's first television ad aired in August, during collegiate football's Kickoff Classic between Plank's alma mater, the University of Maryland, and the legendary Notre Dame. The ads ran on both ABC and ESPN for several weeks. By the end of the year, Under Armour was available in over 2,500 retail outlets and had sales of $55 million. The company had hired around 100 new employees during the year, had moved to larger headquarters on Baltimore's Inner Harbor, and added warehouse space of 65,000 square feet. By 2003 sales for Under Armour were expected to breach $110 million and it was rumored the company had become a takeover target. New products that debuted during the year were underwear and golf apparel; Under Armour had also become a favorite among teenaged athletes and was considered "cool" for every day wear at middle and high schools. Even the collegiate and professional athletes who wore Under Armour in ads did it for the product, since the firm never paid endorsement fees. Under Armour got around the issue by not printing the athletes' names, and the "models" willingly endorsed the apparel because they truly believed in it.

When markets closed on August 19, 2011 Under Armour founder Kevin Plank, 38, was worth $720 million. Today the man behind America’s hottest sports apparel company is a billionaire, with a net worth of $1.05 billion. Thanks to a 55% uptick in the price of Under Armour shares, Plank has gone from up-and-comer to bona fide Forbes List