The story
Founded by Kevin Plank in 1996.1
20th century
Under Armour was founded on September 25, 1996, by Kevin Plank, a then-24 year old former special teams captain of the University of Maryland football team. Plank initially began the business from his grandmother's basement in Washington, D.C. He spent his time traveling along the East Coast with nothing but apparel in the trunk of his car. His first team sale came at the end of 1996 with a $17,000 sale. From his grandmother's Washington, D.C.-area rowhouse, Plank moved to Baltimore.
As a fullback at the University of Maryland, Plank got tired of having to change out of the sweat-soaked T-shirts worn under his jersey; however, he noticed that his compression shorts worn during practice stayed dry. This inspired him to make a T-shirt using moisture-wicking synthetic fabric.
After graduating from the University of Maryland, Plank developed his first prototype of the shirt, which he gave to his Maryland teammates and friends who had gone on to play in the National Football League, and soon improved the design, creating a new T-shirt built from microfibers that wicked moisture away. Major competing brands including Nike, Adidas and Reebok would soon follow with their own moisture-wicking apparel. Plank opted to use the British spelling "armour" in the company name because the toll-free vanity number was still available for that version.
People began to take notice of the brand when a front-page photo of USA Today featured Oakland Raiders quarterback Jeff George wearing an Under Armour mock turtleneck. Under Armour's first major sale came when an equipment manager from Georgia Tech requested 10 shirts from Plank. Contracts with NC State, Arizona State, and other Division I football teams followed. That year, Under Armour launched several new apparel lines including ColdGear, TurfGear, AllseasonGear, and StreetGear. By the end of 1996, Under Armour had sold 500 Under Armour HeatGear shirts, generating $17,000 for the company. In 1997, Plank had $100,000 in orders to fill and found a factory in Ohio to make the shirts.
In late 1999 and early 2000, Under Armour received its first big break when Warner Brothers used Under Armour in two of its feature films, Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday and The Replacements. Leveraging the release of Any Given Sunday, Plank purchased an ad in ESPN The Magazine, which generated close to $750,000 in sales.
21st century
In 2000, Under Armour became the outfitter of the new XFL football league. In 2003, private equity firm Rosewood Capital invested $12 million into the company. The same year, the company launched its first television commercial, which centered on its motto, "Protect this house." The company had its IPO on the NASDAQ in November 2005, raising $153m of capital. In late 2007, Under Armour opened its first full-line full-price retail location at the Westfield Annapolis mall in Annapolis, Maryland. It has since opened several specialty stores and factory outlet locations in Canada, China, and 39 states including the opening of its first Brand House in Baltimore in 2013 and second Brand House in Tysons, Virginia.
In 2009, the company formed an alliance with Cal Ripken Jr.'s Ripken Baseball, including providing uniforms for the minor league Aberdeen IronBirds and youth teams participating in the Cal Ripken World Series.
The company is reported to be the major commercial sponsor for the reality TV show Duck Dynasty and has garnered attention for taking a stand supporting show "patriarch" Phil Robertson.
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Under Armour provided the suits worn by speedskaters in the 2014 Winter Olympics. The US speedskaters were losing while wearing the new Mach 39 speedsuits, but when they reverted to the previous model suits, the skaters continued to lose. Although there did not appear to be a design flaw in the suit that caused the poor results, the news of the suits caused Under Armour stock to drop 2.38%.
The company bid hard over Nike to sign Kevin Durant to an endorsement deal. Offering a reported US$250,000,000 over 10 years. Nike ultimately re-signed Durant after agreeing to structure a contract, offering US$300,000,000.
On January 21, 2014, it was announced that the University of Notre Dame and Under Armour had come to terms with providing uniforms and athletic equipment for the university. This 10-year deal was the largest of its kind in the history of college athletics and became effective July 1, 2014. As of 2014, Under Armour had an operating profit of more than 30%, accelerating from its 2013 pace. The company's share price soared 62.5% that year.
After its November 2013 acquisition of digital app maker MapMyFitness for US$150,000,000, in February 2015 Under Armour announced it had purchased the calorie and nutrition counting app maker MyFitnessPal for $475m, as well as the fitness app maker Endomondo for US$85,000,000.
On January 6, 2016, Under Armour announced a strategic partnership with IBM to use IBM Watson's cognitive computing technology to provide meaningful data from its IOT kit and UA Record app.
In July 2016, Under Armour leased the 53,000-square-foot (4,900 m2) space formerly occupied by FAO Schwarz on New York's Fifth Avenue. FAO Schwarz had been paying $20 million in rent. The store's opening, originally planned for 2019, was pushed back to 2021. Under Armour then announced in March 2021 that it was planning on subleasing approximately half of the overall space.
On December 5, 2016, Under Armour reached a 10-year agreement with Major League Baseball (MLB) to become its official on-field uniform provider beginning in 2020. Under Armour will replace Majestic, who has been MLB's uniform provider since 2004. However, in May 2018, it was reported that Under Armour would be backing out of the deal with MLB, in order to save the company around $50 million. Nike would instead become the on-field uniform supplier of the league. MLB's deal with Nike became official on January 25, 2019.
In October 2019, Kevin Plank announced he would be stepping down by 2020, and COO Patrik Frisk would succeed him as CEO in January 2020. In July 2020, the company received Wells Notices from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for Mr. Plank, Under Armour's CEO, and David Bergman. The notices are the result of its accounting revelations for the years 2015 and 2016 and "pull forward" sales for the same period. The same month, the company reported revenue decline of 41% for the Q2 of 2020 or $707.6 million. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Under Armour had to close its physical stores earlier that same year. Despite the revenue decline, it still fared better than the analytic predictions, which had previously estimated profits of $541 million in sales for Q2.
Effective September 11, 2023, Under Armour appointed John Varvatos as chief design officer; Varvatos held the position until his departure in November 2025.
Effective April 1, 2024, Kevin Plank returned to the company as CEO, replacing Stephanie Linnartz who served in this position a little more than a year.
From Wikipedia’s article on Under Armour, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8