Risk And Financial Impact Of Under Armour

Under Armour, Nike and Adidas are the top three brands known worldwide. These three companies were able to gain a strong brand to make a name for themselves in the sports apparel market today. On the other hand, Under Armour has become one of the top leading distributing companies to offer athletic apparel, footwear amongst many other things. “In 2013, Under Armour had a 14.7 percent share of the U.S market, compared quite favorably with Nike’s 27 percent market share and Adidas’s 7.4 percent market share.” (C-50) However, the company’s path of success can come crashing down as you take a look

An event such as the Olympic Games is an opportunity for manufacturers such as Under Armour to sponsor the national team from where the company is founded. In this case, Under Armour got the contract of developing the suits for the U.S. National Speed Skating Team. While companies such as Adidas could potentially provide the suits, Under Armour has the advantage of being an American company. While Nike is a direct competitor, speed skating is not something is commonly attracted to masses other than when the Olympic Games are underway and this was an opportunity Under Armour took.

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

The also place a big emphasizes on the Under Armour logo and pushed for brand recognition. Under Armour became the official uniform sponsor for many colleges and sport teams. Under Armour’s strategy was to design and make varies styles of sports apparel with their moisture-wicking fabrics to satisfy the needs of athletes of all levels and all sports. Their growth strategy was to continue to expand on the products they offered their consumers. They wanted to create more products that encompassed several sports and activities. By doing this they would be targeting additional consumers with their new performance products. Part of the growth strategy was to expand sales in foreign countries, become a global competitor in sports apparel and strengthening the appeal of their products and brand

When our professor first presented this project paper to us my mind began to wonder. What is a good company to research and present it to my fellow classmates. My first selection was “Chik-fil-a”, but I wasn’t sure if we could write about fast food franchises. So I continued to brainstorm about a topic to expound on, even going as far as in asking my buddies and co-workers for suggestions. “Walmart”, “National Football League”, “National Basketball Association”, “Nationwide Insurance”, and “LG” were a few ideas that were presented to me. A few of those sounded ok but none really grasp my attention. As I was visiting an outlet mall, I came across Nike store. “Wow that’s going to by my topic of choice”, is what I told myself. Week

The five key growth drivers for Under Armour are: “Men’s and Women’s Apparel, Footwear, International and Direct-to-Consumer” (Under Armour 10K, 2009, pg.1). In 2009 Apparel revenues

Lack of proprietary product rights could adversely affect the long-term sustainability of the company. Under Armour runs the risk of exposing their innovative ideas to competitors since their suppliers and producers are not tied only to them.

Under Armour is continually improving their apparel line and broadening there market. The company has been growing at a substantial rate, 30.5% annually over a 5-year period, largely due to the ambition of Kevin Plank, founder, and also to heavy marketing and promotions. Plank attributes the success of the company to brand recognition and the ability to market to all consumers. Under Armour makes “head-to-toe” apparel for anyone during any season. It has pushed its image into as many stores as it can,

The major weakness that has been identified is the lack of Under Armour’s lack of establishment and footprint of the brand around the world. Over 90% of the company's revenue comes from the North American market, which is a major source of concern. They are starting to become a larger brand in the golfing world which will help them gain market share in the western world but still doesn’t help with eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. They can change this by sponsoring and equipping more soccer and cricket athletes and teams. These are some of the two largest sports in the world and if they are able to get their brand associated with these sports Under Armor will easily become a household

With the closing of some department stores, Under Armour needs to ensure that their products are in other distribution lines. Other threats are the loyal consumers to UA’s competition; some consumers will not switch to a different brand. Politics is the main threat of Under Armour. In 2016, Under Armour was producing a successful line of hunting gear. UA had issues when one of its sponsored hunters posted a picture of a kill that went viral on social media; some people saw the hunt as unethical. Under Armour dropped the hunter from their sponsor list which made a lot of hunters mad. Issues like this lost consumers interest in UA (Mirabella & Barker, 2016). Finally, the owner of Under Armour expressing his political views and backing of Donald Trump could hinder his

Under Armour is a growing company with many strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. Many of these qualities will be discussed throughout the paper, but a SWOT analysis is the perfect way to become familiar with the company and it’s economic attributes.

Since the evolution of the company, Under Armour rapidly expands their business while some internal problems still exist. For example, unprotected intellectual property right issue and supplier relationship management. Also, the current business strategy was focusing on marketing, international expansion, product differentiation, and other expenses while they have weak financial management. These will certainly pose future problems to the company.

Under Armour has infused their products and their brand image in various visual media forms, including over a dozen popular television shows and numerous motion pictures (Shank, 2009). The look and appeal of Under Armour was ideal as it was the combination of the intense, hard core athletic gear that could help with performance coupled with a hip, fresh look that would be able to appeal to consumers. To differentiate its product line from its competitors Under Armour leveraged its sophisticated design software, new manufacturing techniques, the latest in material engineering, and robust information technology systems to produce virtually everything it makes (Shank, 2009). The utilization of the marketing technique of product placement in television, movies, and video games has allowed Under Armour to promote the benefits of its product line to a larger audience (Shank, 2009). In 1998, Warner Brothers studio was

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