Under Armour Is The Third Biggest Sportswear Brand Of The Us Losing The First Place

Nike; one of the most well known companies across the globe today is most known for being the world’s #1 shoemaker. They design and sell shoes for a variety of sports including baseball, golf, tennis and football. Nike also sells dress and casual shoes as well as athletic apparel and equipment for almost every sport imaginable. In addition Nike also operates NIKETOWN shoe and sportswear stores, factory outlets along with Nike women shops. One of Nike’s biggest competitors on the rise is Under Armour, Inc. Under Armour; the primary maker of performance athletic underwear and apparel has risen to the top with main competitor Nike. The company has also begun to become a factor in the footwear market as

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

​Under Armour is a great American success story by a young man with the determination to succeed in life. Mr. Plank grew his company by being different and becoming flexible in working in small

Under Armour is in the Textile- Apparel Clothing industry, in the consumer goods sector. The market has been driven by economic recovery, new product offerings and a

Most if not all of Under Armour’s specialty fabric products are developed by third party manufacturers. The source of the fabric is in the possession of manufacturers from suppliers and pre-approved by the company. The company does not own any of the fabric patents that they use to produce their technology/materials. The average lifetime of a patent runs about roughly twenty years, by then, technology will already be implemented by multiple firms and producing it become relatively cheap. In addition, Under Armour’s rival Nike has already jumped the gun by producing products incorporated by technology. The upside that UA has is that they applied for few patents / designs in the past two years and they hope to apply for more in the future. By doing so, UA can potentially enter the market with more confidence while alleviating future threats. Furthermore, UA now owns several trademarks in order to leverage the use of brand building/marketing, because we all know trademarks last longer compared to patents.

Under Armour is a leading athletic clothing line directed towards the overall athlete who is looking for the most comfort during extracurricular activities. The mission of the company is, "to provide the world with technically advanced products engineered with exclusive fabric construction, supreme moisture management, and proven innovation. In short, every Under Armour product is doing something for you; it's making you better."

How strong are the competitive forces confronting Under Armour, Nike, and The adidas Group? Do a five- forces analysis to support your answer.

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.

The rapid success of Under Armour is not a mistake. The company dominates the performance apparel category. According to Founder Kevin Plank, “The mission of Under Armour is to make technically advanced products that are engineered with superior fabric construction, to provide proven innovation available to the masses-aimed at making athletes perform better” (UnderArmour.com). Under Armour uses many marketing initiatives including athlete endorsement, product placement, and popular culture which illustrates the success of Under Armour.

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 provides employees with a livable wage, plus benefits, takes all environmental safety policies into consideration, and are happy to please their consumers. Therefore, Under Armour is

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

Under Armour, Inc. is an American sports clothing and Accessories Company. The company is a supplier of sportswear and casual apparel. Under Armour began offering footwear in 2006.

As we mentioned before, the fabrics that Under Armour currently uses for their products are developed by third parties. The materials used by Under Armour are not patented with them and the third party suppliers patent them. To eliminate the risk of competitors like Nike undercutting their products after the 20 years is up, they could start to patent the products themselves. Right now they have a good system going with the third parties, however, they shouldn’t look at things in the short term. Over the past few years, Under Armour has already done some of this with their unique products, so that they are protected for years to

Under Armour is a very popular and well-known brand throughout the world, there are many reasons why this is the case and why they are very successful as a company. Under Armour creates value for their customers in many ways, one of these ways is with their basketball shoes. Customers wouldn't want to buy shoes if they didn't think it would be durable and a good shoe. Customers can trust Under Armour’s basketball shoe because it is a shoe that somebody in the NBA wears. This shows that someone is willing to trust their million-dollar contract with their shoes to help them get their well-earned money, and that shows to confidence in Under Armour. Under Armour also gives many different options that the customer can choose from. They offer different technologies, materials, and articles of clothing. There are many different technologies they have, but I will only list a few. One of these technologies is cool switch, this helps athletes perform longer because the clothing will keep them cool and save them from sweating as much which helps save energy. Also, they offer many different materials in case a customer is allergic to a certain type of material there is always another so that they don't lose a customer. They also offer all different types of clothing so that whatever you need they'll have. Based on this research it proves that Under Armour has done so much to get where they are and be as successful as they are.