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Carparelli often unwinds by watching his two
sons play sports |
Name: Nick Carparelli, Jr.
Position: Under Armour Senior Director of College Sports Marketing
Age: 47
Where I’m from: Cheshire, Conn.
Where I call home: Severna Park, Md.
Focusing on right now: Strategically growing Under Armour’s roster of collegiate partnerships.
Best advice: Find your passion and make a career out of it. The most successful people are the ones that are passionate about what they do.
A must for a new hire: Being resourceful is one of the best qualities a person can possess. As much as we strategize and plan, things rarely go as expected. I like people who can solve a problem without necessarily having all of the resources that they need. No one has all the answers all the time, so being resourceful will always serve you well.
Person I admire most: Patriots coach BILL BELICHICK is very unique -- I was the Patriots' Director of Football Operations during their first Super Bowl year. He makes his expectations clear but does not micromanage. I was very surprised working for him how open he was to new ideas. If it were going to help make us better, he would listen.
Best book I’ve read this year: "Outliers" by MALCOLM GLADWELL is one of my favorites. I’m the type that does not accept outcomes without trying to figure out why they happened. It makes a lot of sense to me that certain people were successful due to the advantageous positions that they found themselves in at a young age.
First thing in the morning: I like to ease into my day. I need to eat a solid breakfast, usually oatmeal & cottage cheese and a McDonald’s coffee. When I get to the office, I go over my schedule for the day to make sure I’m prepared. Then the sprint begins.
Talking tech: I continue to be fascinated by the app craze. If there is a problem to be solved, there must be an app for it. Under Armour has invested heavily in connected fitness with Map My Fitness and Map My Run. I'm also a big user of Pandora and the ScoreCenter app on ESPN.
Must-have music: If it has a good beat or interesting lyrics, I will probably like it. It surprises some people that I like hip-hop. I did the Home & Home Tour a few years ago with JAY Z and EMINEM. Although I must say that if there is one musician that I could go back in time and watch in concert it would be FRANK SINATRA, hands down.
Food for thought: I have a very healthy diet most of the time, but if I’m going to indulge, there’s really nothing better than pizza. And New Haven is the pizza capital of the world. Sally’s Pizza is the best!
How I unwind: There are three things that I will rearrange my schedule to do: watching my two sons play their baseball and basketball games, getting to the gym every day, and watching the Patriots play.
Day in the life: Collegiate apparel and footwear deals have become a very competitive business, especially for the more valuable properties. Deals are becoming increasingly long and there are only a finite number of schools to be had. Simply having an opportunity to present ourselves to a school is a bigger challenge than I had expected as long standing relationships with other brands are hard to break. If we really want to partner with a school, and we can convince them to hear our story, I feel we will win the deal most of the time.
