Under Armour Names Catalyst Company's Agency Of Record
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Plank Says He Wanted Athletes To
Have Alternative To Cotton T-shirt |
Catalyst Public Relations has been named the agency of record for Under Armour (UA) and will support the company with comprehensive PR platforms and strategic counsel to leverage its sports assets, build the profiles of senior execs and expand into new product categories (Catalyst).
GROWTH INDUSTRY: In a special to SI.com, Trey Palmisano profiles the rise of UA. The company is the story of "one man's fight against the evils of cotton, and how his success turned the sports performance apparel market into one of the most competitive new [territories] of our time, spawning a host of imitators, all trying desperately to sop up the sweat." UA is now a $700M operation "employing more than 2,000 people worldwide with offices in Denver, Toronto, Japan, China and Amsterdam." UA Chair & CEO Kevin Plank prior to founding the company was "kept up at night by the big question -- in his case, how he could come up with a more practical fabric" than cotton for sports apparel. Plank: "My first goal was getting athletes to believe in the fact that they needed an alternative to a basic cotton T-shirt. The way you do that is with a great product, but you also do it with influencers." Palmisano noted those influencers included Plank's "good friend," former NFLer Jim Druckenmiller, who was a "town crier in his locker room for the fledgling Under Armour brand." As Plank's friends "moved on to play professionally, he would send them T-shirts, requesting that they pass them out to other players in their locker rooms." A locker room deal with Georgia Tech "opened the door to a contract" with North Carolina State Univ., and "word began to spread, fashioned by positive reviews passing over the lips of players." Now, with a "decade plus of networking, consensus building and new product development, Under Armour has corralled a star-studded stable of athletes to promote its products."
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UA's Running Shoes Projected
To Sell Between $80-120 |
YOUTHFUL EXUBERANCE: Palmisano noted the average age of employees at UA is 30, and a UA spokesperson said that the company's "sweet spot demographic" is 12 to 18 year olds. Wedbush Morgan Securities VP/Research for Footwear, Apparel & Sporting Goods Jeff Mintz: "I think they've been successful with a younger generation of customers. They've created this perception that Under Armour is the younger generation's brand and that Nike is your father's or older brother's brand." Meanwhile, "unlike many other firms, all campaigns and creative design are done on the property," as "no contract agencies are involved in business operations." There also are "no grand facilities to wear-test products, except for a turf area to test some aspects of shoe performance." UA said that it "prefers to use real-world conditions, including terrain differentiation and weather factors, while receiving feedback from various running clubs and their stable of athletes." The company in early January was "forced to repeal its earnings guidance" by 13%, but the company, which owns 74% of the "market share in the performance apparel category, defiantly soldiers on." UA "broke into the running shoe category at the end of January, a niche that Plank described as 'a $5[B] market versus the $300[M] markets we've been entering before.'" Still, the economy will be the "great equalizer into the foreseeable future," and with UA's running shoes "projected to sell between [$80-120], the question remains whether parents will shell out the big bucks to keep junior on top of his game as disposable incomes shrink" (SI.com, 4/10).
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