Under Armour Focuses On Fitness Apps, With $25-30M In Added Revenue Projected For '15

Under Armour has been "spending big to buy developers of apps to monitor personal fitness, aiming in the short term to sell more shirts and shoes," according to Sara Germano of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. UA Founder, Chair & CEO Kevin Plank said that he ultimately "envisions a time when clothes themselves become the means to track movement and biorhythms." UA sees its acquisition of fitness apps, including two deals announced this year, as "establishing a beachhead within a community of people who want to be measured -- a relationship that could pay dividends if connected clothing were to become a reality." UA has "dropped any ambitions to develop hardware but it hasn’t given up on electronic clothes." In turning to fitness apps, UA "hopes to convert the millions of casual athletes who count calories, steps and miles into buyers of its shirts and shoes." The company spent $710M to "buy three companies in a little more than a year, including MapMyFitness and MyFitnessPal, its biggest acquisition ever." But UA "faces formidable competitors." Nike is "also focusing on software, recently updating its Nike+ Fuel app to allow users to track their fitness on newest editions of the iPhone," while Apple is "developing health apps for its latest iPhone and coming smartwatch." UA has "teamed up with e-commerce shoe retailer Zappos to send users a pop-up notification when their sneakers are nearing the end of their life, based on workout data logged in MapMyFitness apps" and "hopes to extend the feature across all of its apps as one way to increase sales." UA said that its digital investments "won’t change its long-term profit forecasts," but they will add $25-30M in revenue this year, "largely from advertising and subscriptions" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/28).