Under Armour "isn’t just about mainstream sports anymore," as it is "gunning for core consumers in the outdoor market," according to Peter Vigneron of OUTSIDE magazine. Big brands "have tried this before." Nike launched its ACG line of technical outerwear in '89 and adidas’ mountain-specific Terrex line was introduced in '11, but neither "has taken over America’s ski hills." That is partly because those businesses "have struggled to find a foothold in the kinds of boutique shops that, even in the digital age, dictate trends in the outdoor world." Nevertheless, UA "plans to reach customers at these very outlets." UA Dir of Marketing for Outdoor Apparel Steve Metcalf said, "You’re not going to see ... a lot of our outdoor products at sporting-goods stores or department stores." Vigneron notes UA is "targeting the places where serious athletes shop," but the brand "hopes to distinguish itself in other ways, too." While Nike and other apparel makers "promote proprietary fabrics, Under Armour has partnered with companies already familiar to outdoor enthusiasts, such as Gore-Tex and Polartec." Online retail also means that a "deep-pocketed company like Under Armour can spitball product lines until it discovers what works." Metcalf said those kinds of market-research insights are "far more accessible now than they were a decade ago." He added, "We can test product styles, colors, and designs almost in real time." Vigneron notes UA's biggest challenge "may be overcoming a perceived lack of authenticity." Core consumers "tend to reward companies whose founders ... have spent serious time in the mountains." Meanwhile, UA this year will "relocate its outdoor division, currently in Baltimore, to a 64,000-foot building in downtown Portland, Oregon, placing its outdoor designers in a brand-bolstering locale" (OUTSIDE, 1/ '16 issue).
LET'S GET PHYSICAL: INC magazine's Tom Foster in a cover story notes UA over the past two years has spent close to $1B "buying and investing in three leading makers of activity- and diet-tracking mobile apps." By doing so, the company "has amassed the world's largest digital health-and-fitness community, with 150 million users." UA Founder, Chair & CEO Kevin Plank "envisions all of those users, and their metrics, as a big data engine to drive everything from product development to merchandising to marketing." Today, UA "has 13,500 employees around the world" and nearly $4B in revenue. But Plank is "still every bit the entrepreneur, chasing audacious dreams -- chief among them overtaking Nike as the world's largest sportswear maker." UA in '14 "leapfrogged the longtime number two, Adidas, in the U.S. sportswear market," but worldwide "it's still third." Nike "remains far larger," with more than $30B in revenue in '15, which is "part of why Plank wants to move so aggressively." Nike has "about a fifth as many users on its Nike+ platform as Under Armour does on its apps," and in '14, the former "shut down its FuelBand fitness-tracker business" (INC, 2/ '16 issue).
