Under Armour is "aggressively growing its retail base and doubling down on what it does best -- performance," according to Jean Palmieri of WOMEN'S WEAR DAILY. Speaking at UA's Human Performance Summit this week, UA President & CEO Patrik Frisk said, "The consumer we're after lives in this cycle of train-performance, compete-performance and recovery-performance and we believe that adding style and definition in that recovery phase is where we'll play with the more casual parts of our collection. But it has to perform." Palmieri notes Frisk's comments "marked the first major public appearance he has made without being flanked by" Founder & Chair Kevin Plank, who was "nowhere to be seen" during the event. While UA's business in North America "continues to struggle, international business has been a bright spot," rising 5%. Frisk said, "Resetting North America in the right way is important to us." He added, "The difference between Under Armour today and Under Armour three or four years ago is we're really operating as a global company now." Frisk said that the company is "taking an aggressive posture" when it comes to brick-and-mortar retail, adding that the activewear brand, which opened nearly 300 of its own stores around the world last year, also has "plans on opening 1,700 to 1,900 stores worldwide over the next four years" (WWD.com, 1/16).
