Key Takeaways

•  In March 2022, Under Armour moved its digital commerce website to the VTEX platform. This migration took 90 days to implement. As a result of the changes made, it increased sales conversion rates by 35%.
• Ewerton Ramos, the e-commerce executive director at Vulcabras (owner of Under Armor in Brazil), says the following in relation to how its partnership with VTEX will help the company to move forward in its digital transformation strategy, "With VTEX, we have achieved expressive growth in the top and bottom lines, It was possible to centralize the management of products, inventories, prices, promotions, and the integration with partners in a single platform without making any changes to the system interface. The Brazilian consumers have a great passion for the Under Armor brand, making the evolution of our digital strategy a key to giving access to our products in such a big country as Brazil."
• Under Armour has experienced some recent challenges, including $1.3 billion in excess product, declining adolescent appeal, and a scandal involving executives allegedly charging the company for excursions to strip clubs with athletes or coworkers. The negative impact of the coronavirus prompted the corporation to decrease its initial projection for 2020.
• Plank launched Under Armour with $20,000 from his savings and $40,000 from credit card debt. The business went public less than ten years later to raise $115 million for expansion capital. The stock more than quadrupled on the first day of trade. Since then, the firm has sold additional shares to help drive its growth.

Introduction

I — Company Overview

1. About the Company and Products & Services

• Under Armour, Inc. manufactures, markets, and distributes branded athletic apparel, footwear, and accessories for people of all ages. It operates via the following divisions: Latin America, Asia-Pacific, EMEA, and North America. U.S. and Canada make up the North American segment. It is located in Baltimore, Maryland, and was founded by Kevin A. Plank in 1996.
• The company's main product offerings include tops, shorts, pants, belts, socks, sports gloves, shoes, water bottles, sunglasses, hats, and backpacks, along with basketball, baseball, golf, football, jogging, hockey, and fishing products.

2. Funding History and Annual Revenue

• Plank launched Under Armour with $20,000 from his savings and $40,000 from credit card debt. The business went public less than ten years later to raise $115 million for expansion capital. The stock more than quadrupled on the first day of trade. Since then, the firm has sold additional shares to help drive its growth.
• In 2021, Under Armour reported a 27% year-over-year growth in revenue to £4.2 million ($5.7 billion). Direct-to-consumer sales climbed 26% to £1.7 billion ($2.3 billion), and wholesale revenue increased 36% to £2.3 billion ($3.2 billion).
• Additionally, it witnessed a 4% rise in e-commerce, which in 2021 accounted for 39% of all direct-to-consumer sales. International revenue climbed by 34% to ($1.9 billion), while North American sales increased by 29% to ($3.8 billion).

II — Corporate Values & Mission

• Under Armour’s mission is "to make all athletes better through science, passion and the relentless pursuit of innovation." They have "moisture-wicking synthetic fabrications" that are manipulated in several styles and designs to be worn in any climate and offer a performance substitute for traditional natural fiber products. Their products are worn by athletes at every level and sold globally.
• Some of the company's values are built on the following principles:
• "Love athletes": Under Armour puts athletes at the center of everything they do, by showing up in their training, competition and recovery. 
• "Celebrate the wins": The company celebrates its accomplishments and gives credit when necessary, as well as using past successes to inspire future wins.
• "Stand for equality": Under Armour speaks up for equity and fairness, and "comes together as a force for good to serve the communities it represents."
• "Act sustainably": The company works efficiently and ethically to improve performance as they reuse resources. They also look for the latest information that can help them in coming up with lasting solutions. 
• "Fight on together": Under Armour works with an enterprise mindset, approaching challenges positively and acting in the brand's best interest. 

III — Strategic Initiatives and Quotes From the Company's Leadership Team

• Partnership with VTEX to grow its e-commerce conversion rate in Brazil:

•  In March 2022, Under Armour moved its digital commerce website to the VTEX platform. This migration took 90 days to implement. As a result of the changes made, it increased sales conversion rates by 35%. The consumer journey has been improved across all touchpoints thanks to the solutions provided by VTEX, the enterprise digital commerce platform for leading brands and retailers.
• Ewerton Ramos, the e-commerce executive director at Vulcabras (owner of Under Armor in Brazil), says the following in relation to how this partnership will help the company to move forward in its digital transformation strategy, "With VTEX, we have achieved expressive growth in the top and bottom lines, It was possible to centralize the management of products, inventories, prices, promotions, and the integration with partners in a single platform without making any changes to the system interface. The Brazilian consumers have a great passion for the Under Armor brand, making the evolution of our digital strategy a key to giving access to our products in such a big country as Brazil."

• Using technology to help consumers during the pandemic

 

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• At the start of 2020, Under Armour released a brand-new major marketing campaign amid the chaos brought on by the Covid-19 outbreak. As consumer behavior changed during lockdowns, the firm had to adapt its messaging and figure out how to stay in touch with customers.
• Under Armour modified it "the only way is through" marketing strategy. Initially, the campaign was to emphasize how everyone must face challenges and hurdles to achieve their goals. Putting more emphasis on assisting individuals in staying healthy while being confined at home, Under Armour modified the campaign's tagline to "through this together."
• Under Armour leveraged social media and mobile applications to help consumers to remain on top of their training and workouts. Between April to September 2020, Under Armour's MapMyRun app recorded more than 1 million runs daily.
• Under Armour's chief experience officer, Paul Fipps, while discussing how the brand focused on assisting customers in maintaining their health when confined at home, said, "We launched this dramatic shift in this campaign in about a three-week time period which was amazing because in normal times that would have taken us three months of collaboration and changing our brand messaging and so forth, The idea was to really develop content around mindfulness, around nutrition and around movement and give our core consumers the ability to live a healthier lifestyle while people were at home."

• Multiple acquisitions of fitness apps

 

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• Although Under Armour began in sports apparel, it immediately shifted to a digital strategy to strengthen its brand. MapMyFitness was acquired for $150 million as part of a wave of fitness app acquisitions. MyFitnessPal and Endomondo were later acquired for $475 million and $85 million respectively. Under Armour invested over $700 million to execute its digital strategy, which continues to pay off to this day.
• Under Armour began leveraging app data from its 200+ million users to gain better insights into customers' lifestyles to provide improved products and services.
• Kevin Plank, the founder, and then CEO of Under Armour, while speaking about the need to know more about our well-being, said, “When we step into our car, we see how much gas it has, and when something needs to be fixed, we see a light signal. However, we don’t have these insights into your body and health.”
• Virtual shopping

 

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• When non-essential stores were forced to close their doors temporarily due to South Africa's rigorous Level 5 lockdown, Under Armour SA used the time to devise and develop a variety of novel digital strategies to assist clients to buy securely during the Covid-19 outbreak. One of the varieties of novel digital strategies developed is a personal virtual shopping consultation with an Under Armour retail assistant.
• Lorrianne Cloete, head of marketing for Under Armour SA, while speaking on virtual shopping with Under Armour said "Under Armour is a technical performance brand which means not only is it required to look good, but to make athletes perform better. This is critical in the purchase decision, and it can be very intimidating to a customer on what is the correct technical solution for their requirement. Our store staff are more than sales consultants, they are tech advisors and so virtual shopping facilitates this technical advice experience which is limited on an e-commerce platform. So, with virtual shopping, you get the service level of a full retail experience, but online.”

IV — Marketing Tech Stack

• According to data on third-party sites, some of Under Armour's marketing automation tech stack includes Branch, PayPal Marketing Solutions, Bluecore, Adobe Analytics, Omniture SiteCatalyst, Adobe Marketing Cloud, Omniture Adobe Test and Target, LiveRamp and Curalate. 
• Their e-commerce tech stack includes Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Cart Functionality, Demandware, Oracle Commerce, Zmags, Mobify, Criteo and Curalate. They also use Borderfree for cross-border e-commerce.
• Their content management system tech stack includes Adobe Scene7, Atlassian Cloud, My Salesforce, CoreMedia, Drupal, WordPress, Salesforce Experience Cloud, SuccessFactors and Sitecore CMS. 

V — Corporate Challenges

• Under Armour has experienced some recent challenges, including $1.3 billion in excess product, declining adolescent appeal, and a scandal involving executives allegedly charging the company for excursions to strip clubs with athletes or coworkers. The negative impact of the coronavirus prompted the corporation to decrease its initial projection for 2020. In 2020, Under Armour disclosed fourth-quarter and fiscal-year 2019 earnings that fell short of analyst projections, with the company's shares plunging as much as 16%.
• Under Armour faced product delays that potentially lead to some order cancellations in the second half of 2021. The product delays were brought about by a slew of issues in Vietnam, where Under Armour obtains around one-third of its items, and throughout Southeast Asia. Manufacturing, logistics, port congestion, and container availability, among other factors, hindered the sports brand's flow of goods.

• In its fiscal 2023 outlook, Under Armour cited order cancellations, supply chain difficulties, and the effects of China's COVID-19 lockdowns as challenges. The sportswear company lost $46 million in operational income.

VI — Major Competitors

 

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1. Nike

• Nike was founded in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports and changed its name to Nike in 1971. Nike is the world's largest sports clothing company, best known for its apparel, footwear, and equipment. The company's website can be accessed here.

2. Adidas

• Headquartered in Germany and founded in 1949, Adidas AG design, manufacture, and sells athletic and sports-related items.  The company's product line includes footwear, apparel, and accessories such as sunglasses, bags, workout equipment, and balls. The company's website can be accessed here.

3. Puma

• Founded in 1948 in Herzogenaurach, Germany, Puma is one of the world's top manufacturers of athletic and sports-related apparel, footwear, and accessories. The company's website can be accessed here.

4. Lululemon

• Founded in 1998 in Vancouver, Canada, lululemon Athletica is a company that provides technical athletic apparel for yoga, dancing, running, training, and other sweating activities, as well as street and loungewear. The company's website can be accessed here.

5. Fila

• Founded in Italy in 1911, Fila is one of the world's largest sportswear manufacturing companies that provides casual and athletic footwear, casual wear, activewear, and sportswear. The company's website can be accessed here.

6. Asics

• ASICS Corp is a Japanese sporting goods manufacturer that provides sports shoes, sportswear, and sports equipment for men, women, and children. It also offers accessories such as headwear, intimate wear, bags, and socks. The company's website can be accessed here.

VII — Additional Facts

• Under Armour owns 3.81% of the apparel, footwear, and accessories Industry. According to Similarweb analytics, Under Armour's website witnessed around 12.2 million visitors in July 2022, with an average of 5.16 pages per visit, and an average visit duration of 2 minutes, 49 seconds. The company's digital marketing channel distribution is as follows: search (36.18%) and direct (35.42%).

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