Under Armour Apparel of Choice for Athletes
Under Armour is focus is to be unique and high quality apparel and be an innovative performance of athletic apparels. As a runner and an active person most of the time looking for something to makes us a better runner, hockey player, football player, soccer player etc. Whether it be a vitamin to help us be heathy or lighter cloth to make us faster or in this case apparel to make us regulate body temp. Under Armour performance apparel has become the top choice for runners, football player to wear under their uniforms or during workouts to keep them cool and dry in the hot summer months. Under Armour not only keeps you cool in the summer months but also keeps you warm in the cold months. Under Armour's mission is to empower athletes and “make them better through passion, design,
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and the relentless pursuit of innovation”.
(ua.com) The mission statement is to make better and passionate about athletes is different from other competitor’s sports apparel companies like Nike and Adidas. The founder of Under Armour, and former football player Kevin Plank, change and improve the sports apparel industry by creating apparel that used synthetic materials that handled body temperature and regulate it. This enhancement in apparel to regulate temperature is powerful to athletes because not only will they be stronger but last longer in stress situations. As an outdoors person and a long distance runner I have experience the advantage of this apparel and notice when it is worn that the shirt does not become drenched in sweat which creates less weight. This has created the apparel of choice under armour historical milestone, product offered and designed, among under armours competitors who are they and where there with respect
to number and size and finally market share. Under armour founded in 1996 by former University of Maryland football player Kevin Plank. He wanted to start off small and work his way up because he knew his new product would soar to new heights. With a several thousand dollars of his own money and a credit card he built his empire. His manufacture or lab was in the basement of his grandmother home in Washington DC’s Georgetown neighborhood.(UA.com) As a football player he got tired of changing sweaty soggy T-shirts full of sweat which would create weight twice a day. He began working to find a solution to this problem. This would pay dividends in the future. As many try to invent something or manufacture a product it takes trials and failures to find the right product and to come up with the right product or design you are looking for. He finally had his first skinny, tight fitted shirt and it was made up of high tech fibers that removing away the sweat and keep athletes cool and dry. Kevin Plank founder and the originator of performance apparel fabricated apparel to keep athletes cool, dry and light throughout the course of a game, practice or workout then Under Armour was born. Under amour success was slow but when plank made his first sale to Georgia Tech university was the break that plank needed. 2 “The technology behind Under Armour's diverse product assortment for men, women and youth is complex, but the program for reaping the benefits is simple: wear HeatGear® when it's hot, ColdGear® when it's cold, and AllSeasonGear® between the extremes.” (UA.com) End of what would be the beginning of this big company under amour and finally moving out the grandmother basement and Under Armour would start producing five lines of clothing for the company client in a bigger. Under Armour had grown in four years to be recognize as the leader in what is a much dominated field by Nike and Adidas. By the late 90s and into the early 2000s would be known to supply to the national football league, national hockey league and major baseball as well as other recognize sports. Now Under Armour was a well-known innovated performance apparel and in 2005 they became a public company were willing to sell $100M in shares of common stock. Under Armour was no longer a small company they were known to some of the trading agency as the real players in the market and to the consumer in a very short period of time.3 After they went public it would not be long before Under Armour would start looking elsewhere in the sports industry that they would get their interest. How to better get their product out beside the distributors and wholesales? Mr. Plank would soon realize that shirts was not the only athlete apparel business out there in the sports industry so how better to fit athletes from head to toe without their own retail store. In 2006 they would open their first company owned retail and outlet store. By 2010 and in 14 years after they had just started they would reach a mile stone they met and surpass the 1billion mark and would increase 24% to 25% for the next two years. In the same year they would not only be the official fitters for several colleges like Auburn, Boston college Texas tech and a few others but also be the official footwear supplier of major baseball league. Since the early years of under amour they have understood what it takes to be the apparel of choice for athletes from head to toe. They have built a great foundation in this hard market lead by Nike and Addidas for so long. Leave with this by Mr. Plank “Our appetite to make all athletes better remains strong, whether it’s on the field of the BCS National Championship game, a ski mountain in Utah where the next Linsey Vonn is training, or a batting cage in Tokyo where
Overall, Under Armor did an outstanding job targeting young, aspiring athletes to do what they want to do with their life. They used logic to show how hard the athletes work along with emotion to show how serious they take their training. Finally, Under Armor used the credibility of the athletes to sell their new training shoe. This commercial will make anyone want to purchase a pair of shoes and workout themselves. Since the commercial is on such a serious level, viewers emotionally connect with it which makes Under Armor seem like the best brand
Under Armour’s product is swim gear. They sell their product by doing what Adidas did, used motivation, emotion, and a message to connect with the audience. But, Under Armour used a famous celebrity named Michael Phelps. The audience starts to pay attention to the ad and either feels connected or wants to be a better athlete like Phelps. Under Armour finally manipulated their audience into buying their
Lululemon Athletica, Inc. (Lululemon) is renowned for its technical, high-quality yoga-inspired apparel for women. However, the company is growing beyond this niche market and is therefore altering its competitive strategy. Lululemon utilizes a broad differentiation strategy because its target market is broad and its product line is varied, it stresses product innovation, and its community-based marketing and retail experience sustain its differentiation from competitors.
Under Armour’s target market is consumers that are involved in physical activities. The demographic age groups that they cater to varies from youth to adults. Their products can with stand any weather condition from cold weather to warm weather, which means their product can be used in any geographic location. These consumers can be either light user like walkers or heavy users like football players.
Under Armour is a leading athletic clothing line directed towards the overall athlete who is looking for the most comfort during extracurricular activities. The mission of the company is, "to provide the world with technically advanced products engineered with exclusive fabric construction, supreme moisture management, and proven innovation. In short, every Under Armour product is doing something for you; it's making you better."
Under Armour has always set aggressive targets for themselves and they should not change that now. The leadership team believes that “a 3% share of the (athletic footwear) market would nearly double UA’s total revenue” (Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, & Bamford, 2015, 2012, 2010), and this should be another one of the metrics that Under Armour monitors and grows.
In order to beat its competitors, Under Armour Company can engage in market sensitive fresh product invention. New products are more likely to draw curiosity amongst the populations especially if they commensurate well with the prevailing trends (Hill & Jones 2009, p. 308). UA concentrated on the outside-in (market responsive) approach to carry out its strategies. It is reported that it sourced unique synthetic materials and employed on field product development. This enabled it to create the performance apparel segment in the athletic apparel market.
What makes a person choose one brand of clothing over another? Is it the price? Or is it the style of the clothing? There are numerous factors that will play a key role in determining who will purchase your products and why they will choose to purchase your product. Kevin Plank, the founder of Under Armour and former captain of the special teams on Maryland University’s football team, would become infuriated at the amount of times he was forced to change his undershirt during games and practices due to how heavy with sweat they would become. He set out to create a shirt that would help keep an athlete cool and dry during intense physical activity. This simple idea would develop into a powerhouse in the sports apparel industry and has broken into the sports equipment industry as well.
There are as many brands as there is ants in the world, but the two brands that pop out are adidas and nike. Those two brands have been going head to head for ages to see who is the better brand. It’s been tested, compared, and debated which brand is better. Whether it’s the quality of the materials or the cost of it, the debate is ongoing. Both brands have been fighting for the top ever since they were both created and I don’t blame them it’d be fantastic to be the best brand in the world. When Nike and adidas are contrasted, it becomes clear that the Adidas brand are better for the overall consumer and enhances sport performance than Nike.
Nike’s focus for fashion forward women is the following: lead the athleisure trend, increase advertising, and the introduce the #BetterForIt social media campaign. We need to focus on the athleisure trend by increasing our portfolio for the women target market. Athleisure is already 20% of the firm’s revenue and we need to recognize that women are leading this fashion movement. Under Armor and Lululemon are already making headways in this fashion focused market. We need to emphasize our athletic technologies, promoting lighter fabrics and better performance, while still maintaining a level of comfort and fashionability. Increasing the portfolio means nothing if women don’t know we’ve done just that. Nike will need to increase advertising specifically with this target market in mind. The #BetterForIt campaign is one important aspect of these advertising efforts. Similar campaigns should promote and help “normalize” athletic wear in everyday
Nike’s positioning in the market has more of a mass appeal compared to their main competitor Adidas who strive to make products for elite athletes. The positioning strategy for Nike is currently working at a satisfactory level as Nikes global annual sales between 2013-2014 was reported as 27.8 billion (Statista, 2014) compared to Adidas’ 19.95 billion (Statista, 2014). The global market for sports apparel is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4% between 2012-2019, Nikes compound annual growth rate during 2010-2012 was 12.3% which is an excellent result as the brand’s growth was larger than the market as well as outgrowing Nike’s closest competitors Adidas, Puma and Asics (Forbes,
...ual Income Statement). Adidas has chosen not to make their advertising plans publicly known (How Much Money Does Adidas Spend on Advertising?).Under Armour is an up and coming company founded in 1996, their net income starting at 46.79 million and by 2013 ending with 162.17 million dollars (UA Annual Income Statement). Under Armour is focusing their advertising on internet marketing and mobile marketing, 6,500 dollars towards a mobile app and an overall advertising budget of 40,000 (Zoe Suffety).
According to global industry analyst, the world sports clothing industry is anticipated to exceed $126 billion by 2015, Because of more active lifestyle, with older demographics and woman becoming more energetic, this drives the market. The entire sports clothing industry is highly filled with so many brands like Nike, Adidas, Umbro and Reebook all over the world competing, even the high leading brands have to work twice has hard in other to keep their share in the market because most of this small firm have quality products and also a very fine marketing style which has increased competing style in the industry. All over the world people demand more versatile wear, which indicates that’s retailers continue to produce new style of sports clothing for both men and women.
The main competitor in hi-tech sport accessory market is Samsung and LG. The reason these two companies have launched the similar product for the sport waistband. Moreover, some of the feature such as monitoring heat beat and blood pressure which is similar with our product. However, it will include some special function into our produce that can direct compete with other competitor.
Over the course of a hundred years, swimsuit designs for competitive swimming have drastically changed. Around 1400 BC in ancient Greece and Rome, people swam naked. In the 1900s, the first manufacturers made a swimsuit made of heavy wool, and now, swimsuits are made of fabrics that help reduce drag for a swimmer during performance. One of the factors of the changes in swimsuits is the use of biomechanics and technology. Biomechanics are used so that manufacturers can find the best fabric for swimsuits so that a swimmer that swim their best. Studies prove that a swimsuit a swimmer is wearing usually affects their performance positively. As generations of swimmers evolve, the use of biomechanics and kinesiology are greatly needed to catch up with the demand for faster swimmers. So the question is, how are manufacturers going to make the best swimsuit possible?