UNDER ARMOUR

Under Armour

Under Armour in the United States

Introduction

Kevin Plank founded the company in 1996. The company was incorporated in Maryland as KP Sports, Inc. In 1999, the company entered in the Japanese market through a distribution agreement with Dome. In 2002, the company entered into an authorized agreement with Dome, an association that manufactures, markets and sells the branded products of KP Sports, Inc. in Japan. The company changed its name to Under Armour, Inc. in March 2005. The company has a number of registered brands incorporating Under Armour®, ColdGear®, LooseGear®, HeatGear®, AllseasonGear® and the Under Armour design brand (Uabiz.com).

Under Armour, Inc. operates three product lines: footwear, apparel and accessories. Apparel in a variety of styles is offered by the company that control body temperature based on weather conditions. Under Armour's apparel expands across the markets of an active lifestyle, outdoor and sporting goods. There are three lines of products offered by under Armour: For hot conditions they offer HeatGear, ColdGear for cold environment and AllseasonGear among the extremes. The accessories of Under Armour incorporate football, baseball batting, running and golf offers with technologies of ColdGear and HeatGear. The company also sells hats, headwear and bags. Additionally, the company also offers apparel for babies and kids, team uniforms, eyewear, socks, and custom molded mouth guards through authorization (Uabiz.com).

Under Armour, Inc. develops markets and distributes footwear, performance apparel and accessories for women, men and youngsters. The company mainly works in the North America, Hong Kong and The Netherlands. The products of Under Armour are offered globally in over 8,500 retail stores and can be currently purchased across US, Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom through large regional and national chains of retailers, as well as through independent, smaller and specialty retailers. Virtually all the products of the company are manufactured by independent manufactures working in 18 countries. Most of the company's products are manufactured in amenities outside US (Referenceforbusiness.com, 2013).

Corporate Level Strategy

Corporate strategy is concerned with which businesses the company should enter into. Under Armour is expanding by selling new products to their existing customers. The company has lately started selling cleats for footballs, which was a vast opportunity for Under Armour and it has also turned out to be extremely successful so far (Knights, & Morgan, 1991).

The mission statement of Under Armour is “Make Athletes Better”. The company has a vertical organizational structure. With CEO and Founder Kevin Plank at the top, all information is reported to Plank either from the vice presidents below of marketing, sales, retail, sales, apparel etc. or from the board of directors. The manufacturing is completed at factories worldwide, and the distribution is made generally through retail stores, with some coming from online and outlet stores of the company. The sales of Under Armour went public in 2005. Their association with pro teams and college could be considered as their acquirement as they are purchasing the rights to fund and support that team (Uabiz.com, 2010).

Under Armour is also focusing on direct-to-customer strategies: outlets and online ...