Kevin Plank is the founder of Under Armor and also an American Football player from the University of Maryland. At first, Kevin Plank’s profile was very uncomfortable because his sports clothes were wet and heavy with sweat. At that time the founder of the brand Kevin Plank was 23 years old and was captain of the Maryland football team. Kevin decided to make his own sportswear in his home basement.
Feeling that the clothes he made were good and different from other products, Kevin Plank after graduating from college finally went around selling his clothes using a car with a stack of samples of clothing, Plank went around to campuses.
With his presentation, Plank finally got the first sponsorship cooperation from the Georgia Tech campus. The first Under Armor product is very simple, in the form of underwear that can absorb sweat and dry quickly.
Kevin Plank is a person who doesn’t give up easily. When marketing their products, many athletes and campuses refused clothing from Plank. There is a campus that refuses because Plank’s clothing has no brand.
Finally Plank was assisted by his younger brother to think about the brand of the sportswear. Plank thought of the name Body Armor and tried to tell his sister. Unfortunately the younger brother even heard Under Armor rather than the Body Armor. Finally the name Under Armor is used, because it is easier to pronounce.
Nobody expected that Under Armor is now the number 7 most valuable sports brand in the world by Forbes magazine. Even for apparel, Under Armor is under Nike, Adidas and Reebok.
Under Under Armor there are big apparels like FILA, New Balance, Puma, Mizuno and others. Even if seen, the age of Under Armor is the youngest among these brands. New Balance was born in 1906 and Puma was founded in 1948. Under Armor itself was founded in 1996, aka 21 years ago.
Businessinsider magazine has discussed how the strategy of Under Armor actually can be as big as now. Maybe now many people know about Under Armor because of Stephen Curry, the champion and NBA MVP. When the name Stephen Curry entered the NBA in 2009, Curry was contracted by Nike. Unfortunately Nike did not renew Curry’s contract in 2013 and that’s where Under Armor appeared.
Under Armor has a fairly unique strategy, they will give a big sponsor to athletes who have ordinary abilities. When big brands compete for the signature of big athletes, Under Armor instead chooses just ordinary athletes but has great potential. The result, big names like Tom Brady, Memphis Depay, Granit Xhaka and Stephen Curry became icons of Under Armor.
