Under Armour's Big Step Up

By Sean Gregory/Baltimore

A poster hangs over the desk of Kevin Plank, CEO of Under Armour, the red-hot athletic-apparel brand that has joined Nike, Adidas and New Balance as a major player on the market. Under Armour pitchman Eric Ogbogu, a former NFL lineman, is flexing his impressive pecs; underneath him, the tagline reads protect this house.

That slogan has been at the center of the company's marketing campaign, and Under Armour has an equally muscular business: over the past five years, the company's comfy, moisture-wicking shirts and shorts have helped it grow at a blistering 65% annual rate. Under Armour, which had $640 million in sales over the past year, had been scoring on the stock market too, making Plank's shares worth some $1 billion at the peak. But as Plank prepares to move the Under Armour brand out of its comfort zone into the cutthroat, $18.3 billion athletic-footwear market, he is exposing Under Armour's house to a tornado.

You know, one that sounds like a roaring, rollicking Swoosh? Nike, the $18 billion sporting giant, knows a tough competitor when it sees one, and when it sees one, it attacks. So it surprised no one that as Under Armour announced it would try to revive the long-dead cross-training category (which basically describes shoes you can use to run, lift weights, jump rope or channel surf), Nike pounced. The company launched its SPARQ trainers--as the company puts it, kicks built for Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction and Quickness--a month ahead of the May debut of Under Armour's Prototype Trainers.

Nike is trying to relaunch cross-training and deny the space to Under Armour. (The aerobics craze made Reebok, remember.) The Swoosh blitzed the airwaves with SPARQ ads during the NCAA basketball tournament; MY BETTER IS BETTER THAN YOUR BETTER went the tagline. SPARQs retail for $70 to $90, while Under Armour's shoes are in the $80-to-$100 price range.

It's not just marketing. Both Nike and Under Armour are latching onto a new approach to training that's more dynamic than lifting weights and sprinting. At Nike.com athletes can access drill videos from "SPARQ Master Trainers": You're a basketball player, and you want to improve your quickness? Have your coach drop tennis balls at your feet, and catch them before they bounce above your knees. Under Armour will also post cross-training drills on its site this summer. "Nike is going after them with a vengeance," says John Shanley, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group. "They want to make sure the introduction of the cross-trainer is as painful as possible for Under Armour."

So why would Under Armour risk the punishment? The company's apparel business is solid--up 37% in 2007--so Under Armour certainly doesn't need to jump into a new category to grow. "Maybe I'm a little naive as we approach the footwear market," says Plank, a former University of Maryland football player who started the company in his grandmother's basement more than a decade ago. "Maybe we don't recognize the fact that we're walking on a tightrope on the 55th floor. But the fact of the matter is, it feels right. And that's what brands are."

The stock market doesn't feel that way. In January, when Under Armour announced heavy marketing costs, including a $4.4 million Super Bowl ad for the launch of the training shoe, its stock dropped 33%, to $28.80 a share, over a two-day period. Under Armour also announced that $28 million in first-quarter marketing expenses, an increase of 103%, helped send profits down 71% for that quarter.

Throughout Under Armour's history, Plank has relished fighting the doubters. It's in his DNA: when describing his playing style at Maryland, the 5-ft. 11-in., 210-lb. (1.8 m, 95 kg) walk-on says, "I put my head down and hit you. That was my gig." He still has a locker-room mouth--"We give a s___ about what we do every day"--and rarely minces words. "What makes Under Armour special is the fact that we don't make a bunch of crap for the mass market," he says.

As a strategist, though, Plank is more brains than brash. Many analysts admire his approach to expanding his brand. Under Armour could have jumped right into one of the two biggest sports-footwear categories--running and basketball--to try to steal share from Nike, Adidas and other Bigfeet. Instead, the company chose a more disciplined approach. Under Armour tested the footwear landscape about two years ago, when it started making American-football cleats. Selling soccer shoes against Adidas and Nike would have been suicidal. Football is a small, specialized market--about $250 million in the U.S. "Our No. 1 goal was authenticating ourselves as a footwear brand," says Plank. "Does the consumer accept putting the Under Armour logo on a shoe?" Yes, as it turns out: Under Armour now has a 20% share in football cleats, according to SportsOneSource, a research firm. Next, Under Armour tried on baseball and softball cleats and grabbed an 11% share in that $200 million market. "If Under Armour is going to become a full-service athletic brand, it has to go after footwear," says Shanley. "And by taking these small steps, they're being smart. They're doing the right thing."

Plus, as Under Armour moves beyond cleats to sneakers with broader appeal, it is picking an ideal entry point: the training-shoe market is ripe for a revival. Nike popularized cross-trainers in the late '80s and early '90s with its famous "Bo Knows" campaign, which depicted the multisport star Bo Jackson playing hoops, football and tennis and weight-lifting in his Nikes. Since that heyday, the sporting life has become more specialized but training more diverse.

Under Armour sees today's young, hyperfocused athletes as "95-5" players, who spend 5% of their time on the playing field of their sport and 95% training for that sport--either by pounding weights, sprinting or doing more high-tech plyometrics, which involves a lot of leaping and side-to-side movements. The company's pitch: During that 95% training time, don't use some dumb running shoe; wear our Prototype. The company is offering three types of sneakers: the Speed Trainer is the lightest, most breathable shoe, designed for athletes who spend the bulk of their time trying to get quicker. The Power Trainer is for the bulky guys; it comes with extra cushioning at the bottom to absorb the downward force of a squat thrust.

Then there's the Evade sneaker for jocks who make more lateral moves in their drills. "The shoe becomes a piece of equipment," insists Raphael Peck, Under Armour's senior vice president and shoe guru. But will young athletes really spend $100 for a shoe to lift weights in? "They're spending $40 on a T shirt," quips Plank, nodding to the premium price that consumers are paying for Under Armour's sweat-sopping gear.

Still, at Under Armour's modest bricks-and-mortar headquarters on the Baltimore waterfront, it's pretty much all about the shoes. Plank and Peck are sitting at a table, talking kicks. "People know you're real when you're focused," Peck says, when asked if Under Armour's specialized trainers exclude a swath of potential customers--like weekend warriors and the average Joe who just wants something, anything, for the treadmill. Plank is preaching: The brand has proved itself in apparel and cleats and is ready for the next step. "We've paid our dues," he says. True. But how much will Nike raise the cost of membership?

[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine.] The Prototype Trainer UNDER ARMOUR DAVID VS. BIGFOOT Under Armour is hot, but Nike has the money to kick it into the ground The SPARQ trainer NIKE $640 million Sales* $17.9 billion $45.5 million Earnings* $1.8 billion $1.7 billion Market cap** $32.2 billion Ray Lewis Famous endorser LeBron James

*Past four quarters **As of May 12, 2008