Under Armour, Inc.

• Date founded: 1996
• Industry: Sports apparel, footwear
• Corporate Headquarters: Baltimore, Maryland
• Type: Public

Overview

Under Armour, Inc. is a multibillion-dollar sports apparel company. The company was founded in 1996 by Kevin Plank, a former college football player, who wanted to create a more comfortable athletic shirt that would absorb sweat. Plank started his business from his grandmother’s basement and, through unique product placement deals and endorsement strategies, soon transformed Under Armour into a multimillion-dollar company. The business continued to grow throughout the early twenty-first century, adding footwear, casual wear, and other athletic gear to its product line. In 2010, the company’s revenue topped $1 billion for the first time, and by 2024, Under Armour’s worldwide sales were more than $5.53 billion, according to Statista in 2025.

History

Kevin Plank was born in Maryland and grew up playing football in high school. In the early 1990s, he enrolled in the University of Maryland and made the school’s football team as a walk-on. Practicing in Maryland’s warm, humid weather made for very sweaty conditions, and Plank and his teammates often had to change shirts many times during the course of a day. He was also annoyed by how regular T-shirts seemed to bunch up under such conditions. However, he noticed how his compression shorts did not get as drenched in sweat as his cotton T-shirts. Compression garments are more tight-fitting and are typically made from synthetic material with more elastic properties.

Plank graduated from Maryland with a degree in business administration in 1996. That same year, he set out to create sports apparel that would be more comfortable and less sweaty for athletes to wear. He researched fabrics and chose a form-fitting synthetic material that was used to make women’s undergarments. He came up with a prototype shirt he called the “shorty,” which was able to better absorb moisture and regulate body heat. The garment’s tighter fit also helped to support athletes’ muscles. Plank founded Under Armour with his own savings and began operations from his grandmother’s basement in Washington, DC. He had originally wanted to call the company “Body Armor,” but his words were misinterpreted during discussions as “Under Armor,” and the name stuck. Plank decided to use the British spelling of “armour” because it was the only way he could get the name in the company’s toll-free telephone number.

Plank sent samples of his prototype shirt to several National Football League (NFL) players. As word got around the league about the shirt, other players began to purchase shirts for themselves. Under Armour struck a deal to sell its athletic gear to Georgia Tech and North Carolina State universities. In 1997, the company expanded its product line to include all-season wear and gear that kept athletes warm in cold weather. A year later, Under Armour forged a deal with NFL Europe, a developmental league associated with the NFL. That same year, Plank moved out of his grandmother’s basement and into a new company headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland.

The company’s fortunes skyrocketed in 1999 when it signed a deal with Warner Bros. for Under Armour products to appear in the Oliver Stone film Any Given Sunday. The gear also appeared in the 2000 film The Replacements and the television series Playmakers and Friday Night Lights. In 2000, the company gained further exposure when it took out an ad in ESPN The Magazine. By 2001, Under Armour had signed deals with Major League Baseball, USA Baseball, and the National Hockey League to be an official sportswear supplier for those organizations. Two years later, Under Armour debuted its first national advertising campaign, which featured former NFL player and Maryland football star Eric Ogbogu. The ad’s slogan, “We must protect this house,” became extremely popular and helped significantly raise the company’s brand profile.

Under Armour launched a line of women’s sportswear in 2003 and became a publicly traded company in 2005. Its initial public offering on the NASDAQ stock exchange almost doubled on its first day of trading. The company continued to expand its product lines to include performance sportswear, casual wear, footwear, sports gear, and fitness apps. Its distinctive logo, featuring rounded curves resembling an interlocked U and A, grew into one of the most well-known brand symbols in sports. Under Armour became a billion-dollar brand in 2010 and signed endorsement deals with numerous major sports leagues and top athletes. Among the most notable were professional golfer Jordan Spieth, NBA superstar Stephen Curry, and five-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady.

Impact

Under Armour opened its first retail store in Annapolis, Maryland, in 2007, and by 2023, the company had more than 350 outlets worldwide. Under Armour employed more than 17,500 people and did business in more than 150 countries, according to Investing.com in 2024. The company’s headquarters remained located in Baltimore, but corporate offices were also located in cities throughout the world.

While Under Armour's stock was $52.05 per share in 2015, by 2024, it had dropped more than 87 percent to $6.91. Plank, who had resigned as CEO in 2019, agreed to return to the position in 2025 for an annual base salary of $900,000. He would receive an additional $26 million if he increased Under Armour's stock price to $13 a share within four years. According to Sportico, Plank owned 53.8 million shares in the company as of 2024.

Bibliography

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