Under Armour Inc. (UA) is a United States (US) sports clothing and accessories company. It started as a supplier of sportswear and has now expanded into footwear, technology (fitness apps) and casual clothes. The company has its headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland and there are several other international offices in Canada, Asia and Europe. The idea for the company was based on the experience of its founder, Kevin Plank who in 1995 was the special team’s captain on the University of Maryland football team. He noticed that the cotton T-shirts he and his teammates wore underneath their pads were always soaked and heavy with sweat. Plank decided to perfect and create a new T-shirt built from microfibers that kept athletes cool, dry, and light. Plank started selling his products from a truck of a car, and over the years has expanded UA into the internationally well-known brand that it is known as today. UA is in the sports clothing/athletic goods industry and may be considered one of the leaders for its product lines within certain markets. According to the recent article by Sara Germano, in the Wall Street Journal, UA’s U.S. sales …show more content…
According to those in the industry, the sales performance of the company indicates that it is likely growing faster than the overall sports apparel industry. In the emerging market of high-tech athletic wear, UA is doing quite well and can be considered a leading brand name. For the overall athletic market, UA has 31% of the market share, Nike 36%, and Adidas and other athletic companies divide up the rest of the market. In the athletic apparel market within the US, UA has 74% and was able to overtake Adidas during 2014 as the number two US sportswear company. (Ihttp://marketrealist.com/2015/07/can-armours-2q15-earnings-results-justify-record-highs/).Its global market share is shown in the screen shot pie chart in the Chart 1 on page