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SGB Sports
Under Armour
Most companies make shoes, then move into apparel.
Not Under Armour; after years of success with
compression gear and technical apparel, they've moved
into running shoes – and they're surprisingly good.
U
nder Armour have many things going for them, not least care about is trying to make you as an athlete a little bit better. With so
arguably the best logo in the industry! Great technical many brands in our space, they have lifestyle or sport culture angles;
clothing, be it base layers or compression we're solely focussed on the performance sector of sport.
gear, right through to headwear and athletic
tops. Now, though, they move into – for SGB: So what's the core product, the cornerstone of the
them – uncharted waters with the launch of brand?
a line of running shoes. Blair Tripodi, BT: That's one of our main areas of
Director of International Marketing, Under differentiation from the traditional
Armour Europe, talked to SGB about the entry into the business; most
move and the shoes. companies start with
The shoes boast proprietary technology in
Cartilage, its cushioning system, and
Directional Cushioning Engineering which
comprises ARMOURLastic, ARMOURGuide
and ARMOURBound, to create a formidable
midsole.
Alongside the four running shoes
(Revenant, Illusion, Apparition, and Spectre) is a footwear
line of running apparel that, in the opinion of SGB, is and apparel is a
genuinely excellent. Read on to find out more… distant second. We
come with apparel first,
SGB: Under Armour is an specifically compression products. When Kevin Plank started out in 1996,
interesting brand, which rose to that's what his first products were, and in 2006, that's what our core
prominence quite quickly in product still is as we expand into the European market place. It;'s what
the US. How did it do so we do best, it's what we're known for and it's what most people
well so quickly, when consider our hallmark products. Compression shorts,
companies with major compression tops (in 'heat gear' or 'cold gear') is what
European bases struggled? we kicked off in Europe in 2006 and that's been
Blair Tripodi: The the cornerstone of our growth. We
company was founded in continue to evolve and produce
1996, but the brand new product stories for our
didn't see a retail shop compression gear – we have
floor until years later. It recovery compression coming
was only a sports in autumn 2009, we have a
marketing presence, they good-better-best story in
went club to club, team to compression too, with our basic line
team sales. The meteoric rise was in going right up to our top-of-the-range
the short period after it hit retail. line, our state-of-the-art technologies… Even
though we feel this is a space we can really call our
SGB: Branding is so difficult to get right as everything is a brand before it's a own now, we continue to invest in new areas and really try to keep our
product now. For a company to come in with a presence – and that competitors on their toes.
wonderful logo – like Under Armour and achieve the recognition you have,
you've hit on something there. SGB: It's a competitive market in base layers and compression gear, and
BT: Our brand is as simply expressed as 'performance product'. We don't try there's some superb product available.
to muddy the waters and be too many things to too many people. All we BT: We pay a lot of attention to what our competitors are doing, of course
12 SGB SPORTS FEBRUARY 2009
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