Transformation

Under Armour initially started out with a focused differentiation strategy. Their focus was on their innovation of the perspiration wicking performance wear. It all started with a t-shirt; one that could be worn under football pads and not get heavy with sweat. Kevin Plank, the originator and CEO, himself was a football player and could identify with these needs. He began marketing to collegiate teams across the country. The shirt worked and founds its niche, so it sold. They then decided to make other performance wear: some for when your hot, some for cold, and some for any weather. As they grew, the performance wear industry saw new entrants. More established companies as adidas and NIKE began producing their own lines of performance wear to directly compete with Under Armour. At this point Under Armour could see that their hold in the niche market would likely disintegrate if they did not broaden their focus and make a bigger name for themselves. This approximately the point where Under Armour switched more to a broad differentiation strategy. One of the key factors in determining this is most like their strategy were two factors: charging a premium price and stressing constant innovation. Because of the companies constant innovation and products that work customers are willing to pay the higher price. Under Armour has created a brand image that is very important to the maintenance of this strategy and their continued growth. They are still fairly small-time in comparison to the industry leaders (NIKE, adidas).