Post Workout Recovery Suit = NEAT!

Today while looking through videos on You Tube I found the one below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL8by1IZjCU

I had heard about this recovery suit in passing but never looked for any information on it. This technology seems awesome. The suit is meant to be worn for approximately 24 hours after your workout and uses compression to keep your muscles from swelling and promote quicker rebuilding and recovery. For someone who is active it isn't really that expensive (top is $100 and bottoms are $90) for the recovery it offers.

Kevin Plank, CEO and founder of Under Armour

Kevin Plank comes from a middle class family in Maryland. He is the youngest of five and loved football. In college while playing for the University of Maryland he became frustrated with the heaviness of his cotton t-shirts soaked in sweat and would often change multiple times to keep them from weighing him down. According to friends and family he was always tinkering in new businesses and concepts and decided to go to a fabric store to see if there was a material that would work better than cotton. He found a synthetic material that wicked the moisture away from the skin keeping the shirt weightless and athlete cool. He then marketed these shirts to pro-football player friends and convinced them to hand them out in the locker rooms.

From a Sports Illustrated article on the story of Under Armour, "The company says its operations steer toward the unconventional. Unlike many other firms, all campaigns and creative design are done on the property. No contract agencies are involved in business operations. There are also no grand facilities to wear-test products, except for a turf area to test some aspects of shoe performance. The company says it prefers to use real-world conditions, including terrain differentiation and weather factors, while receiving feedback from various running clubs and their stable of athletes."

Although I have found no formal designation of centralized or decentralized structure I would lean towards decentralized. Several places I have read that the corporate culture is that of an athletic team. That team meetings are referred to as huddles and employees are treated as teammates instead of subordinates. These types of descriptions seem to create an environment where input is encouraged from all levels.

A note on partnerships....

Here are a few partnerships Under Armour has undertaken.

Most recently UA has partnered with IMG Performance to develop a comprehensive athletic training program called "Combine 360". IMG is an institute that offers athletic training and schooling to all ages. Their goal is to establish a global measurement standard for improved sports performance, health and fitness.

UA partnered with Unlimited Sports Group (USG) in 2007 to manage the distribution of UA products in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

Ripken Baseball Inc. and UA formed a five-year business alliance in April of 2009 for Under Armour to have an increased presence at Ripken's baseball properties. Ripken has a long-time relationship with NIKE that ended last year.

For those MMA fans....

For those mixed martial arts fans GSP just signed a multi-year contract to be the face and body of Under Armour. MMA is growing and has been growing in popularity very rapidly. I think George St-Pierre will resonate with many people that Under Armour may have not previously touched. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Under-Armour-Throws-KnockOut-prnews-2037676487.html?x=0&.v=1

Interesting Find

While reviewing the management of Under Armour I noticed an interesting item: all of them are fairly new. Below is the link to UA's management page.
http://www.uabiz.com/company/managementTeam.cfm

I found this interesting. Does this mean that UA is positioning itself for broad expansion? Possibly. This managament team is full of experience from all with top executive jobs at other large retailers like Lands End. The price tag for this experience can't be small.
UA is definitely making sure it has the right people for the jobs.

You Tube Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrobbYe7Iyk

You Tube video of Kevin Plank, founder and CEO of Under Armour talking about the history of the brand and the future.

UA Gear Packs

I receive email updates and offers from Under Armour and this particular ad caught my attention. For the holidays UA has launched "gear packs". Basically these are outfits that UA has put together to make the shopping experience easier. They are labeled based on what the person you are buying for needs or likes. For instance one of them is called "Women's Golf Gear". When you click on that it redirects you to a page where you can put the needed sizes in and click "Add to Cart". How easy is that???? You can also pick and choose the items you actually want to purchase in the gear pack. I believe this is UA's way of creating add-ons to sales that would normally only be one or two items. If customers see these items all together and see that they match and coordinate they might actually be more apt to purchase all of these items that make up this outfit. Isn't that why stores have manequins displaying their latest fashions in the storefronts? This is UA's attempt to recreate this experience. Below is a link if you would like to check them out.
http://www.underarmour.com/shop/us/en/gifts/gift-packs

Third Quarter Earnings

Under Armour reported an increase of 16.2 % in net revenues for the third quarter ending 9/30/2009. While concentrating on lowering inventory levels and increasing cash flow Under Armour has outperformed itself in hard economic times. It was noted that although the overall increase in sales, revenuesm and profits there was a substantial increase in the selling, general and administrative expenses. Higher personnel costs and the continued expansion of the company's outlet stores were given as reasons for this. Below is the link to the press release which includes consolidated financial statements.
http://investor.underarmour.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=418803