Word: armour
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...Under Armour's passionate following, achieved largely by word-of-mouth marketing, is the envy of the industry. "It's not so much marketing pizazz as the performance of the product" that accounts for its success, says Mike May, a spokesman for the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association International. Under Armour "was one of the most requested apparel items for Christmas gifts for all genders and ages," says Kevin O'Dell, assistant manager of Galyan's sporting goods in Gaithersburg, Md. "When Nike came out, it was all about the swoosh. Now it's Under Armour. If you watch any interview...
Giants slugger Barry Bonds, after a play-off game in which he smashed two homers that led his team to the World Series, lifted his jersey to display a black Under Armour shirt. He told reporters, "I'm not a superstitious person, but my son wears this brand, and he said, 'We've never lost a game when I wore this shirt,' so I put this shirt on." Washington Redskins linebacker LaVar Arrington, Chicago Cubs first baseman Eric Karros and other big names appear in Under Armour ads for free--or for a donation to their favorite charity. Yankees pitcher...
When he started Under Armour, says Plank, "I decided to bypass athletic directors and go straight to equipment managers. They control what's on that field." After his initial sale at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, he maxed out his credit cards and hit up his mom and brothers for cash to set up a small production plant in Baltimore. That fall, Dave Campo, then equipment manager for the Atlanta Falcons, admired Georgia Tech's shirts and ordered 100--with long sleeves to protect his players' arms against burns from artificial turf. These were dubbed Turf Gear. Later, Plank...
Before long, Wood was a partner and vice president for sales at Under Armour. Kip Fulks, a former all-American lacrosse player at Maryland, tried on a shirt, then signed on as a partner and vice president for production. "It was like nothing I had worn before," says Fulks. "I knew it was going somewhere...
...company's big break came when director Oliver Stone used Under Armour in his football movie, Any Given Sunday. Stone called for a futuristic-looking jockstrap for Jamie Foxx to wear in a locker-room scene with Cameron Diaz. Plank had it stitched up, and seized the chance to plaster an Under Armour logo front and center. When the movie premiered in December 1999, Plank gambled his working capital to buy his first ad, a half page in ESPN magazine. That and the buzz about Foxx's eye-popping jock brought $500,000 in sales almost overnight and boosted...