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Headquartered in renovated offices on the rundown waterfront of Baltimore, Md., Under Armour is privately held by Plank, 30, his mother, five brothers and two partners. Under Armour manufactures about half its gear in Honduras, Mexico and other countries in the Caribbean basin. Wages are higher in Baltimore, but the company makes about half its goods there and in other U.S. cities to ensure rapid turnaround for key products. Under Armour ships 175,000 items a week, mostly shirts selling for $25 to $50 but also shorts, socks and headgear. All are made of various blends of polyester and Lycra...
...tailor make up samples of athletic undershirts. He handed them out to fellow members of the Maryland football squad, who found them comfortable and edgy looking--and clamored for more. That told Plank he was onto something. His older brother Bill, an architect, contributed the macho name Under Armour, and an artist friend designed a sleekly minimalist logo. Working out of the basement of a house in Georgetown he'd inherited from his grandmother, Plank engaged a New York City garmentmaker to produce 500 T shirts that he called Heat Gear. He tossed them into the trunk...
...rest is marketing history. After booking sales of $17,000 in 1996, Under Armour boosted that number to $55 million in 2002. And on the basis of orders in hand from pro and amateur teams and select retail chains, Plank expects sales to roughly double in 2003. Special-forces troops buy the stuff, as do middle-school kids who wear it to class. Marty Hanaka, CEO of the Sports Authority, the nation's largest sporting-goods retailer, says demand for Under Armour has risen "exponentially" in most of its 204 stores. "There's a surge in participation in active sports...
...that's not its only challenge. Like most successful upstarts, Under Armour faces growing competition from big established brands. Nike has launched a line of sweat-wicking clothing called Dri-FIT One. And Reebok is selling a similar line, called NFL Equipment, as part of a 10-year, $250 million licensing deal with the National Football League. Meanwhile, Under Armour's image of insider cool will be strained as it tries to expand its market beyond committed sports enthusiasts. "It's been able to captivate the hard-core male athlete," says Marshal Cohen, co-president of market-research firm NPDFashionworld...
...Under Armour's buyers include 101 major college-football teams, players from 28 NFL teams, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, the U.S. ski team, college and pro lacrosse teams and countless youth teams. Under Armour has no military contracts, but a Navy SEAL reports that he and his comrades "pool our money and buy it out of our own pockets...