Word: plank
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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...
...football pants. High-end specialists who sold gear for mountaineering and skiing offered pricey garments made with an inner layer of fabric that wicked perspiration away from the skin to an outer layer where it would evaporate. These clothes helped prevent hypothermia in extreme cold. But nobody made what Plank wanted: an affordable, featherweight, moisture-wicking T shirt--one that would fit skintight so it would lie flat under straps and pads...
...graduation neared, Plank, then 23, decided to explore the product niche he had identified. In March 1996, he bought some stretchy lingerie material at a fabric store and had a 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...
...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...
...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 Roger Clemens met Plank in a bar during a Yankees-Orioles series and likes Under Armour so much that he, his wife and four sons decked themselves in the shirts for a family Christmas card photo. Clemens stocks Under Armour shirts of varying weights and sometimes phones in design suggestions. "Someone in that company...