Sports Rookie UA Is Expected To Be The First Brand

　　 Sports brand rookie UA: beat Adidas and beat Nike

It's time to get to know Under Armour (hereinafter referred to as UA), which not only defeated Adidas in the United States, but also beat Nike in the stock market. UA, headquartered in Maryland, is the second largest movement in the United States Brand manufacturer , started with the production of tight sportswear. According to the data provided by Sterne Agee and SportScanInfo, in the first eight months of this year, UA sales increased by 20% to $1.2 billion, surpassing Adidas for the first time (sales of $1.1 billion, down 23% from the same period last year), becoming the second largest sales in the United States Sports brand Although the sales figure of $1.2 billion is far less than Nike's $8.9 billion in the same period, the share price growth rate of UA in the past three years is twice that of Nike. Even among the 40 best performing stocks in the S&P 500 as of August, UA also ranked third with a 57.85% increase, becoming the most outstanding stock in the consumer goods industry.

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UA was founded in 1996. Kevin Plank, the founder and CEO of the football star, founded the brand for the purpose of producing high-performance tight sportswear that can satisfy professional athletes. Since then, this company has indeed relied on the professionalism and high-tech content of its products Sports brand It stands out from the crowd, especially by professional athletes and young people. It has a very high coverage in the gym (especially fitness coaches). President Obama of the United States is also a fan of it. As a local brand in the United States, UA has great influence among American teenagers, especially college students. In American campus, wearing a pair of UA sneakers is more cool than wearing Nike and Adidas.

This is largely due to the star effect and word of mouth spread of professional athletes. The first impressive appearance of UA was that Jeff George, a member of the famous American football team, the Oakland Raiders, wore it and made the headlines of USA Today. Today, the spokesmen of UA include Phelps, the "Eight Olympic Golden Kings", American sweetheart Lindsay Vaughn and NBA guard Steve Curry. This summer, in the most expensive advertising endorsement war with Nike for Kevin Durant in history, despite the final defeat, the popularity of UA in overseas markets has been improved.

However, China Sports brand consumers The recognition of UA is still limited. Compared with Nike and Adidas with global layout, the sales of UA are highly dependent on the US market. At present, 94.1% of its revenue comes from the North American market. In terms of expanding the international market, this company is slow. In China, it was not until April 2011 that UA opened its first store in Shanghai Ganghui Square. So far, it has only 18 stores in China, which are basically located in commercial landmarks in China's first tier cities.

After opening the market with the original product - sweat absorption and moisture elimination T-shirt, today's UA's product range has expanded to all kinds of sports equipment, including shoes and sunglasses. This company also has the temperament of some scientific and technological enterprises. UA released the fitness application MapMyFitness and the wearable device Armour 39 that can be implanted into the fabric. In July this year, Lee Jae Rong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, met with the senior management of UA in Seoul and expressed his hope to form a partnership with the latter in the development of wearable products to counter the possible alliance between companies like Apple and Nike.

In 2013, UA's sales increased from $17000 in the year of its establishment to $2.3 billion, and its stock market valuation exceeded $9 billion. Sportswear The proportion of product revenue in the revenue structure of UA has always exceeded 75%. The brand has gained 70% of the market share of tight sportswear, and has launched professional equipment in basketball, football, rugby, running and other sports fields. UA is particularly outstanding in running clothes, which is also the best selling category among its products. In the American professional sports goods market including sports shoes, UA now accounts for 31%, second only to Nike, which accounts for 36%.

UA's performance is bound to trigger adidas' counter attack. The latter lowered its expectation of sales of 17 billion euros in 2015 in the mid year report of 2014. The management hopes to break through the status quo that the United States market has only made achievements in football business, and can have better performance in football, baseball and basketball business.