Under Armour enters the sports fashion race

This article is part of our Vogue Business Membership package. To enjoy unlimited access to Member-only reporting and insights, our NFT Tracker, Beauty Trend Tracker and TikTok Trend Tracker, weekly Technology, Beauty and Sustainability Edits and exclusive event invitations, sign up for Membership here. Under Armour might be sportswear’s underdog due to its narrow focus on training compression tops and shorts, and a recent history of leadership shifts and financial challenges. Now, the brand is hoping to steal market share from Nike and Adidas with a new fashion-forward product vision for Autumn/Winter 2025, aimed squarely at Gen Z. Last week, Under Armour’s new chief product officer Yassine Saidi and EMEA managing director Kevin Ross headed to Frankfurt, Germany, hours before the England v Denmark football game at Euro 2024, to outline their ambitious vision. “We embrace the underdog mentality,” Ross says. “There’s a lot of people out there who think we can’t compete with the big guys… I think this time next year we’ll turn the industry on its head. We might not be the biggest but we’ll be the youngest, we’ll be fearless, and we’ll be aggressive.” The new offering will include a new sportswear line of more casual performance pieces that can be worn in and out of the gym (including heavily designed base layers, tracksuits and outerwear). Under Armour will also introduce new sneakers for various sports and occasions. Currently, the brand’s core consumer is millennials. With this launch, the aim is to grow its Gen Z (16-24) consumer base, bring much-needed innovation to the slowing sneaker market and help the brand hit hyper-growth in Europe, while giving its challenged US business a boost. Ross freely namechecks competitors like Adidas and Nike in a way that’s uncommon for an executive. It shows he’s under no illusions about the challenge ahead, in an increasingly saturated market. Nike made a big investment in women’s fashion over the last year (complete with a fashion show in Paris) while Adidas launched a Gen Z-focused sportswear line in early 2023. Lululemon, Alo Yoga and On are investing heavily in more casual, versatile apparel, the latter via a new partnership with Zendaya and a collaboration with Loewe. Nonetheless, Ross is confident there’s space for Under Armour. “Looking at our target customer, if you open their wardrobe, there’s a high chance you’ll see our performance products there. But we’ve previously failed to make that leap from performance to sportswear,” Ross says. “Given how big the market is, and how the competition plays there, we think we can compete. I think our customer expects to see us.” “The good thing about Under Armour apparel is that it’s already been adopted by the kids,” Saidi adds, referencing the growing cohort of young consumers who wear Under Armour sports bras or leggings as casual everyday clothing. “It’s easy in the sense that we have a strong base. The kids are wearing the product already — we’re going to elevate the experience.” As a signal of the new, fashion-forward vision, Under Armour announced a collaboration with Balenciaga during the brand’s Resort 25 show in Shanghai last month. It featured in a handful of runway looks, but the full 70-piece collection, including tracksuits, base layers and accessories, will hit stores in November. Saidi pushed to make sure the collection would use Under Armour fabrics and technologies, to underline the brand’s innovation capabilities. Another hint at the direction is new line Unstoppable, launching for AW24, which features casual tracksuits (retailing for €80-€120). The line was born from a singular track pant Under Armour initially released for performance, before noticing customers styling it with fashion pieces outside of training or sport. Using innovation to combat economic challenges Like competitors Nike and Adidas, Under Armour has met significant financial headwinds post-lockdown, particularly in North America. Founder Kevin Plank returned as CEO in April this year, replacing outgoing CEO Stephanie Linnartz after just one year, as profits continued to fall at the company. Plank stepped down in 2019 amid a series of scandals on workplace culture and a regulatory investigation into financial practices. “We can and will do better,” Plank said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal at the time, prior to stepping down. In May, Under Armour announced a restructuring plan, after profits fell by more than 96 per cent year-over-year in Q4 2024. Full-year 2024 revenue fell 5 per cent to $1.3 billion (North America revenue was down 10 per cent to $772 million). Recently, Under Armour has been challenged given “soft consumer demand and elevated promotional levels, cautious wholesale ordering [from retailers], and long product lead times”, wrote analyst Dana Telsey in an April report on the activewear market. “Mr. Plank will have to prove he can fuel product innovation, including an entry into lifestyle products, to return the company to growth as well as high profitability.” Ross joined the company in February from outdoor product brand Yeti. However, he spent eight years at Under Armour from 2013-2021, ultimately as VP of global product creation. He is confident the new product offering will propel Under Armour into “hyper-growth”. He points out that the European business has grown every year for the last five years, led by the UK. “I don’t use the word ’hyper-growth’ loosely because I think it’s really difficult to do,” he says. “Our business in Europe has actually been incredibly strong. But we’ve been somewhat one dimensional through the lens of training. Considering we’ve been somewhat narrow, it’s been incredible the levels we’ve gotten to.” Key to driving the new vision is Saidi, a sportswear and sneaker industry veteran. He spent eight years designing at Adidas (2006-2014), then became global head of fashion collaborations at Puma from 2014-2020, where he spearheaded the Fenty x Puma collab, among others. More recently, Saidi founded Agenc-y, a design consultancy that designed the sellout Balmain B-Bold sneakers, Lacoste’s sportswear offering and tour merch for The Weeknd. He joined Under Armour in January this year. “I chose Under Armour for the potential of the brand, not for the current product,” he says candidly, sitting in a hotel conference room ahead of the Euros game. “I feel like this brand has everything you need to be successful. The most important thing is the investment they’ve made in technology and innovation; 30 years’ worth. I can use that to design new cool stuff.” Footwear — which currently accounts for 20 per cent of the business — will be a focus. “I’ve worked across so many brands and if you have a footwear style everyone is talking about, that’s the unlock to success,” Saidi says. The first launch under Saidi will be a sneaker for AW25. It will feature in a big marketing push, says Ross, which will act as a “Trojan horse” to bring new audiences to Under Armour’s new offering. Within campaigns, the focus will be on explaining the innovation behind the product, Ross shares — which chimes with Gen Z’s desire for more in-depth product information. When he first arrived at the brand’s Baltimore HQ, Saidi removed sportswear competitors like Nike, Adidas and Puma from mood boards on the design studio walls. He replaced them with images from fashion brands like Glenn Martens’s Y-Project or car designs, to encourage his team to think outside the box rather than focusing on sportswear and sneakers “that are already bestsellers for somebody else”. “We believe that one product can change the course of a brand,” Saidi says. “We’ve seen that with New Balance. They came up with one shoe, and the brand was transformed. On comes with one shoe, Hoka comes with two — they both go from zero to 100.” Saidi shares that the Under Armour design studio has a mantra on the wall: “We have not yet made our defining product.” He takes his responsibility to come up with that product very seriously. Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com. More from this author: Why On is a sports megabrand in the making Alo Yoga takes on Europe, starting with the UK Lululemon CEO unpacks plan to hit $12.5 billion in revenue by 2026

Make better business decisions

Make better business decisions