Under Armour Case Study: Issues and Solutions for Global Expansion

Integrated Capstone Project

Table of content
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
ASSESSMENT TASK....................................................................................................................3
Background of the company........................................................................................................3
Issues/ Problems that being analyzed..........................................................................................4
Detailed analysis of the identified issues.....................................................................................4
Recommend Solutions.................................................................................................................9
Plan for the future study............................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
The market is growing day by day; competition within the market is high in the current
situation as compared to the previous. The reason behind this enhancing competitive
environment is innovativeness for meeting the needs of the people. Time to time, companies face
some issues in the market for maintaining their sustainability. Multinational companies are
seeking competent and innovative strategies and approaches for increasing their demand and
popularity across the world (Fraga, 2016). Concerning this, a case study of Under Armour is
taken into consideration. The file consists of the information regarding the background of the
firm, issues faced by the company and appropriate solutions for handling them effectively.
ASSESSMENT TASK
Background of the company
Under Armour, Inc is a well-known company in America which manufactures footwear,
sports and casual appeal. The firm was established 22 years ago in 1996 by Kevin Plank.
Headquarter of the company is located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Additional offices
of the firm are situated in Amsterdam, Austin, London, Jakarta, New York, Panama City and
many more. Initially, the name of the organization was KP Sports which was later changed by
the Plank in the year 2005 (Grady, 2016). The key people of Under Armour include Chairman
and CEO, Kevin Plank and President and COO, Patrik Frisk. In 2017, the revenue of the
company was US$ 4,977 million with the total assets of US$ 4,006 million. The tagline of the
firm is “I Will” which represents the origin of the organization. According to the founder of the
firm Plank, the potential for the long-term growth of the Under Armour is achieved due to its
ability to develop and build an extraordinary powerful brand in a short period. The organization
is working from its early stages for establishing its brand within the market with substantial
value and image (Holt, 2016).
The products of Under Armour such as gear are designed for keeping the athletes cool,
dry and light during their entire course of game, practice or workout. The technology used by the
company for manufacturing the products for men, women and youth is however difficult, but the

idea behind this diversified approach is simple, i.e. wear HeatGear when it is hot and ColdGear
when it is cold. There is AllSeasonGear are available for the people who love to wear footwear
in all seasons. The mission of the Under Armour is to develop effective and innovative footwear
for all athletes. There are various other firms offering sports shoes and footwear are available
within the market like Nike and Adidas. Thus, Under Armour is searching for an innovative and
creative way of developing and marketing the shoes among the people for gaining competitive
advantages at the international level (Whitehead and et al., 2018).
Issues/ Problems that being analyzed
According to the provided case study, the company is facing issues for identifying the
appropriate strategy for becoming more geographically diverse for surviving within the
competition in the global market. The firm is making continuous efforts for moving into the
other geographic locations like Europe and Asia. In context to this, the organization will have to
diversify their product offerings while expanding their business in the new places. This factor
can enhance the problem for the company as they will have to minimize the risk associated with
the majority of the sales. There are highly competitive and top companies available at the
international level which includes Nike and Adidas. Both the organizations are available across
the different nations of the world and offering high-quality footwear to the customers. The
popularity of Under Armour is less as compared to the other competitors. Due to this, the firm is
looking for better ways of increasing its brand awareness at the global level (Strauss & Frost,
2016).
Along with this, the firm is also finding innovative and creative ways for surviving within
the competition. Another major issue is how to grab the attention of the people towards the brand
and to make them purchase the products. All these problems every company faces while
competing with the top level of MNCs.On the other hand, the raw materials which are used by
the Under Armour are developed and manufactured by the third parties and are only present from
a restricted number of sources. Thus, development and manufacturing of the speciality fabrics
from the third party can create risk for the Under Armour’s core competencies (Heroux, 2017).
Detailed analysis of the identified issues
For understanding the issues and actual situation of the Under Armour within the market,
the different methods and approaches are as follows: