Under Armour Shares Decline Following Investor Meeting
Under Armour, Inc. (NYSE: UAA, UA) experienced a 5.5% drop in its stock price following an investor meeting held in New York City today. During the event, senior executives provided a comprehensive qualitative overview of the company's product, brand, and commercial growth strategies. The purpose of these initiatives is to enhance shareholder value creation in the long term. The company also reaffirmed its full-year outlook for the fiscal year 2025, presented for the first time alongside the second-quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings results announced in November.
Investors are closely monitoring Under Armour's shift towards prioritizing full-price sales, efforts to revitalize its innovation pipeline, and the impact of new senior Brand/Creative/Design talent. President and CEO Kevin Plank emphasized the company's commitment to strengthening the Under Armour brand and ensuring consistent execution. Plank stated, "As a global Sports House, we are working diligently to build the people, structures, and strategies necessary to fully realize Under Armour’s long-term potential."
Under Armour's strategy is built on four core pillars: Product, Story, Service, and Team. The company plans to optimize its product creation engine and diversity, revolutionize products with transformative innovations, and establish a cohesive category-focused go-to-market process. The aim is to connect more holistically with athletes' needs on both a global and regional scale.
The company seeks to make its operating model consumer-centric, providing collaborative alignment and clear accountability among product, marketing, and commercial functions. This approach is designed to enhance brand proximity and leverage Under Armour's underdog positioning through storytelling that resonates with determination and tenacity.
Commercial strategies will be implemented with a market-specific focus in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region. In the Americas, the emphasis will be on reordering and strengthening the brand, revitalizing focus on Team Sports, and reprioritizing marketing investments. In Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, the strategy involves leveraging the brand's reputation, focusing on regionally relevant sports categories, and expanding in key countries. In the Asia-Pacific, the plan is to utilize global marketing to maintain the brand, elevate channel discipline, and enhance engagement.
Under Armour's team pillar highlights the importance of leveraging an enhanced leadership team to improve deployment strategies, optimize capacity utilization, and rejuvenate a culture of leadership, teamwork, and accountability.
Plank concluded his remarks with optimism about the company’s direction: "I am confident that a significantly strengthened product lineup coming in Fall 2025, alongside a clear underdog brand positioning and purposeful, disciplined marketplace management, will ensure that our actions gain momentum. We are managing a more agile and focused company, and we believe that our strategies will drive renewed brand strength, ultimately improving our ability to deliver sustainable, profitable growth for our shareholders."