Case study
It all started with a simple plan to make a superior T-shirt. As special teams captain
during the mid-1990s for the University of Maryland football team, Kevin Plank
hated having to repeatedly change the cotton T-shirt he wore under his jersey as it
became wet and heavy during the course of a game.112 He knew there had to be a better
alternative and set out to make it. After a year of fabric and product testing, Plank
introduced the first Under Armour compression product—a synthetic shirt worn like
a second skin under a uniform or jersey. And it was an immediate hit! The silky fabric
was light and made athletes feel faster and fresher, giving them, according to Plank, an
important psychological edge. Today, Under Armour continues to passionately strive
to make all athletes better by relentlessly pursuing innovation and design. A telling
sign of the company’s philosophy is found over the door of its product design studios:
“We have not yet built our defining product.”
Today, Baltimore-based Under Armour (UA) is a $4.9 billion company. In 20 years,
it has grown from a college start-up to a “formidable competitor of the Beaverton,
Oregon, behemoth” (better known as Nike, a $32 billion company). The company has
nearly 3 percent of the fragmented U.S. sports apparel market and sells products from
shirts, shorts, and cleats to underwear. In addition, more than 100 universities wear
UA uniforms. The company’s logo—an interlocking U and A—is becoming almost as
recognizable as the Nike swoosh.
Starting out, Plank sold his shirts using the only advantage he had—his athletic
connections. “Among his teams from high school, military school, and the University
of Maryland, he knew at least 40 NFL players well enough to call and offer them
the shirt.” He was soon joined by another Maryland player, Kip Fulks, who played
lacrosse. Fulks used the same “six-degrees strategy” in the lacrosse world. (Today,
Fulks is the company’s COO.) Believe it or not, the strategy worked. UA sales quickly
gained momentum. However, selling products to teams and schools would take a
business only so far. That’s when Plank began to look at the mass market. In 2000,
he made his first deal with a big-box store, Galyan’s (which was eventually bought by
Dick’s Sporting Goods). Today, almost 30 percent of UA’s sales come from Dick’s. But
they haven’t forgotten where they started, either. The company has all-school deals
with numerous Division 1 schools. According to Plank, “Although these deals don’t
bring in big bucks, they deliver brand visibility . . . .”
Despite their marketing successes, innovation continues to be the name of the
game at UA. How important is innovation to the company’s heart and soul? Consider
what you have to do to enter its new products lab. “Place your hands inside a state-ofthe-
art scanner that reads—and calculates—the exact pattern of the veins on the back.
If it recognizes the pattern, which it does for only 20 out of 5,000 employees, you’re in.
If it doesn’t, the vault-like door won’t budge.” In the unmarked lab at the company’s
headquarters campus in Baltimore, products being developed include a shirt that can
monitor an athlete’s heart rate, a running shoe designed like your back spine, and a
sweatshirt that repels water almost as well as a duck’s feathers. There’s also work being
done on a shirt that may help air-condition your body by reading your vital signs.
So what’s next for Under Armour? Innovation will continue to be important.
Building a business beyond what it’s known for—that is, what athletes wear next to
their skin—is going to be challenging. However, Plank is “utterly determined to conquer
that next layer, and the layer after that.” He says, “There’s not a product we can’t
build.”

Instructor Prompt Questions:
1. What do you think of UA’s approach to innovation? Would you expect to see this type of innovation in an athletic wear company? Explain.
2. What do you think UA’s culture might be like in regards to innovation? (Hint: refer to the list on page 198.)
3. Could design thinking help UA improve its innovation efforts?
4. What’s your interpretation of the company’s philosophy posted prominently over the door of its design studio? What does it say about innovation?
5. What could other companies learn from the way UA innovates?
ANSWERS SHOULD APPROXIMATE 150 WORDS EACH QUESTION

WEEKLY READING TOPICS
Regarding chapter 5, Managing Diversity, by the end of this module you will be able to:
• Define workplace diversity and explain why managing it is so important.
• Describe the changing workplaces in the United States and around the world.
• Explain the different types of diversity found in workplaces.
• Discuss the challenges managers face in managing diversity.
• Describe various workplace diversity management initiatives.
Regarding chapter 7, Managing Change and Innovation, by the end of this module you will be able to:
• Compare and contrast views on the change process.
• Classify types of organizational change.
• Explain how to manage resistance to change.
• Discuss contemporary issues in managing change.
• Describe techniques for stimulating innovation.
Regarding chapter 9, Managing Strategy, by the end of this module you will be able to:
• Define strategic management and explain why it’s important.
• Explain what managers do during the six steps of the strategic management process.
• Describe the three types of corporate strategies.
• Describe competitive advantage and the strategies organizations use to get it.
• Discuss current strategic management issues.