Challenge Stories: The Under Armour Story

By DC Cueva

@DC408Dxtr

We are now only just 26 hours away from the climax of MTV's The Challenge: Free Agents, with Bananas, Laurel, Johnny, Nany, Zach & Devyn left in the running for the $350,000 in a finale that will culminate atop an active volcano in Chile. But as we count down to the two-hour finale tomorrow night (the reunion will follow) and with a preview of the final coming your way here tomorrow as well, just as we've done numerous times in our Real World/Challenge coverage here, we'd like to go beyond the usual twitter diaries that we do here and focus on the stories that we do on the cast and relating to this show. And this one doesn't have anything to do with any of the cast.

Over the past two decades of the renowned TV franchise & ecosystem known as The Real World, The Challenge and the erstwhile Road Rules, MTV and Bunim-Murray Productions have partnered with many well-known Fortune 500 companies to provide them with both sponsorship and product placement on their shows. But perhaps the most well-known relationship between corporate America and these reality pioneers that feel like a religion to many of us is the one that involves the so-called "fifth major pro sport" and a company that revolutionized the sports clothing & athletic wear industry.

   If there's one company that is singlehandedly responsible for the development, growth and popularity today of performance apparel among athletes and casual active people like you and I, then it is Under Armour. Almost every time I go to the Great Mall here where I live in Milpitas, CA, I often check out the Sports Authority store to check in on the latest clothing, gear and equipment. And upon entering through the entrance inside the mall, near the front of it in between the sports gear, fitness equipment and checkout stands lies the Under Armour section. There, I find shirts, hats, clothing and the like with the UA logo.

   Lately, I've been stocking up on some of the Under Armour gear and related athletic clothing to wear both when I'm out and about, and when I'm being active. In fact, the first pair of new shoes that I bought with my own money is from Under Armour, which I wore for the first time when I went to Las Vegas last summer. And every time I watch a Challenge episode, it always brings me to this brand, the same way that when I look at UA clothing, it brings me to that show.

The Under Armour story begins back in 1996, when a 23-year-old former special teams captain at the University of Maryland, Kevin Plank, began a startup business in the basement of his grandma's house in Washington, D.C.  Plank spent his ACC career with only apparel being present in his car's trunk, and by the time the year ended, he sold his first set of clothes for $17,000. The next year, he moved out of his grandma's house in the Georgetown district and headed up the beltway to Baltimore.

   During his time as a fullback in College Park, Plank became tired of the post-practice routine of changing out of his sweat-soaked cotton T-shorts he wore underneath his jersey, but discovered that during those two-a-days, the compression shorts he used were drier than his undershirt. That became the inspiration behind making a T-shirt using only moisture-wicking synthetic fabric, the same as those used to make those shorts.

   Upon graduation, Plank started the company which he would name Under Armour, and after browsing through nearby fabric stores and even NYC's garment district, he began to architect a prototype of his invention, called the HeatGear shirt, or #0037, which he would eventually give to his Terrapin teammates and friends, some of whom eventually went on to the NFL. Afterwards, he would perfect his craft in designing a shirt created from micro fibers that wicked moisture and kept players dry, cool and light, even during the brutal hot conditions of summer.

   When a USA Today pic of Raiders QB Jeff George wearing a Under Armour mock turtleneck during a game made it to newsstands, everyone began to notice this new technology. It also caught the eye of a Georgia Tech equipment manager, who made the first major sale by asking for 10 shirts from Plank. Arizona State, North Carolina State and other NCAA D-I programs would soon follow in signing deals with Under Armour.

   Buoyed by this positive response and word of mouth, orders and buzz began to increase so much that UA would soon launch new apparel lines ColdGear, AllSeasonGear, StreetGear and TurfGear. By year's end, the company sold 500 of its HeatGear shirts, generating $17,000 in sales, $34 a shirt. A year later, that revenue grew nearly six-fold to $100,000 and the company opened up a factory in Ohio to manufacture the clothing.

Under Armour's true rise to national prominence would come in 1999 when it was asked by Warner Bros. to outfit players for its two football films, Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday starring Jamie Foxx & Al Pacino and The Replacements. When the former was released, Plank made a gamble by placing a print ad in ESPN Magazine that, which along with the movie, generated a $750,000 sales spike and brought new awareness to the company, enough for the NFL, NHL and the ill-fated XFL to create relationships with UA and even put Plank himself on the company payroll.

   In 2002, the company would settle into new digs at an old soap factory in the Tide Point district of Baltimore's historic Inner Harbor that became its world headquarters, and a year later saw its first TV ad campaign. With the help of those commercials, Under Armour became more well-known to everyone and its slogan, "Protect This House," became a catchphrase for athletes in bringing the company to new heights.

   New product lines for women, junior athletes, outdoorsmen and golfers would soon follow on its coattails, along with the company's first all-school deal with Scott Plank's alma mater, the University of Maryland in 2005. That fall, its stock went public and became the first domestic company since before the dot-com crash to have its IPO double in its first day on Wall Street. And it ended 2005 w/ nearly $300 million in revenue.

   A year later, Under Armour gambled again by entering the footwear business and introduced its Click-Clack football cleats which would ultimately garner nearly a quarter of the football shoe market in its first year in stores, soon followed by cleats for baseball, softball and lacrosse. And in 2008, it entered the athletic footwear business with its first line of performance training shoes, after nearly a dozen years of only doing clothing.

Also that year, in line with the expansion of episodes of both it and The Real World to one hour, Bunim-Murray Productions contracted Under Armour to provide the competitors' uniforms on The Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Gauntlet III in Mexico. That partnership has remained ever since through the show's evolution into eventually becoming arguably TV's most intense reality competition show. And when you go to Instagram and browse through pictures of Real World & Challenge alumni working out at the gym, them wearing Under Armour gear is a common sight.

   In 2010, the company opened its first branded retail outlet store in Annapolis, opened new European headquarters in Amsterdam's Olympic Stadium, and reached the $1 billion mark in annual revenue, capping off five years of quadrupling revenues. A year later they embarked on an international strategy that expanded into Asia, Europe & Latin America; retail stores opening in China & Scotland; and signing an apparel deal with Tottenham Hotspur of the EPL. And after harboring cotton since the beginning, UA launched a new kind of cotton apparel using new technology allowing sweat to dry more faster & being water-resistant, called "Charged Cotton."

   Over the years, Under Armour has forged partnerships with many of the biggest names, teams and properties in not just sports, but been entertainment as well in addition to The Challenge. Among the many professional athletes it has sponsorship deals with include:

- NFL players Miles Austin, Tom Brady, Anquan Boldin, Arian Foster, Vernon Davis, Devin Heater, Ray Lewis, Cam Newton & Patrick Willis;

- MLB players Buster Posey, Bryce Harper & Ryan Howard;

- the NBA's Stephen Curry, Kemba Walker & Brandon Jennings;

- golfers Hunter Mahan & Jordan Speith;

- tennis phenom Sloane Stephens; 

- and fighters Georges St-Pierre & Canelo Alvarez.

For the past several years, Under Armour has served as the presenting sponsor of the NFL Draft Combine in Indianapolis, providing the apparel used by college players setting their sights on the big time. They've also made an entry into the Olympic world too, providing speedsuits to the U.S. speed skaters, bobsledders & skeleton athletes, the uniforms to USA gymnasts, and sponsoring gold medalists Lindsey Vonn, Shani Davis and, of course, Baltimore native Michael Phelps. It even is as a major sponsor of a show that I haven't even heard of but you probably do, A&E's Duck Dynasty.

And then, there's the college partnerships Under Armour has, starting with the alma mater of its founder. In the same manner that Nike has a hands-on relationship out west with founder Phil Knight's old college the University of Oregon, as written above the company has long provided Kevin Plank's alma mater with uniforms, apparel and footwear to every athletic team on campus in College Park.

   Earlier this year, Notre Dame and Under Armour signed the biggest apparel deal in NCAA history when they penned a 10-year pact to provide uniforms and athletic equipment to the revered program, which takes effect this upcoming season. In addition, UA has partnerships with Auburn, Boston College, University of Hawaii, Loyola, Navy, Northwestern, St. Johns, Seton Hall, South Carolina, Temple, Texas Tech and Utah.

Nearly two decades ago when I was in junior high, the sports gear and athletic apparel world was much different: everyone was using cotton shirts during P.E., we had no iPods with which to have workout music, and other things I can't remember. But after the emergence of Under Armour, things would never be the same when it came to athletic apparel. The company's mission statement reads, "To make all athletes better through passion, design and the relentless pursuit of innovation." They have done exactly that in inventing new technology and innovations in clothing that have revolutionized how athletes & casuals work out and compete.

   What started out as just an idea of making a new kind of T-shirt to absorb sweat more than cotton, the company has grown to becoming the pioneer, originator and innovator of performance apparel that has grabbed the industry's attention. And major competitors like Nike, Adidas & Reebok have followed in Under Armour's lead in offering similar versions of its moisture-wicking apparel, giving all athletes the benefit of being able to perform better whatever the weather, regardless of which brand they're wearing. As the company turns legal age - 18 this year, Under Armour remains at the forefront as a leader in performance apparel, and always with an eye on making the next big thing in sports apparel.

For more on Under Armour, check out its website at UnderArmour.com and follow them on Twitter at @UnderArmour.

Before we conclude, a couple reminders of upcoming interviews with the Free Agents finalists...

- Tomorrow, Andrew Kirk (@CSUAKirk) will welcome back a previous guest of his, Devyn, to look back on her improbable run to her 2nd straight Challenge final in as many appearances, and they'll talk about everything that has gone on this season right up to when her & Zach's kayak capsized at the end of last week. That's at 6:30pm ET: http://www.spreecast.com/events/free-agents-devyn. 

- And on Friday at 6pm ET, Reality Radio (@RealityRadioPod) will have the very first post-finale SpreeCast -- and if things stay the way it is, perhaps the first winners interview -- with the one and only Johnny Bananas. Obviously, you don't want to miss what he's got to say after what we have seen from him this season: http://www.spreecast.com/users/reality-radio-podcast.

If you're a Challenge fan haven't bookmarked DC BLOG yet, do so ASAP! Tomorrow before the finale, I'll be previewing the final, which will also include for the first and only time this season, my predictions on who will win. Of course, we'll have an extended edition of DC SocialPulse in the days after the finale to cover it all from the buildup to the aftermath. If you missed a tweet or two from other episodes or want to get caught up, then we have you covered, with all previous editions of DCSP documenting the twitter interaction plus episode recaps. And links to all of our articles from this season will be in my preview post tomorrow or if you can't wait, just search this site, keyword "Free Agents SocialPulse."

   With with the Free Agents finale & reunion, the USA's last group match against Germany and the NBA Draft all taking place on the same day tomorrow, it's a good time for me remind you to give me a follow to my live twitter hub, DCNOW at @DC408DxNow. There with having rest of the week off to help babysit the kids as my parents are away in the Philippines, I'll be live tweeting the last of the World Cup group matches and Tiger Woods' comeback, plus tonight's Catfish. Likewise, follow my primary account @DC408Dxtr for the usual tweets, chats with fans & followers and Team MTV, and alerts to MTV-related material & DCBLOG posts; along with my Instagram, also at @DC408dxtr.

   And follow me on Beamly at Beamly.com search "DC Cueva", where you can chat with cast members and other fans about the show and much more, including when the finale airs out east. And I'll be on the Free Agents page after the finale & reunion air out west to conduct mini-chats with fans and those on "Team No Sleep' to get your point of view.

   Until I talk to you on twitter tonight, & back here at the 'Blog tomorrow for our Free Agents finale preview, for now thanks for reading, stay cool and see you then.

-DC

Bibliography:

- UnderArmour.com, UABiz.com

- Wikipedia: Under Armour