Under Armour attributes its explosive growth to these 3 athletes
This incredible growth has CEO Kevin Plank excited, and in a conference call about the earnings on Thursday, he thanked three huge contributors who don't even work for the company.
The biggest growth categories for Under Armour recently have been in three areas: golf-related items, women's products and basketball shoes and apparel. Not incidently, these correlate with the subjects of Plank's praise: Jordan Spieth, Misty Copeland and Stephen Curry.
"Over the past year, three Under Armour athletes have transcended their sports and become known by just their first names, Stephen, Misty and Jordan. These three athletes have combined to teach us one incredibly valuable lesson that we need to think bigger," said Land.
One of Under Armour's recent initiatives has been in basketball apparel and especially shoes. Land said that Curry is driving this section of the business faster than expected.
"This brand heat is driving huge amounts of incremental traffic to our ecommerce platform across the globe with our basketball traffic up more than 300% year-over-year," said Land.
The basketball shoe business is dominated by Nike, with brands affiliated with Michael Jordan and LeBron James drawing massive revenues. But Under Armour is capitalizing on Curry's success in the NBA Finals with the Curry One shoe.
"The Curry One Shoe was a great success with our ecommerce site as we continue to gain share in key footwear categories with our wholesale partners," said Plank. Revenue for the footwear business increased 40% compared to the same quarter last year, to $154 million.
Misty Copeland, who was recently named the first black woman to be named the principal ballerina at prestigious American Ballet Theatre, drove an increase in sales of woman's apparel.
"Our women's business continues to grow strongly in key areas like caprice, shorts, sports bra and running footwear," said Land. Exact numbers were not provided.
The final athlete, Spieth, won his first major championship at the Masters and came close to winning his second last week at the Open Championship in Scotland. Land put it this way in the call:
Just last year, Under Armour passed Adidas as the second-largest sportswear company in the world and the company has continued to grow globally. In the long run, it seems to be trying to leverage its three huge superstars into taking on the behemoth in the industry, Nike.