Footwear Insight

8 • Footwear Insight ~ May/June 2024 footwearinsight.com By Bob McGee O nce a darling of Wall Street i n v e s t o r s a n d p e r f o r - mance-hungry consumers looking for an alternative to mainstay performance brands, Under Armour founder, CEO and controlling shareholder Kevin Plank is now facing the largest challenge of his career at the Baltimore company. Plank took the reins back as company CEO on April 1, replacing Stephanie Linnartz, the former Marriott International president, who had spent a year in the role. Can Plank turn around the brand's fortunes, particularly in its home North American market, after it undergoes yet another massive restructuring and at- tempts to recapture magic with young, performance-seeking consumers? The company will have to do so with fewer staffers, 25 percent less SKUs for sale, and some skeptical investors, retailers and consumers. But Plank vows to make things happen again for the brand over the next 18 months despite the company's recent churn of senior executives and the promotional environment for athletic wear in the U.S. The exec said UA will put the focus back on performance and on its men's business, a move away from the focus on growing the women's audience that Linnartz had stressed. "We've really made a commitment to driving and really getting back to the fun- damentals of what makes Under Armour, Under Armour," Plank recently told an- alysts. "Our base layer compression, as we call it here, heat gear and cold gear." Under Armour is currently forecasting a 15 to 17 percent decline in its North American business for the 12 months ending in March 2025. In its most recent fiscal year, the region reported a 5 percent decline in operating profit to $677.9 mil- lion and an 8.3 percent sales contraction to $3.5 billion. n Can Under Armour Bounce Back? BUSINESS Kevin Plank, CEO and founder of Under Armour. THE FOOTWEAR EYE

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