Under Armour: The Making of an Empire | Kevin Plank's Story
Discover how Kevin Plank founded Under Armour. Learn how a University of Maryland football player's search for a moisture-wicking shirt built a sports apparel empire.
Bestes Zitat aus Under Armour: The Making of an Empire | Kevin Plank's Story
You don't need a huge budget or a fancy office to start solving a problem. If you see a gap or something that isn't working, you have the power to try and fix it yourself.
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The making of the under armour brand
Häufig gestellte Fragen
The story of Under Armour began in 1995 while Kevin Plank was a senior running back at the University of Maryland. Frustrated by heavy, sweat-soaked cotton t-shirts that chafed and added weight during the August heat, Plank became obsessed with finding a better solution. He wanted to create a featherweight, moisture-wicking shirt that stayed light and dry, similar to the compression shorts he wore under his football pants.
Kevin Plank aimed to solve the problem of traditional cotton shirts becoming heavy, wet sponges during intense athletic activity. In the mid-nineties, athletes dealt with shirts that bunched under pads and caused chafing, which was even linked to heat exhaustion among his teammates. Plank sought to develop athletic performance gear that offered a skintight fit while effectively wicking moisture away from the skin to improve comfort and speed.
The University of Maryland serves as the birthplace of the Under Armour empire. It was during his time as a college football player there that Kevin Plank identified a gap in the sports apparel market. After noticing that no sporting goods stores or catalogs offered the specific type of performance gear he needed, he used his experience on the field to spark the innovation that would eventually lead to a global brand.
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