as nyse ua founded 1996 ; 20 years ago 1996 founder kevin plank headquarters baltimore maryland u.s. area served worldwide key people kevin plank founder ceo & chairman products clothing footwear sporting equipment accessories revenue us 3 960 000 000 fy 2015 operating income us 408 547 000 fy 2015 net income us 232 573 000 fy 2015 total assets us 2 869 000 000 fy 2015 total equity us 1 668 000 000 fy 2015 number of employees 11 000 oct 2015 website www.underarmour.com footnotes references key people founder ; 1 financials number of employees 2 kevin plank founder of under armour under armour inc. is an american sports clothing and accessories company . the company is a supplier of sportswear and casual apparel . 3 under armour began offering footwear in 2006 . 4 under armour s global headquarters is located in baltimore maryland with additional north american corporate office locations in austin and houston texas ; denver colorado. ; new york new york ; portland oregon ; nashville tennessee ; and toronto canada . under armour s international headquarters is located in panama city panama with latin america offices in s o paulo brazil ; santiago chile ; and mexico city mexico . its european headquarters is in amsterdam s olympic stadium with an additional office in munich germany . 5 the under armour shanghai office is the regional headquarters for greater china . additional asia pacific offices are in guangzhou and hong kong china ; jakarta indonesia ; tokyo japan ; and sydney australia . 6 contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 growth 2 products 2.1 early products 2.2 recent releases 2.3 recalls 2.4 sales 2.5 demography 2.6 community involvement 3 marketing 4 controversies 4.1 ua fitness performance center and mural covering 4.2 hunting video 5 references 6 external links history edit early history edit under armour was founded in 1996 by kevin plank a then 23 year old former special teams captain of the university of maryland football team . plank initially began the business from his grandmother s basement in washington d.c. 7 he spent his time traveling up and down the east coast with nothing but apparel in the trunk of his car . his first team sale came at the end of 1996 with a 17 000 sale . from his grandmother s basement plank moved to baltimore . after a few moves in the city he landed at his current headquarters in tide point . 8 as a fullback at the university of maryland plank got tired of having to change out of the sweat soaked t shirts worn under his jersey ; however he noticed that his compression shorts worn during practice stayed dry . this inspired him to make a t shirt using moisture wicking synthetic fabric . 9 after graduating from the university of maryland plank developed his first prototype of the shirt which he gave to his maryland teammates and friends who had gone on to play in the nfl . plank soon perfected the design creating a new t shirt built from microfibers that wicked moisture and kept athletes cool dry and light . 7 major competing brands including nike adidas and reebok would soon follow in plank s footsteps with their own moisture wicking apparel . 10 plank opted to use the british spelling armour in the company name because the toll free vanity number was still available for that version . 11 people began to take notice of the brand when a front page photo of usa today featured oakland raiders quarterback jeff george wearing an under armour mock turtleneck . following that front page under armour s first major sale came when an equipment manager from georgia tech requested 10 shirts from plank . this deal opened the door to a contract with arizona state university north carolina state and other division i football teams . with positive reviews from players word began to spread and orders began to increase . 9 that same year under armour launched with several new apparel lines including coldgear turfgear allseasongear and streetgear . 9 by the end of 1996 under armour had sold 500 under armour heatgear shirts generating 17 000 for the company . 9 in 1997 plank had 100 000 in orders to fill and found a factory in ohio to make the shirts . growth edit under armour received its first big break in 1999 when warner brothers contacted under armour to outfit two of its feature films oliver stone s any given sunday and the replacements . 7 in any given sunday willie beamen played by jamie foxx wears an under armour jockstrap . leveraging the release of any given sunday plank purchased an ad in espn the magazine . the ad generated close to 750 000 in sales and nine years after starting the company plank finally put himself on the payroll . citation needed part of the under armour headquarters located in locust point maryland the following year under armour became the outfitter of the new xfl football league gaining even more attention during the league s debut on national television . 9 in 2003 consumer sector focused private equity firm rosewood capital invested 12 million into the company . 12 the same year the company launched its first television commercial which centered on their motto protect this house . 7 the company ipod on the nasdaq in november 2005 raising 153m of capital . 13 in late 2007 under armour opened its first full line full price retail location at the westfield annapolis mall in annapolis maryland . 14 it has also opened several specialty stores and factory outlet locations in canada china and 39 states including the opening of its first brand house in baltimore in 2013 and second brand house in tyson s corner virginia . 15 in 2009 baseball hall of famer cal ripken jr. formed an alliance under which the company would have significant presence at several venues and events under the auspices of ripken baseball including providing uniforms for the minor league aberdeen ironbirds and youth teams participating in the cal ripken world series . 16 the company is reported to be the major commercial sponsor for the reality tv show duck dynasty and has garnered attention for taking a stand supporting show patriarch phil robertson . 17 under armour provided the suits worn by speedskaters in the 2014 winter olympics . the us speedskaters were losing while wearing the new mach 39 speedsuits but when they reverted to the previous model suits the skaters continued to lose . although there did not appear to be a design flaw in the suit that caused the poor results the news of the suits caused under armour stock to drop 2.38 % . 18 the company offering a reported us 250 000 000 over 10 years also bid hard over nike to sign nba mvp kevin durant to an endorsement deal . however nike ultimately re signed durant after agreeing to structure a contract offering us 300 000 000 . 19 on january 21 2014 it was announced that the university of notre dame and under armour had come to terms on providing uniforms and athletic equipment for the university . this 10 year deal was the largest of its kind in the history of college athletics and became effective july 1 2014 . as of 2014 under armour has operated revenue and operating profit more than 30 % accelerating from their 2013 pace . its share price has soared 62.5 % this year . 19 after its november 2013 acquisition of digital app maker mapmyfitness for us 150 000 000 in february 2015 under armour announced it had purchased the calorie and nutrition counting app maker myfitnesspal for 475m as well as the fitness app maker endomondo for us 85 000 000 . 20 21 on january 6 2016 under armour announced a strategic partnership with ibm to use ibm watson s cognitive computing technology to provide meaningful data from its iot kit and ua record app . 22 on march 3 2016 the company became the official match ball partner of the north american soccer league starting with their 2016 season . 23 24 may 26 2016 under armour and ucla announced their plans for a 15 year 280 million contract making this the largest show and apparel sponsorship in ncaa history . 25 in july 2016 under armour leased the 53 000 square feet space formerly occupied by fao schwarz on new york s fifth avenue ; it projected that its store would open in 2018 . 26 27 fao schwartz had been paying 20 million in rent . 27 products edit under armour shoes early products edit an under armour hat the expansion of under armour s product lines such as turfgear allseasongear and streetgear put under armour at the forefront of the emerging performance apparel industry . 7 in 2003 under armour launched their women s performance gear product line . 7 recent releases edit under armour announced an addition to their coldgear product line called infrared that was released in 2013 . 28 this line claims to disseminate heat using ceramic powder and re circulate heat around the wearer s body . this was purportedly designed so that the wearer s heat signature will not be picked up . under armour also had released a product with scent control technology in 2012 titled under armour scent control . this line claims to be designed so that the wearer s scent can not be detected . 29 under armour outlet store in henry county georgia under armour is inventing a new type of shirt called coldblack which is designed to reflect heat and keep athletes cool in the sun . 30 under armour has come out with new styles for football uniforms . in october 2012 under armour created the wounded warrior project for football uniforms . 31 the university of hawaii and boston college wore the star studded cleats and the american striped jerseys . they were revealed when boston college played maryland on october 27 2012 also when hawaii played unlv on november 24 2012 . 31 the company produces the speedform shoe in a chinese bra factory . it has no insole and little stitching . shoes are under armour s fastest growing product line growing 31 % from 2011 to 239 million in sales in 2012 . 32 recalls edit on april 29 2009 the united states consumer products safety commission announced a voluntary recall of all under armour brand athletic cups . the cups might break when hit posing a risk of serious injury . they were sold from january 2006 through march 2009 . 33 on november 3 2011 the united states consumer products safety commission announced a voluntary recall of all under armour defender chin straps . the straps pose a laceration hazard when a player contacts the metal snap . they were sold from january 2008 through september 2011 . 34 sales edit in 2014 sales of apparel footwear and accessories represented 74.3 % 14 % and 9.9 % of net revenues respectively . revenue has grown by steadily by 30 % from 2010 2014 . 35 as of january 28 2016 the fourth quarter net revenues for 2015 increased 31 % to 1.17 billion while the full year net revenues increased 28 % to 3.96 billion . based on these numbers under armour has updated its 2016 net revenues outlook to approximately 4.95 billion 25 % . 36 demography edit of under armour s current consumer base 53 % of under armour s customers are male and 47 % of customers are female . over 36 % of customers have graduated from college the majority of under armour s customers fall within the age range of 25 34 with the smallest customer base consisting of those aged 65 . 49.9 %