Under Armour pushes the boundaries of performance and community

Under Armour CEO Stephanie Linnartz was joined by women’s basketball star Diamond Miller at NRF 2024: Retail’s Big Show to discuss how Under Armour takes care of customers and communities and harnesses innovation to push performance boundaries. Miller, who was rated a five-star recruit in high school, was named an All-American while she was with the University of Maryland Terrapins. She was selected in the 2023 WNBA draft by the Minnesota Lynx.

Linnartz came to the world of sports a year ago, after 25 years in the hospitality industry. “The thing that’s most excited me about being Under Armour CEO is the chance to work with incredible young athletes like Diamond Miller,” she said, along with other well-known athletes like Stephan Curry, who leads UA’s Athlete Advisory Council.

“What’s so exciting about the sports industry — and Under Armour — is that sports really can be a unifying presence and impact on the world,” she said. “It can bring people together and can change communities and change people’s lives.”

Do something different

Miller began the conversation by asking Linnartz what advice she has for young girls trying to find their confidence and footing.

Acknowledging her role as the first woman to lead a sports brand, Linnartz said she’s honored to be able to work with so many female retail CEOs and advocate on behalf of female athletes.

“The world is changing and that’s good to see,” she said. “The advice I always give to young women is, take a risk, take that job that no one else wants to take, or that challenge. Don’t be afraid to do something different. I left the industry I’d grown up in for 25 years to take on this role in an entirely new industry. And I’m so happy I did it because I’m learning so much.”

Miller agreed on the importance of taking chances and having confidence in oneself. “There are going to be a lot of situations you’re going to deal with, and how do you handle it?” she said. “One of my most important things to handle those situations is understanding that I have confidence in myself and my abilities to do what I need to do to be successful.”

The whole person

Under Linnartz’s leadership, Under Armour is looking for opportunities to reach more women — especially younger consumers, like those in Miller’s generation.

“It starts, for Under Armour, with focusing on meeting the needs of the athlete as a whole person,” Linnartz said. “What do you need? You’re our target consumer — 16- to 24-year-old team sport athletes. That’s our muse.”

These consumers care about innovation, performance, style and sustainability, she said. “So a lot of the work we’re doing at Under Armour is focused on those things. We need to do a better job of telling our innovation story. We have hundreds of patents on things that make athletes’ lives better.”

And more stylish, Linnartz pointed out. “We can never forget that everybody loves style. Without beauty, there is no performance. So, we’re really upping our game.” The company recently hired a new chief product officer, Yassine Saidi, who previously worked with Adidas and Puma, and John Varvatos as its chief design officer.

A good citizen

The innovation extends to Under Armour’s sustainability and equity initiatives. “We are laser-focused on being a good citizen of this earth,” Linnartz said. The company recently launched a new fiber called neolast to replace spandex; neolast matches spandex’s capabilities in terms of performance, she said, but is produced using recyclable materials; the goal is to eliminate 75% of UA’s spandex use by 2030.

“The idea is, how can we create apparel and footwear that’s recyclable and do our part with a whole circularity agenda,” she said.

On the community-building front, in 2017 Under Armour and the City of Baltimore launched Project Rampart, an initiative designed to improve the student athlete experience and academic outcomes at public high schools in the city through the power of sport. The initiative includes renovating schools’ athletic facilities and providing every team athlete with best-in-class uniforms.

Six years later, the graduation rate among the general high school student body was still hovering at 63%. Of the students that played four years of sports, however, the graduation rate was nearly 99%.

"One in three girls drop out of sports in their late teenage years,” Linnartz said. “Only one in 10 boys drop out of sports. So that means young boys have millions more opportunities every year to participate in athletics.”

Many girls might not want to be professional athletes, she said. But “whatever you decide to do with your life, sports can give you confidence even if you’re not going to be a pro.”

“The one thing sports gave me was the opportunity to go to college,” Miller said. “That is something that is very important — education and knowledge. Once you have knowledge, nobody can take that away from you.”