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Under Armour hasn’t been protected against the macroeconomic forces hitting retailers.
In its latest quarterly financial results reported today, the Baltimore-based company reported a 10% drop in revenue for the quarter ending June 30. (Under Armour’s fiscal year begins April 1, so this was its Q1 2025 report.)
Aside from Latin American revenue, which rose 16%, just about every geographical market and segment was down. Apparel shed 8%, down to $758 million, while footwear fell 15% to $310 million. The brand reported a net loss of $305 million for the quarter.
But the results are better than analysts expected and enough for the company to upwardly revise its expected adjusted earnings for the year. Investors subsequently pounced on UA stock, lifting its price by 18% Thursday morning.
The company has a sufficient stockpile of moisture-wicking apparel to avoid sweating the short-term loss in revenue. In fact, according to Under Armour founder Kevin Plank, who returned to the CEO role in March, the company is “ahead of expectations” in its effort to “reconstitute a premium positioning for the Under Armour brand.”
That positioning, as explained by Plank in Thursday’s earnings call, is built around his “sports house” vision. That means making Under Armour akin to a European fashion house such as Gucci—but instead of handbags and luxury goods, selling sneakers and athletic wear. The positioning will ultimately translate to fewer promotions and discounts, as well as fewer products, according to the call.
Plank is also thinking about how to tell a better story from a performance standpoint for athletes, from Olympian Steph Curry to high schoolers on the field. “We want to make sure Under Armour isn’t just selling a logo on a T-shirt.”
In Plank’s eyes, Under Armour is one of only five brands that belong in the “sports house” category. But his peers have been reporting mixed results of late. In June, Nike reported a 2% decline in quarterly revenue, whereas Adidas rebounded from a 2023 annual loss to report $205.5 million in net profit for Q2 2024.
As Under Armour looks to Adidas’s success, this week it announced it acquired Unless Collective, an eco-friendly apparel firm run by longtime Adidas exec Eric Liedtke, and made Liedtke its EVP of brand strategy.
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