There are so many things that I could have discussed, but I chose Under Armour because the brand has had to claw its way back to a respectable share price in the stock market. They’ve also endured an abundance of analysis telling them that they are wrong for going all in on performance. Why do I think they made the biggest mistake of 2020? Because the problem has carried over to 2021 and I don’t even think they are aware of the issues.
Last year the brand dropped the UA HOVR Fat Tire. The shoe sold through immediately.
- When it dropped it didn’t include the zip compression shroud.
That was the first mistake.
2. The next part of the problem was there wasn’t a restock at all the entire year, so I couldn’t pick up a pair.
3. What’s worse is that the site doesn’t even allow me to search and find a page where I can sign up for a notification of a restock.
4. There hasn’t been any marketing or discussion on the product and
5. in the original sketches the opportunity for UA to possibly make a shift to a UAS styled line with the Fat Tire existed. That wasn’t done either.
6. To make things worse, I looked for the tire via Bing and found it in search only to see that it was marked down on their site, but
7. the shoe can’t be discovered through the link for outdoor wear on UA.com and it can’t be discovered in search on the site.
8. The worst part? Nike has introduced the Jordan 1 Switch with a zip off collar… which means that when Under Armour finally decides to make a limited release, more involved launch, they will be compared to Nike, when they made the concept before Nike.
My hope is that UA will revisit the Fat Tire and consider the design team as an in-house performance fashion arm. There is considerable opportunity for getting sneaker culture excited without the addition of an outside fashion person.
