Source: https://about.underarmour.com/news/2020/09/under-armour-creates-ready-for-anything
I had a long conversation with Sneaker Box Podcast Founder Rashone Bryant about Under Armour. He had strong feelings about a post where I stated that this is a different Under Armour than the previous years. He explained that Under Armour has almost always “got it right” but they’ve never found the right combination of design and this lack of figuring it out would eventually kill the company. I explained that it’s not design because the look of the gear is based on personal opinion. Our dialogue took a turn and switched to Nike, but it led me to look closely at my opinion about UA.
I always utilize conversations as catalysts for posts on this site and it sometimes takes me a minute to return to the topic, I eventually get back to the core of the discussion.
In the post/link above, I stated that UA’s Focused Performer Strategy was a viable and smart position to move towards. Today, I’m looking at UA and stating in clear words, a similar position I have on the Embiid 1, and the Breakthru (basketball models), this is a hard road the brand is choosing in going all in on sport and performance. It’s a difficult path; especially with the disruptions and dangers of COVID-19, but it is the right path.
Below is a video trailer for the YouTube series, “Ready for Anything”.
Committed to supporting athletes through it all—COVID-19 being no exception—Paul Winsper and Mike Watts of Under Armour’s Human Performance team created Ready for Anything, UA’s new, six-week training program for high school athletes. Drawing from decades of experience in athletic and strength conditioning, the UA pair created a program that combines the principles they use when working with elites like Stephen Curry, Natasha Hastings, Anthony Joshua and Teddy Riner, in a digital form, accessible to high school athletes around the world.
In the post below, I explained that UA had turned the corner in content creation:
The Difficult Road to Visibility: Under Armour Adds WNBA Rookie Endorsements
It seems the brand has begun to understand that they need to lay a foundation and build upon that as opposed to hopping through strategies to capture segments. Hopping requires leaving the ground for extended moments. Under Armour needs to walk, jog, then run. Running keeps the feet in contact with the ground longer allowing for the brand to shift and cut when required. I like this investment into women athletes, it’s a smart play. Under Armour only has sport as a window. They should invest heavily in a house with windows all around and the amazing thing that happens when the house is spacious and well ventilated is the house becomes cooler. Get it?
The quote above is in regard to UA’s development of video content on YouTube for women athletes. This new series shows a renewed commitment to helping develop better athletes. The problem is the program launched on September 10th, and on September 29th the series has cumulative engagement of about 10,000 views on the 6 video series. YouTube is the right medium, but it’s a difficult growth process. Moreover, engagement, when there are a billion other videos waiting to be played, is just as challenging as keeping a person on Instagram from flicking and scrolling for longer than 2 seconds.
My title is a reference to what I think is the worst quote in the history of film and writing. In the movie “Field of Dreams” a dad builds a baseball field in the middle of nowhere because ghosts tell him to do so. “If you build it, they will come,” is whispered throughout the film. This quote has been in speeches and books and for a long time, even I thought this was true.
It’s not.
Under Armour is building a fantastic strategy, but people like Rashone Bryant don’t believe in it and rightfully so. Under Armour has a history of questionable decision making and this is what the public is pulling from when they hear Under Armour. It doesn’t help that what they are building has so little engagement at a time when coaches and athletes are all fighting for the right to play through COVID-19 and an upcoming flu season that will undoubtedly disrupt non-professional sports.
I may like the work taking place, but I don’t like the implementation. I won’t list why I don’t like the implementation because people tend to use what I say as evidence of what they’ve known all along and most people don’t know why I don’t like the way things are rolled out or implemented. I’m a former head coach, college recruiter/scout who owned two shoe companies. My mind works in a different way. Under Armour just built an excellent program for high school athletes, but the athletes aren’t showing up. It’s not because the platform is not good. This training video series is fantastic, but one of the most immediate issues is that if you don’t run your own YouTube channel you don’t understand the problems with the platform and this can hinder the success and reach of the content created there. One major issue with the videos is the introduction is 1 minute and 7 seconds. The average watch time on YouTube varies, but Uhuru Network lists that time at 50-60% of the total video time. The average video is around 7 minutes. The intro eats into a large percentage of watch time. The videos don’t have any cards or end screens. These things are minor in the grand scheme of it all.
As UA contracts their workforce via layoffs they need to look deeply at their grassroots marketing as it relates to the selling of product and connecting to the consumer. This program is excellent, but if you build it, you then have to work like a MF to get people to it.
