Under Armour Welcomes WNBA Star Rookies Bella Alarie, Kaila Charles and Tyasha Harris to Elite Roster (The Dallas Wings landed Ty Harris (above) at no.7 in the draft, a pass-first point guard that steadily increased her scoring each season. She finished her senior season with 12 points per game to go alongside an impressive 5.7 assists, a team record of 32-1 and a no. 1 ranking. When it was all said and done, Ty graduated the University of South Carolina with 1,000 points and 700 assists, a 118-22 record, a national championship, All-American status, the respect of her peers, and more fans than ever.
Source: Under Armour Welcomes WNBA Players to its Athlete Roster
Under Armour grew too fast. The company recently received a Wells Notice from the Securities Exchange. To be honest, I thought this would happen when Plank sold shares in 2016, but that was a transaction in preparation for their stock split into $UA and $UAA. The Wells Notice is regarding the shifting of sales from later quarters to account for shortfalls the brand was experiencing. This tactic is illegal because, it everyday terms, it accounts to cooking the books. The financial aspects of Under Armour are complex, but they shed light on a company that took on too many developments over the last six years. In New Orleans it’s called being long-eyed. In Memphis elders have a saying, “your eyes are bigger than your stomach.” For Under Armour the company’s growth was so explosive shareholders allowed the brand to function like a company much bigger than it was. What does this have to do with Under Armour signing a roster of rookies in the WNBA?
Under Armour’s growth happened without the trouble other brands experienced over the years. The brand went from undershirts to footwear, but never developed the foundations needed to sustain growth in those areas. When the company began experiencing issues it derived from spreading itself too thin. The brand opened offices in Portland, expanded into the international market without quite figuring out the U.S. They launched grassroots programs to compete with Nike and adidas in basketball and they began to pour money into collegiate athletics to have a presence there. On the surface these appeared to solid investments, but their foray into wearables and acquisition of digital for performance as opposed to investment into digital for e-commerce meant they stopped building bridges to the consumer. The brand rolled out basketball footwear with Brandon Jennings and landed a homerun with Steph Curry. There aren’t any other recognizable athletes on the Under Armour roster.
The Rock isn’t an athlete.
Again, what does this have to do with the WNBA. The W plays better basketball than the NBA. That’s understood. While watching the season opener of Seattle vs New York, there was a screen and slip to the basket that was executed so well I stood up and shouted. BUT, the W doesn’t have the ratings of the NBA, or the brand notoriety for its players. The W is niche. With niche is a chance to build a platform that creates a foundation. WNBA athletes offer a path to building stronger girls through the fitness and conditioning aspects. Adding these women athletes also allows for a focus on a segment that other brands see as temporary customers driven by hype. Take a moment to look at all activations by brands around the woman consumer and what you see is Jordan Brand selling retros and style. Reebok has some fitness aspects, but women are approached via fashion collabs. The majority of adidas’ concepts are rooted in men’s sports, with women thrown in to show a bit of diversity. New Balance is all in Kawhi, Sadio, Bazley and Jaden Smith, although they have CoCo in the fold.
Every brand is fighting a battle against Nike to be seen. Nike controls the visuals of every major sport. Nike isn’t, however, highlighting their women athletes. Brands are facing the most distracted consumer even during a time of quarantine. With so many digital options for entertainment and cord cutting ad placement has to happen with social media outlets. Social media has creating millisecond impressions vs seconds. This means a brand can pay 100K for an ad spot, only to have it DVR fast forwarded on television. They can pay 10K for an ad on a website, only to have an ad blocker remove the image. They can pay 1000 dollars for a social media campaign only to have the consumer flick past it in 1 second.
This is even worse for smaller brands.
Under Armour, in a difficult time for the brand with the share price hovering between 7-10 dollars a share after peaking at 40+ dollars a share a few years ago took the time this year to add to its basketball roster. In this same article they list other female athletes:
The trio is in good company, with Under Armour’s roster including professional stock car racing driver Hailie Deegan, Heptathlon Champion Georgia Ellenwood, World Champion track and field sprinter Natasha Hastings, World Champion taekwondo athlete Jade Jones, performance coach Monica Jones, cycling instructor Emma Lovewell, World Cup champion soccer player Kelley O’Hara, Jamaican steeplechaser Aisha Praught-Leer, standout volleyball star Jordan Thompson, China’s volleyball phenom Zhu Ting, and World Champion skier Lindsey Vonn.
In making this push with women the door is opened to a world of content. This content will provide the brand with opportunities to develop amazing opportunities for every aspect of the company’s footwear and apparel. adidas was setting up a women’s sports channel last year:
adidas Breaks Barriers by Creating a Streaming Platform for Women’s Sports
Of course COVID-19 has disrupted a lot of the movement around this, but Under Armour in listing these athletes and signing these rookies has a similar opportunity. They’ve done incredible work throughout the quarantine with UA At Home videos on YouTube:
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?