Source: Under Armour Announces The 2017 Tom Brady Asia Tour Powered By Under Armour (NYSE:UAA)
Under Armour is preparing to send Tom Brady to tour Asia in their efforts to ramp up interest in their sleep therapy technology. The problem is the most important sport throughout Asia is basketball. While I thought that Steph Curry should have been promoting the Curry 3 in the US and trying to bounce back from a horrible NBA Finals last year, I understood Under Armour taking Steph on a tour of Asia in particular China.
This Tom Brady tour… I can’t really wrap my head around the benefits. Brady plays in a sport that is not very big in Asia. Futbol is big, but Football, American Football just isn’t recognized as a major event in the country and a tour to promote expensive sleepwear seems like a waste of an event to me… or is it?
According to NPR the sport is growing in interest in China. Tom Brady is the cover boy for Madden this upcoming year. He played and won the biggest Super Bowl comeback ever. He’s married to a supermodel. Brady is a brand and this is less about Football and more about the celebrity being attached to Under Armour’s brand in the most important country in the world for sportswear.
While Brady in China for pajamas feels like a paradox, Under Armour realizes that focusing on a fashion driven American market hasn’t worked very well. Growing internationally, however, is a completely different animal with more opportunities for UA. Maybe it’s not a paradox at all.
