@UABasketball today introduces the M-Tag, a basketball sneaker that shines on and off the court. Read more to find out which @UnderArmour athletes will each have their own player exclusive M-Tag. In addition, each PE will come with pin designs in collaboration with @PINTRILL, an accessory brand that creates pins inspired by pop culture icons and sayings. https://undrarmr.co/2KRAlqa
Source: UA Newsroom
After years of my constant jabs and complaining about Under Armour’s lack of utilizing their athletes, the brand appears to be doubling down on the one access point they have into footwear, basketball. When Curry went down around Christmas last season, I stated clearly that the brand’s lack of development of another basketball athlete hurt them during the holiday season. This has been the case for years. When Under Armour basketball is mentioned, the only name that comes to mind is Curry and that’s a problem. In building a division diversification is critical as athletes rise and fall and fan sentiment wanes accordingly.
The launch of the new M-Tag line (which is not given an appropriate explanation and that’s an issue) comes at a critical juncture for basketball footwear. With the abundance of options in casual footwear, kids aren’t really rocking basketball shoes. This is a serious issue for Under Armour as the brand doesn’t have a casual catalog. It is also an opportunity for focusing on the niche and conquering a category. The M-Tag arrives at a time when Nike is delivering a new Kyrie, and multiple colors of PG, LeBron and KD colorways. They are also up against a born again adidas Basketball and Puma divisions.
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How does Under Armour’s M-Tag stand up? From a performance standpoint I can’t say. From an aesthetics standpoint I can say. From a release standpoint via the marketing I can also say, but I can’t get into this without giving you a chance to see the kicks which are arriving in Player Exclusive colorways to account for the lack of signature players on the roster.
LOOKS
Under Armour has finally figured out how to minimize the logo on their footwear in an aesthetically pleasing way. These shoes are just as dope as any of the footwear that has been released by any basketball brand. While I would never play in a knit basketball shoe, the industry realizes that if it has any chance of recovering fans they must cater to the trend. Here is the problem with that for Under Armour, if everyone is on trend, then everyone blends. For UA blending actually hides a solid trio of kicks from the market. Consider if these models used some traditional structural elements: suede toebox and actual tongue where the PE logo could be branded allowing for tee shirts and hoodies. This would immediately move UA away from the socklike fit of the LeBron, KD, Kobe, Puma, and N3XT L3V3L from adidas.
QUALITY of RELEASE
Under Armour like many brands, fails to understand how and where people are shopping. This is extremly critical for a brand like UA. While everyone spends an inordinate amount of time on social, in shopping search remains king. Branding is handled on social, but search occurs in a few locations and right now UA is not utilizing those aspects to drive interest in the brand. There is no YouTube video for the M-Tag drop. The copy on the article referenced in this post is terrible. That isn’t the bad part. The page fails to link to the purchase information. The narrative around the shoes should be rolled out for each player as opposed to lumped into one post. I could go on, but UA would need to pay me (and that’s not a joke).
OVERALL
The shoes look great, but could definitely be better. Under Armour tends to rely on one outsole design to carry every model in their basketball shoes category. The design of these shoes looks a lot like the Drive and Curry because the designers are trying to create a streamline, lightweight basketball model with cues that feel familiar. UA doesn’t need familiar, it needs fire. While I do think if you sit these on a shelf next to an adidas or Nike, the target category would look at them and possibly cop, but as it stands this line up is dropping at a UA x Champs Armoury shop. The biggest problem for UA is that within a three hour radius we don’t have one of those locations. Without much to drive a buyer to the shoe via search UA is once again cutting its own rope… but at least athletes other than Curry are given the mic.
