Under Armour in Financial Strife. May Leave Tennis Market and Andy Murray

every7

every7

Hall of Fame
Under Armour is in serious, serious Financial Strife.

Enough trouble to warrant considering a complete organisational re-structuring that would involve leaving some key markets in order to shore up.

Of interest to everyone here at TT is that Tennis is one of the markets they are considering leaving.

Amongst others, Under Armour is currently sponsoring two of the highest profile players in World Tennis:

1. Sloane Stephens - Current U.S. Open champion and the biggest young star in US tennis - The USA being Under Armour's biggest market
2. Andy Murray - 2016 YE No. 1, part of the big 4 and one of the greatest players of the so-called "Golden Era".

Interesting to see how it would affect the sponsorship of those two players if they left tennis. I know Sloane was sponsored by Under Armour before they were actually in the tennis market - they were just sponsoring tennis players as a marketing tool to create visability for other elements of their brand. They may do that again? There is the Sloane precedent there.....And you were never able to buy Andy's shoes retail anyway..... But they may also consider withdrawing from sponsoring tennis player even on cross promotional plans if they no longer produce for the market? I wonder what contingencies are in place for the players........
 
Honestly, their marketing approach (and apparel) on tennis was so poor and sloppy. Heck, I associate under armour more with Kevin Anderson back in 2012 or with Igor Andreev than with Murray. They didn't release murray's shoes even when he was winning stuff last year! And his clothes are plain clothes with almost no design at all that you can buy for $10 on any department store. This is ridiculous, horrible branding positioning.
 
Shaolin said:
Good riddance to them if they go under.

Not a fan of these dirtbags since I found out about their sponsorship of trophy killing.
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Wow, I didn't know about that. For me, something like that is disgusting. I know they do outdoor wear. So they sponsor idiots doing this? I think outdoor wear is one of the other markets they are considering leaving. Ironically enough their hiking shoes are something I really liked the design of :(. These idiot shooting / hunting disgust me. One of the two guys who has caused a lot of drama for the company is actually on leave at the moment.

FedFosterWallace said:
Surprised to hear this. Too big, too fast? Thought that they’d become an absolute juggernaut. Paying the price for skimping on style? Cool logo. Amazing story. But do they even have a paid design department?
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They are definitely a juggernaut. At the moment the situation is that they are holding a lot of cash but the thing is they are also losing a lot of cash. That's where the restructure comes in. That's why I thought it might end up stressful for Murray as he draws a lot of water and may be bringing in very little financial return. The stupid thing for me is that they definitely treat some of their markets like an afterthought. If you look at some of their basketball gears, where their money is, and also their golf range, the design is really good. They definitely have serious, serious design depth but just no regard has been given to tennis thus far.
 
every7 said:
Wow, I didn't know about that. For me, something like that is disgusting. I know they do outdoor wear. So they sponsor idiots doing this? I think outdoor wear is one of the other markets they are considering leaving. Ironically enough their hiking shoes are something I really liked the design of :(. These idiot shooting / hunting disgust me. One of the two guys who has caused a lot of drama for the company is actually on leave at the moment.



They are definitely a juggernaut. At the moment the situation is that they are holding a lot of cash but the thing is they are also losing a lot of cash. That's where the restructure comes in. That's why I thought it might end up stressful for Murray as he draws a lot of water and may be bringing in very little financial return. The stupid thing for me is that they definitely treat some of their markets like an afterthought. If you look at some of their basketball gears, where their money is, and also their golf range, the design is really good. They definitely have serious, serious design depth but just no regard has been given to tennis thus far.
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Yikes. Hopefully he pocketed bucketloads of cash already. Left Adidas for these guys, I think. Wouldn’t want to get shafted, Djokovic-style (Tacchini).
 
Murray's contract won't be renewed, but it will stay in place until the end of the contractual period - December 2018 - so one more year for Murray in their garb.
 
FedFosterWallace said:
Yikes. Hopefully he pocketed bucketloads of cash already. Left Adidas for these guys, I think. Wouldn’t want to get shafted, Djokovic-style (Tacchini).
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It's kind of funky. I don't imagine it's the best bargaining position for Murray. He has potentially lost a bidder the next time he shops for an endorsement contract, but I guess there will still be multiple companies wanting him so he still has leverage?

Bartelby said:
Murray's contract won't be renewed, but it will stay in place until the end of the contractual period - December 2018 - so one more year for Murray in their garb.
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Will be interesting to see what gear he has! Even when Under Armour was all-in with Murray the garb they produced for him was a little drab, except for the excellent shoes - which you couldn't buy (interesting strategy to make the one thing you can't buy the best item :eek: )
 
Easy pickings for Nike in Sloane's case.

It wouldn't surprise me, if Murray gets a deal with Adidas for a fraction of what his contract once was or working with a company like Mizuno.

:cool:
 
I’m not sure who would have purchased anything from Murray’s line. They were so bland and with little to no creativity. Just different color schemes.

I hope Murray didn’t give his input because that would mean his tastes are almost as bland as his personality.
 
Bender said:
Same reason why I initially refused to buy their products as well, not to mention that whole Trump thing--but that's politics, so I'll just leave it at that.
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Good riddance indeed. I will not miss the underwear maker that dreams to be a tennis brand.
 
every7 said:
Under Armour is in serious, serious Financial Strife.
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What exactly do you mean by "serious, serious, financial strife"?

It's all relative.

They still turnover $5.4 billion in revenue each year.

The stock may be overvalued at a P/E of over 50 and sales may not be growing at 25-30% each year but unless you're a Wall St investor, what do you care?
 
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every7 said:
Interesting to see how it would affect the sponsorship of those two players if they left tennis
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am I missing something, what part of this is interesting? People change sponsorships all the time, and it's just the label on a shirt we're talking about here, not something that actually has some meaningful effect on a player.
 
The fickle masses have tired of Stephen Curry's brand of pop-a-shot basketball?

No great loss, the brand has always been garbage in the design department.
 
Shame. What an outfit this was. Only a few will appreciate it.

37BE0ACF00000578-3766820-image-a-36_1472641023702.jpg
 
MasturB said:
I’m not sure who would have purchased anything from Murray’s line. They were so bland and with little to no creativity. Just different color schemes.

I hope Murray didn’t give his input because that would mean his tastes are almost as bland as his personality.
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I have but not like every single line. The ones I have are AO ‘15-‘16, ‘15 clay season minus RG, WTF ‘16, and SW19 ‘17.
 
Yeah, UA kits suck. Nike and Adidas have been pretty average the last few years too, but with a few exceptions and rarely as bland as UA. Quite a bit of boring kits on Tour nowadays, and I hate that players with the same sponsor always wear the same thing except for the players with signature lines.

Only positive stand out this year has been Heroic Haase's Head kit

haase-montreal-2017-friday.jpg
 
Red Rick said:
Yeah, UA kits suck. Nike and Adidas have been pretty average the last few years too, but with a few exceptions and rarely as bland as UA. Quite a bit of boring kits on Tour nowadays, and I hate that players with the same sponsor always wear the same thing except for the players with signature lines.

Only positive stand out this year has been Heroic Haase's Head kit

haase-montreal-2017-friday.jpg
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Federer's Nike gear was pretty good especially at AO 16 and 17
 
Can't say I'm that fussed tbh. All I have of theirs is some turtle neck ColdWeather tight tops that I put on underneath other kit when it's a bit nippy.
 
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Murray always wore such boring outfits always black and white nothing original .
Sloane did have some very cool outfits.
 
K-H said:
I can't take anything you said seriously when you call football, soccer.
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Please forgive me. I first thought of writing football, but assumed there is a majority of Americans in these forums, and I cheated myself.
Being from South America, I promise never ever do that again.
 
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nikdom said:
Murray should sign up with whoever designed this for Hrbaty -


81458489.jpg
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I hope Venus, who regularly pushes the fashion envelope, hasn't seen this shirt yet ^

Who knows, she might decide to wear one like it backwards with a brown bra underneath!

article-1274709329940-09B845CA000005DC-142562_466x429.jpg
 
Shaolin said:
Google UA and “sponsorship of trophy killing”. Its all there.
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Wow. Did not know that. I have one more reason not to buy UA now. (Never did before though).
Funny that I understood trophy as a cup or something like that, and nothing related with hunting. English is not my first language.
 
Sudacafan said:
Wow. Did not know that. I have one more reason not to buy UA now. (Never did before though).
Funny that I understood trophy as a cup or something like that, and nothing related with hunting. English is not my first language.
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Yeah its pretty disgusting. Humans are wiping out animals on this planet at an alarming rate as it is, we don't need corporations encouraging it and sponsoring it more.
 
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