Can the new president create a new Under Armour?

Under the Baltimore-based American sports brand Under Armour, this week announced that it has found a new president for the company, which means that company founder Kevin Plank will give way to the position of president who has served for more than a decade.

It is understood that Kevin Plank opened a store selling cotton t-Shirts worn by athletes in his grandmother's garage 20 years ago. After 20 years, the store has become a global sportswear company with annual sales of 5 billion US dollars. In 2014, Under Armour surpassed Adidas to become the second largest sports sales brand in the United States. As a dark horse in the sports industry, Under Armour is even called the next Nike by the industry.

But the biggest difference between it and Nike is that 70% of Under Armour's income comes from sportswear, not sports shoes, and Nike is the opposite.

Let's take a look at Patrik Frisk, the new president of Under Armour, who will be on July 10. Prior to joining Under Armour, Frisk was the Canadian shoemaker and CEO of the Aldo Group, responsible for the company's long-term growth plans. It seems that Frisk's understanding of shoes and his valuable shoe sales experience may be one of the reasons why Kevin Plank blamed him for the task, and it is also the most needed when the Under Armour is in the development bottleneck. After all, Under Armour wants to compete with a comprehensive sports brand like Nike and Adidas. Sports shoes are an indispensable part, and this is exactly the shortcoming.

In addition to Aldo, Frisk has more than 30 years of experience in the sportswear brand and retail industry. Prior to joining Aldo, he worked for the famous American clothing company VF Corporation for 10 years and was responsible for the brands such as The North Face, Timberland, JanSport, Lucy and SmartWool.

There are probably a lot of people who like the Under Armour brand because of the NBA player Curry, and the basketball shoes named by it have indeed made Under Armour a fire in the category of sports shoes. In 2015, Curry basketball shoes sales reached $160 million, a figure that surpassed all other NBA players and directly contributed to the 57% annual growth of Under Armour footwear.

In fact, in addition to Curry, Under Armour also signed a number of top players in the world: Tom Brady, Misty Copeland, Jordan Speith and flying fish Michael Phelps.

Despite having an all-star luxury lineup, the company's share price in recent years has fallen far below its own value. In the fourth quarter of last year, Under Armour's sales increased by 11.7%, and the company's record of 26 consecutive quarters of revenue growth of at least 20% was broken for the first time. On the day the earnings report was released, the stock price jumped wildly and fell 20%. Worse, in the first quarter of this year, Under Armour's revenue growth has fallen below double digits, and the total profit is a loss of 2.27 million US dollars, creating the first loss record since the company's listing in 2005. Over the past year, Under Armour's share price has fallen more than 50%, from the highest of $40 to the current level of around $20.

Some people attributed the performance problem to the sluggish sales of Curry shoes. At the end of last year, Dick Johnson, the owner of Foot Locker, the largest sports goods retailer in the United States, stood out and said that the Curry 3 generations were not as good as the previous two generations. To know that Under Armour is extremely dependent on basketball shoes in the North American market, the downturn in Curry's 3rd generation makes the Under Armour, which is not dominant in sports shoes, even more difficult. Insiders pointed out that Curry's 3rd generation "price rises and design is professional", in other words, is not fashionable enough. On the Internet, one of Curry's 3 generations of gray color matching was called "grandmother's shoes" by netizens, and various spoof pictures appeared.

It has also been said that the types of Under Armour sneakers are so few that only Curry shoes can be used. After all, Under Armour's technical advantage in sports shoes is not comparable to the fabric technology of its housekeeping skills. After 10 years of shoes, everyone is still willing to call Under Armour a company that sells quick-drying clothes. This can explain a little bit of problems.

Under Armour's sales channels in North America also encountered a number of problems, mainly due to the bankruptcy of the major retail partner Sports Authority, which is the main reason for Under Armour's 1.1% decline in sales in North America. Plank also acknowledges that the current Under Armour is still over-reliant on store sales, and the company is in urgent need of accelerated transformation. He has recognized the need for a personalized e-commerce platform.

In addition, the company's largest distributor in North America, Dick's Sporting Goods, also came to grab the business, set up its own independent brand, and launched sports tights - this is the iconic product that makes Under Armour boom, the key is to sell more than Under Armour is cheap.

Faced with various problems, at the shareholders' meeting in May this year, Plank said that in the future, the company will focus on the areas with potential growth in the future, including women's sports, in addition to maximizing the use of existing retail channels and developing online sales. Apparel, sneakers, and international business currently occupy a relatively small area in the company's business.

Earlier this year, Under Armour promoted its sports-repair pajamas collection in Asia. These pajamas are said to be made of materials that promote sleep and help muscle repair, so prices range from $80 to $120, compared to conventional products.

In the future, Frisk will report directly to Plank, and Plank will continue to serve as the company's chairman and CEO. The focus will be on the company's marketing strategy and long-term growth plan. According to the company's website, Plank has been the president of Under Armour since 2010. Therefore, we may be able to look forward to how much the new president who sold shoes has a good ability to create a new UA?