Under Armour Reveals the Formula for Choosing MVP Athletes

"We have a sports marketing group that vets every athlete, every league, every team, every AAU team, and everything related to the sports we’re involved in.

The meeting of those minds happen, where the head of the category and the head of sports marketing get together and really think about who the perfect person is. The sports marketing will come back with three or four options based on the brief. Then they choose by meeting athletes, spending a whole lot of time with their families, friends, and their coaches to get an understanding if it’s a DNA fit."

"If you think Stephen Curry or think about Cam Newton, or about so many of the athletes that we have—everybody is great.

The question isn’t how good you are. The question is does your DNA match our brand’s? Can we tell the same story? Can we be proud that you’re our microphone? When we spend time with those athletes, like Stephen, what you end up finding is the ones that should be part of our brand bubble to the top.

Not only are they part of our brand, they become part of our family. Stephen was that kind of gamble. When we signed Stephen, he wasn’t best in the world yet. He wasn’t the MVP yet. But he possessed the DNA of this brand—hard work, dedication. He was not going to quit until he reached his goals, which were to be the best. He’s very humble and extra hungry—that’s what we think about when we think about our brands and who we are as a brand.

"We think from a strategic perspective, depending on what category it is. If we’re using basketball as an example, there’s a very specific position and point of view that our category team wants to create around it. It’s this idea of the underdog, the DNA of hard work and dedication, and the ability to understand that anybody can get there. The athlete has to have accessibility. 

We need our own positioning and our own point of view to through the category. The athletes that you then add are delivering for that proposition. We can do a million campaigns in the marketplace for basketball. If we don’t have the face and personality that really mirrors what we’re trying to say, then you lose the stickiness in that category."

"We believe in going with fewer athletes and really going in deep with the ones that are a part of our roster. Storytelling that goes deep—so it’s not about our commercial necessarily. When you’re a part of that really tight roster, you don’t only just feel like you’re a part of a brand. You’re helping make decisions. You are here for the long haul. You’re here for life.

CEO Kevin Plank is kind of like a genius in this space. He’s very involved with everything that we do when it comes to sports marketing."

"We haven’t even spent a lot of time talking about our next crop of athletes. Memphis Depay has something really special. We do believe from a soccer perspective, he is the bet for next. There is a couple of women assets that we’re going to add within the next year that I can’t talk about yet. 

What we aren’t in a rush to do is add a bunch more athletes overnight. We love the roster we got. We think they’re just beginning to become the next iconic athletes in the world. So we’re kind of doubling down on the roster that we have."