Under Armour is one of the leading competitors in the sports apparel market. It was founded in 1966 by Kevin Plank, the special teams captain of the University of Maryland football team. He set off to make a more breathable athletic shirt after he noticed that his cotton T-shirts were always sweaty following football practices. After graduation, he made a prototype and sent it to all of his teammates from Maryland and his NFL friends. With their feedback, Plank was able to perfect his moisture-wicking T-shirt. With his new product and $40,000, Kevin Plank set up a company in his grandmother’s basement. A year later, he made his first team sale to Georgia Tech and shortly thereafter made contracts with Arizona State University, North Carolina…show more content… They originally marketed only male college and pro athletes, but they have since expanded their target market. They are now targeting people of all ages in the athletic community or people who just want to live a fit lifestyle. Under Armour pricing strategy is a little different from its competitors. Nike and Adidas use the competition based pricing strategy and tend to decrease or increase their prices in order to outbid their opponent. Under Armour, on the other hand, sets their prices based on what their product is worth to the consumer. While consumers may feel that $29.99-$39.99 is expensive for an Under Armour jacket, they are willing to purchase the item because they are expecting high quality. If Under Armour used lower prices, consumers might consider the possibility that similar products are equal in quality to Under Armour products. Altogether, Under Armour uses an interesting and effective pricing…show more content… They rely heavily on sponsorships and Nonpersonal selling. The company has sponsorship agreements with hundreds of celebrity athletes, professional teams and college teams including Tom Brady, Lindsey Vonn, Stephen Curry, Bryce Harper, Muhammad Ali, The University of Maryland, and the United States Women’s Gymnastics Team. Under Armour uses advertising, product placement, sales promotion, direct marketing, and public relations in order to promote their thousands of products. In their advertising campaign, the company uses mainly radio ads, catalogs, television commercials, and internet ads. Under Armour also uses product promotion and in movies such as Twilight, The Dark Knight Rises, Fast and Furious 6, The Blind Side, and Battleship, you can see several characters wearing Under Armour apparel. In addition, the company uses sales promotion in their promotional strategy by giving out coupons, putting up displays in Shopping Malls, participating in sports trade shows, and creating contests. Direct marketing is also a portion of Under Armour’s promotional strategy; the company allows customers to make an account on their website in order to receive emails and texts with promotions, announcements, and news. In order to gain popularity and increase their public relations, Under Armour partnered with Groundswell PR in January of 2015. All of these components create a very successful promotional strategy for Under