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Under Armour vs. Nike
A David and Goliath Story Nike is a multinational publicly traded company that originated in 1950s between partners who were determined in providing a competitive edge for athletes through footwear. Originally the partners started out with a storefront selling manufactured shoes until they decided to design their own in 1971. During the 1972 US track and field trials they found a local athlete to endorse their new shoe design, Steve Prefontaine (Nike Inc, n.d.). Prefontaine was a world renowned runner who would send Nike shoes to other athletes which provided legitimacy within the sports world for the Nike brand. Nike continued to gain momentum through the decades through pairing cutting edge sophisticated sports apparel and peripheral merchandise with league branding. It is now considered to have more than 67.2% of the global footwear market share (Nike INC, 2013). Under Armour founder, Kevin Plank, was a former football player for University of Maryland. Much like the founders of Nike, in 1996 he saw a need in sport apparel that was not currently being addressed (Under Armour, 2013). Performance apparel began with developing the perfect t-shirt for athletes that would be compressing but also would remain drier and lighter than cotton. This idea steam rolled into a publically traded company. Their portfolio has grown from clothing to other peripheral merchandise and their newest launch is to take on the shoe industry hegemon, Nike.
Promotional Strategies Both companies rely heavily on athlete endorsements as part of their promotional strategies. There is a striking difference however between the types of athletes that the companies are targeting. For example Nike has its endorsement deal with Michael Jordan with his own line of basketball footwear that has become almost a cult hit among youth and adults. These “sneaker

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