Blog Post 6: Under Armour

In the tennis world, a few companies dominate the tennis apparel industry. Nike, Adidas, Head, and Wilson are some of the largest companies. Every company has professional players on the pro tour who they sponsor. For example, Nike sponsors Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, and Genie Bouchard among others. It is a great way for these companies to advertise their brand through people purchasing the gear used by their favorite pro player. Nike and Adidas have the largest market share compared to the rest of the companies. This is the case in the sports industry as a whole as well. Except for one exception.

Under Armour is starting to make a name for itself in the sports world. Whether it’s football, baseball, or even just training in general, Under Armour makes sports equipment for everything and they’re growing fast. At the beginning of 2015, Andy Murray signed a contract with Under Armour for a 4-year sponsorship deal. This included all of his apparel which was huge for Under Armour since they were trying to break into the international sports market as a whole. And of top of that, they were trying to break into the tennis market because of their small presence in the tennis world. Under Armour is also sponsoring Sloane Stevens who plays tennis in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).

While breaking into a market in the 21^st century is getting easier due to the easy access to new products, Under Armour is still in the introduction phase in the tennis market. So far, Andy Murray is wearing tennis specific clothing and tennis shoes. But the products available to the general public aren’t the same. The “tennis shorts” aren’t tennis specific which makes them less desirable to the die-hard tennis players. In fact, they are just everyday shorts produced by Under Armour. Once Under Armour breaks away from their everyday athletic apparel and design some tennis specific clothing, I think that their brand will take off in the tennis market, just like it has for every other athletic discipline.

One product that they have been developing is their tennis shoes. So far, Under Armour has produced a few prototypes for Andy Murray that he’s been wearing in some pretty big competitions. In June and July of this past summer, Andy Murray debuted a new pair of Under Armour tennis shoes when he stepped on court at Wimbledon. Under Armour had been working with Andy Murray for a couple of months in order to create a pair of tennis shoes that he could wear at arguably the most historic Grand Slam in tennis. It was a bold move since they still hadn’t developed a pair of tennis shoes for hard court.

When the US Open rolled around, Under Armour still hadn’t been able to make the proper tennis shoe for Andy Murray so he wore his typical Adidas Barricade 8’s. This was a huge deal for Under Armour and Adidas. Andy Murray’s previous sponsor was Adidas which caused a lot of hype around the shoes. Adidas tweeted a picture of Andy Murray wearing Adidas tennis shoes with the caption “You can choose armour, or you can choose a weapon. #ImpactTheGame”. This was a huge move for Adidas and it was bad news for Under Armour. With no way to respond but to make it the last time Andy Murray wore Adidas shoes, Under Armour got busy finalizing the designs for Andy Murray’s hard court tennis shoes. They finished these in time for the ATP World Tour Finals, a big year-end event in which the top 8 tennis players in the world square off and compete for the final tournament of the tennis season. This was a big deal for Andy Murray and Under Armour since they were finally able to find a shoe that worked for him. I have a feeling that will be the last time that Andy Murray wears Adidas shoes which is a big win for Under Armour. Now, Under Armour just has to mass produce these shoes and make them available to the public. This will really help them out since people consider Under Armour’s gear more durable and higher quality than that of its competitors. This will help them out tremendously as they try to expand their market share in the tennis apparel market.