Baltimore-based Under Armour signs $17.5M deal to protect entire

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Sep 3, 2008 by Liz Farmer

The University of Maryland announced Tuesday it is officially an Under Armour school.

The Baltimore-based sports apparel company, founded by alum Kevin Plank, will be the official outfitter for all 27 varsity sports teams in a five-year, $17.5 million deal.

"It's all in the family now," Plank said at a news conference held on campus at the Gossett Team House in which the new men's and women's basketball and football uniforms were unveiled.

"Never let it rest until your good is better and your better is best -- and that's what we think we've done," the university's director of athletics, Debbie Yow, said quoting from a basketball mantra. "We think we have the best in apparel providers and it's just going to be an amazing relationship."

The partnership gives Under Armour the uniform, apparel and footwear rights to Maryland's teams, including men's and women's basketball and soccer. The company, which previously outfitted the football, men's soccer and men's lacrosse teams, will pay the university $1.5 million in cash annually and provide $2 million in apparel each year.

"This is a very, very big deal," said Plank, Under Armour's president and CEO, adding that the outfitter deal puts Maryland in an "elite" family of schools. Last year, Adidas and the University of Michigan announced a similar partnership reportedly worth $60 million over eight years.

"But today is not as much about Under Armour as it is about the University of Maryland," Plank said. "We have one brand at the University of Maryland that carries across all 27 sports that reflects the one team that we are."

The deal, which includes two, one-year options, will take effect on Jan. 1.

Plank, who developed the concept for Under Armour while playing for the school's football team, has maintained his company's connection to the university throughout the years. Many of Under Armour's 1,400 employees are graduates of the school and Plank serves on Maryland's board of trustees.

In the 2004 season, the school's football squad became the first team to be outfitted by the company. Maryland's two other highest- profile programs, the men's and women's basketball teams, have been outfitted by Nike.

Plank added he intends to put the full weight of the "Under Armour marketing machine" behind the deal, giving the university and its athletes more national exposure.

"I.e., we must protect this house," Plank said, referring to his company's marketing mantra.

Since its inception in 1996, Under Armour has grown from a company that produced moisture-wicking T-shirts for football players to a global brand name in many sports including lacrosse, golf, soccer, softball and baseball. This spring it introduced a new line of cross-training shoes and it plans to put a new line of running shoes on the market in early 2009.

Plank said after the announcement that, while his company does not have the diversity of products to outfit all 27 teams from head- to-toe, all the uniforms will be designed by Under Armour and he hopes to have products for every sport by the end of the contract period. In the meantime, athletes will test the company's products but can wear other gear -- like basketball shoes -- from outside outfitters.

But Under Armour has the right to change that when it's ready.

"We don't want to force our shoes or our gear on anyone, so it's also got to be the athletes' idea," he said. "But it's all about patience -- we have a long time to do it."