- With 2023 comes the opportunity for Under Armour to come back onto the field and begin to play at a higher level; moreover, it's playing with a new quarterback. In December, Under Armour announced Stephanie Linnaritz as its new President, CEO, and board member effective at the end of the month. She comes from the role as President of Marriott International and she is also a member of Home Depot's board.
- While things may change, Under Armour’s current focus is, “broadening our product aperture to address the nonactive moments of an athlete's day, maintaining UA performance and delivered with culturally relevant style, activating with greater precision to reach our target audience and inspirational muse of the 16- to 20-year old far city athlete and advancing our segmentation strategy across the spectrum of good, better and best, with a heightened focus on better and best level product offerings,” as said by Founder, Chairman, and Brand Chief Kevin Plank. As we’ve previously observed, Under Armour is seeking to keep out of the highly competitive technical running and women’s fitness/yoga wear categories.
- As for its Q4 2022 results, Under Armour's U.S. wholesale revenue declined -6% and stores revenue declined by low-single-digit clip. Additionally, gross margins were substantially down due to the athletic industry’s high discounting and clearance intensity due to its excess inventory. Plank noted that, “the inventories are bloated, and it's pretty stagnant out there at this moment in time. It's just going to take time for it to kind of work through.”
- As for 2023, CFO David Bergman said, “We are anticipating the macroeconomic backdrop to stay uneven in calendar 2023 with elevated sector-wide inventories that could result in ongoing promotions lasting longer than previously expected. In this respect, we are employing proactive measures to protect and ensure the health of our brand to mitigate these potential pressures as best as possible as we lay the groundwork for next year's operating plan.”
- Bergman also noted that, “[2023] is going to be a little bit more foundational. If you think about our product life cycle and developing into more of the sports style and building out that aperture a little bit more...But from a [moving the needle] perspective, it's really going to be [2024] and beyond where that big opportunity is."
