Kevin Plank and His Under Armour Business
Kevin Plank is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Under Amour. Under Armour is one of the most successful sportswear companies in the region. He strictly follows his philosophy, which has seen the success of this business. He was born on August 13, 1972, in Baltimore, Maryland. Plank’s parents were successful individuals in the region. His father was a prominent land developer in Maryland while his mother is a former Kensington mayor. He is the youngest of five brothers. As a child, Kevin grew up playing football for Maplewood Sports Associations. He went to George town Preparatory school but later shifted to St. John’s College High School, where he graduated in 1990. Kevin Plank went to the University of Maryland and graduated in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
Kevin Plank and the Under Amour business
Every time Kevin Plank played football, he was frustrated by his sweat-soaked cotton t-shirt. He, therefore, designed a t-shirt that wicked the sweat from the body. That is how he began under Amour’s business. Kevin Plank started to operate the business from Washington D.C., his grandmother’s town. Kevin would send some t-shirts to some of his friends who was playing professional football. He asked them to pass on the t-shirts to the other players, and that is how he sold over 500 under Armour Heat Gear t-shirts with a revenue of $17,000 in 1996. Kevin Plank decided to advertise his company in ESPN Magazine at $25,000, which improved the number of sales, reaching revenue of $1 billion. By November 2005, the company went public as the first U.S.- based initial company as of NASDAQ.
The CEO of this company went ahead and purchased two big fitness apps. My fitness and Endomondo at $475 million with the hopes of building a global digital health platform. The company went ahead and signed a Tim Coppen for non-performance men and womenswear that they launched in 2016. Currently, the company employs more than 11,000 people and has an estimated net worth of $ 1.9 billion. Plank is a successful businessman with several other businesses and donations to nonprofits in Baltimore.