Under Armour's going for the jugular.
After making an aggressive run at Kevin Durant last summer and outselling adidas last year for the No. 2 spot in U.S. sportswear sales, the Baltimore-based athletic company is far from done. Its strategy to go up against Nike and adidas is centered around technology and wearable devices, not more endorsements.
Just yesterday, it bolstered its digital efforts by acquiring health and fitness platforms MyFitnessPal and Endomondo. It spent close to $600M for both companies.
Bloomberg Television's Stephanie Ruhle recently sat down with Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank to discuss the two recent acquisitions, and brought up adidas' plans to sign up to 500 athletes.
"We're not going to compete with our dumbest competitor," Plank said. "[adidas] will chase the old — they will chase the old model. And we've got good competitors in our space, but we also see some things that are a bit irrational from the way we see. So chasing and bidding someone up is not the goal."
Interestingly enough, after losing the bidding war against Nike for Kevin Durant last year, in which Under Armour reportedly offered Durant up to $285M, Plank explicitly stated that Under Armour wanted to "send a message" that it could compete with any company and that "there's no deal too big."
Welp, looks like that approach has now shifted.
[via Bloomberg]
