Under Armour has been a trusted authority in the world of athletic performance for decades. The company's unique ability to understand athletes' needs has positioned it as one of the leaders in athletic equipment and apparel making it synonymous with sport performance.
But as athletes—and their needs—evolve, the questions Under Armour began asking itself were: how do we move beyond just selling shirts and shoes to stand for something more? How do we help athletes do better and be better? And how do we innovate our entire business model with those questions in mind?
To help find answers to those questions, Under Armour engaged Boombang to conduct a rigorous ethnographic process, interviewing hundreds of people around the world, including athletes, executives, and leaders in the athletics industry to find out what athletes are looking for, beyond shirts and shoes, and to rethink how they could meet athletes "where they are."
What was born was the revolutionary and ambitious Human Performance System (HPS). HPS is more than just a mission or vision, it's an entirely new brand position that establishes Under Armour as a "Human Performance" company, one that caters to high school, college, professional, and everyday athletes on matters including nutrition, mindset, performance and training regimens, and much more.
“The world doesn’t need another capable apparel and footwear manufacturer," Under Armour founder and former COO, Kevin Plank said. "It needs a dream. It needs hope and innovative brand positioning—that’s where Under Armour expects to play.
“It’s not a gender, it’s not an age— it’s a mindset," Plank said. And with that mindset Under Armour focused on building what it calls a human-performance company that at the end of the day, must solve problems for the consumer. So "everything we do is about solving that consumer’s problem, and making them better.”
To introduce this ambitious new vision, Boombang helped Under Armour create The Human Performance Summit early in 2019. A weekend-long event held in Baltimore (where the company is headquartered) that included180 athletic Influencers, professional athletes, and select media to experience this vision first hand.
The Under Armour Human Performance Summit was a one-of-a-kind event that simultaneously fused education, inspiration, and community while supporting and challenging participants. An event that perfectly embodied Under Armour's new HPS vision for athletes everywhere.