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Have you been able to keep that underdog spirit internally as you’ve got bigger?
When we branded the cafeteria at our headquarters, we named it Hungry and Humble – it seemed fitting and we didn’t even really think about it, it was just what we called it. It kind of fed our mantra. It wasn’t fake. At Under Armour there was a core group of people that were actually humble. I believe I was
a core part of the brand DNA. Manufacturers, marketing, internal partners might come in, but
if they’re not really humble and they’re not really hungry, they don’t understand the team. And when you have a strong group of personalities of really determined people, they see through that shit.
I think what is really important to understand is that if those things aren’t inherently present prior to a growth spurt, it won’t last.
As an underdog in the category with much smaller budgets, how did you approach marketing in the early days?
Not being able to procure large marketing assets early was a clear weakness – not being able to do TV commercials and procure spots on national TV.
We didn’t have money, so we went into the locker room. We said fuck that, we said we’re just going to go talk to the people that make the decisions. We’re going to go spend time with the players.
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