Entrepreneurship in America

Moguls and tycoons, they are people that have built empires from their businesses and thrived. They are the envy of the common folk, but as per the definition of entrepreneur: they take great risk for the potential of great reward. They are only humans and they have their own faults and weaknesses. Entrepreneurs were not necessarily born great, but achieved greatness through their business savvy and the indomitable entrepreneurial fortitude. They all had their fair share of trials and tribulations that they needed to overcome. Entrepreneurs are a financial inspiration for the rest of us and their methods are simply incalculable regarding wealth and success.
For anyone involved in athletics, you know that perspiration can be the depths of despair. Kevin Plank’s unremarkable career as a college football player hardly ranks him with the greats of the network. But Under Armour, a vivid idea emerging during his days as a walk-on fullback at the University of Maryland, has taken Plank, 31, to the promise land in the sports apparel industry.
Plank set out to capitalize on the perspiration that goes hand-in-hand with sports by creating clothing that wouldn’t become saturated with body sweat. After playing fullback for the Terrapins, Plank knew what just about any other athlete knows… equipment, clothing, and shoes reek after several intense games.
Under Armour was started with a twenty thousand dollar budget, and a lot of groundwork. The company never spent money on print or media advertising, but instead, relied on word of mouth. They passed out samples of their clothing to football players from Georgia Tech. The players fell in love with it almost instantly, and Under Armour received it’s first order… for $15,000.00. Still relying on word of mouth advertising, fledgling this business into the limelight needed a great breakthrough.
Pure word of mouth. UA's marketing misses the mark with anyone here, When you find something that allows you to do the activities you really love without dealing with crappie gear, you tell your friends. In fact the company snuck up on the industry. It's not really revolutionary and I would argue that it's not well branded, but the products work really, really well. Perhaps under the radar a little bit, but certainly benefiting from the explosive growth of organized youth sports, both team and individual, as well as the increasing number of young people who are regularly exercising and working out, you might not think of Under Armour, unless you visited a high school gym lately, because they are everywhere. Now, after creating this new category niche of apparel in the performance space and forcing top behemoth competitors like Nike and Adidas to innovate quickly and bring a similar product link to market, Under Armour has set its sights on the other gender, and my prediction is that they will succeed. Why? For the same reasons they have been wildly successful targeting high school and college aged men who participate in organized sports or regularly work out. Guess what, the girls are doing the same thing, and in some cases, even more so. Plank no longer has one set target market for his product because both male and female desire to exercise in apparel well suited to their fondness and sport.
Furthermore, I do not feel like the concept “targeting the point of attack” fits entirely into Under Armours image. Yes, at one point it was directly specified to a specific target market, but Plank and his colleagues have realized they can no longer can “divide the universe of possible customers” because there is no remaining market segment.
After a weekly lunch visit, Kevin Plank received a call asking if he could make the shirts long-sleeved as well. Kevin, without an advertising budget, nor a well-recognized brand made his first sale to the Atlanta Falcons. Well known connections between the Falcons and Georgia Tech led to Planks success receiving orders of hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise from professional sports teams and apparel shops all over the world. Under Armour therefore established a firm grasp on the industry by signing contracts to provide athletic apparel to all major pro sports, and most college sporting programs as well.
I admire Plank due to the fact that he was able to identify a void that lurked within the sports world, and was able to accomplish his thoughts and ideas through simple self motivation and the desire to work for himself. He was quoted by Claire Koehler in an article stating, “"If you want to do something, you need to practice it and you need to have confidence and the know-how to realize what it takes to start a business.”
Dale Carnegie author of How to Win Friends & Influence People mentioned precise fundamental techniques in handling people amongst business and personal lives. One principle in which Plank seemed to achieve very well was the fact that he was able to arouse an eager want in other people. Initially, Plank felt that his game apparel was not of high quality and further pursued a better fitting material for game day. Once he realized his invention was merely brilliant he became a huge advocator for his design. Plank showed great interest in his product and advised others that they too should be fascinated by the performance in which it held up in game days. Enabling others to see the enchantment behind a specific product allows them to think there is nothing better on the market then that exact development, and Plank did just that!
Although our life stories do not exactly fit the mold of one another, we have some qualities in which I can relate to. Being an athlete myself I have internal motivation that allows me to strive for what I want and the fear of failing has never been an issue. Plank, like myself did not always succeed on the first attempt, but the never ending fight to accomplish what we had started out for is something that one needs to excel amongst intense competition. As a result, Planks achievements are an outcome of his hard work and leadership in bringing Under Armour to the forefront of the apparel industry. Furthermore, I too wear Under Armour sporting apparel from the T-shirts to the socks. Purchasing a product from a former athlete gives me liberation knowing that he can relate to what I experience on the playing field during those intense nail biting games.


Sources:
Crossing the Chasm pg. 89
How to Win Friends and Influence People pg. 50