🧨 From Cleats to Camo: How Under Armour Lost Its Cool and Found the Culture War

Under Armour Was Cool and Then It Wasn’t

Once the darling of high school locker rooms and ESPN highlight reels, Under Armour was the brand that made sweat look sexy. It outfitted football prodigies, basketball phenoms, and Olympic legends. It was the gear of grit, the uniform of ambition. And then, almost overnight, it became the uniform of something else entirely.

In 2016, Kevin Plank, the Maryland-born mogul behind Under Armour, accepted an invitation to join Donald Trump’s business advisory council. The move was bold. It was patriotic. It was... catastrophic.

Within days, the backlash began. Stephen Curry, the brand’s golden boy, publicly rebuked Plank’s praise of Trump, quipping, “If you remove the ‘et’ from asset…”. Misty Copeland and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson followed suit, distancing themselves from the brand they once helped elevate. The hashtag #BoycottUnderArmour trended. And in urban markets, Under Armour’s cool factor evaporated faster than a sweat-wicking tee

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📉 The Fallout

• - Sales in North America plummeted 12% in Q3 2017.

• - The Curry 3 basketball shoe flopped, despite Curry’s MVP status.

• - Stock tumbled nearly 90% from its 2015 peak.

🧢 The Pivot

Under Armour didn’t just lose endorsements, it lost its identity. In the wake of the Trump-era backlash, the brand leaned hard into Red State aesthetics:

• - Camouflage hunting gear

• - Tactical boots

• - Patriotic “Freedom” collections

It was no longer the brand of Steph Curry’s crossover—it was the brand of the Ridge Reaper.

🎯 The Cultural Shift

Under Armour’s pivot wasn’t just strategic—it was ideological. As Nike embraced Colin Kaepernick and Adidas courted streetwear royalty, Under Armour doubled down on rural masculinity and military grit. It became the brand of the “tacticool” dad, not the sneakerhead son.

And while Plank eventually stepped down as CEO, the damage was done. The brand that once threatened Nike’s dominance was now struggling to stay relevant in the athleisure boom.

🧵 The Maryland Connection

This isn’t just a branding story—it’s a Maryland story. Plank built Under Armour in Baltimore. He was our hometown hero. But his political gamble turned a national brand into a cultural Rorschach test. And in doing so, he may have sacrificed the very cool that made Under Armour iconic.