Brands are all about trust. That trust is built in drops and lost in buckets.
Kevin Plank
I'm a big advocate of the power of positive thinking, particularly for small businesses.
Brand is not a product, that's for sure; it's not one item. It's an idea, it's a theory, it's a meaning, it's how you carry yourself. It's aspirational, it's inspirational.
Success doesn't happen quickly. It happens from doing the same thing over and over, becoming great at it, and delivering great value to consumers.
The sports apparel industry was dominated by the big shoe companies. But there was a void in apparel and I decided to fill it.
Leadership is... to make sure you never limit the idea or opportunity.
In my industry, a shirt and a shoe are still made the exact same way they were 80 years ago.
My first real business was bootlegging T-shirts - I was just a dumb kid. You go to a concert and pay $25 for a cotton T-shirt that says 'Rolling Stones,' 'Lollapalooza,' or whatever. On the outside they're 10 or 15 bucks. We were the guys selling them for 10 or 15 bucks.
I've always been a hustler.
I was always... naive enough to not know what I could not accomplish.
I believe people change. I think that they can learn from mistakes.
Blowing people's minds is one of my favorite things to do.
Any self-respecting entrepreneur has borrowed money from their mother at some point.
I didn't like the way a wet cotton T-shirt felt under my equipment. There had to be something better.
When you're winning, you're creating a dynasty.
I want people to believe in themselves. I want intellectual curiosity. I want someone who realizes that they don't know it all and that they're dying to learn.
I love Monopoly. You know why? When I play Monopoly with you, I'm going to buy everything from Baltic Avenue to Marvin Gardens. If you get to my side of the board, you'd better roll boxcars, or you're going to pay rent.
You're convincing these big, tough football players to wear what was essentially women's lingerie. There was a little bit of a Jedi mind trick that needed to take place. The product really spoke for itself once guys felt it and touched it.
We need to stop making wide-body seats on airplanes, stop accommodating that, because it's not healthy.
I don't like my competition. At all.
Data is the new oil.
We want to shine a light on this great city of Baltimore. I can tell you, I love this city.
At Under Armour, we've created a very strong culture, a culture that first and foremost is built on people.
People of Baltimore, if you want to simply learn a new trade, if you want to join the Foundry, it's a membership. It's like joining a gym, and you can go and meet other entrepreneurs like you. You can talk about how to get financing. You can take a class on how to sew. You can take a class and say, 'I want to be an electrician.'
Your attitude is contagious.
Everyone must have a voice, and everyone deserves clarity.
My love of horses began in College Park, with me and 10 friends on two couches and a keg of beer in the back of a truck, heading to Pimlico at 6 A.M. to mark our place in the middle of the Preakness infield, where we never saw a horse run.
Nothing ever surprises me about the market.
Brands are about editing.
Great companies have to manage the cadence of what they do.
You need to put your hands around the throat of your business, and you need to run it. There's no other way.
When you see most companies get big, they want to shout about all they've done. But the consumer wants to know: 'What have you done for me lately?'
When I tell you it's an Under Armour T-shirt, your question should be, 'What's it do?'
If Facebook owns social, if LinkedIn owns business, who owns your health?
I wanted to make the world's greatest football undershirt. But I realized that no team sport had equipment for apparel. Apparel was an afterthought.
I run five miles three times a week; I log everything. I look up routes when I travel.
Wipe the tears away, stand up, be a man, run your business, find a way.
I've got a pretty addictive personality.
I don't have the option of getting fat. I like to try as much of our products as I can. Our sample size is size large, and I can't fit into our samples unless I'm at that size.
We are not going to do ourselves any favors by buying into what's printed in newspapers.
In getting Under Armour started, like any business, I think, number one, you need a great idea.
At some point in your life, you'll find yourself in a similar position: Surrounded by people who are smarter, faster, who have more experience and more money - and you'll just have to find a way. And you'll have to do it with passion.
Go find out if you can make your product. Once you make it, stop projecting what's going to happen and go find out whether your product can sell. Find out whether someone is willing to take hard-earned cash out of their pocket and exchange it for your product.
I'm usually a pretty intense person. Give me an inch, and I'm going to go.
I'm a sporting goods guy.
Employees get things done. Partners get things done done. But owners get things done done done.
I want Baltimore to be the coolest city in the world.
I was a general business major, which meant that in any business school and particularly at Smith School, which is a very good school, you do a lot of team projects. Well I was the guy who gave the presentations for the team projects.
It's a fire, it's a passion to get out and to create and to innovate. And that I've always enjoyed and I've always been very proud of is that the people I've done business with, the people around me have always made money.
I realized early on that I was pretty good at organizing. A lot of it was about control. While my friends were out getting hammered at concerts, I was making money. I am a control freak.
