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Under Armour - Retribution Is A Dish Best Served Cold


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1 hour ago, garfield said:

(Hey!  My 11,000th post!)

(Jeff Ream sees and thinks: slacker.)

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Heh. Apparently The Rock put on the pressure.

 

Edited by N.E. Brigand
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On 2/7/2017 at 2:30 PM, garfield said:

Several years ago Under Armour refused a request by DCI to co-brand some athletic wear, stating that drum corps is not an image that fits their market focus.

I can imagine the jockstraps in their Board room now:  "Stupid band kids.  Do we really want to dilute our image with a bunch of band kids?"

I've refused to buy their gear ever since, and have even rejected gifts of their stuff based on their attitude towards drum corps.  I'm more than a little surprised that so many drum corps MM's and fans wear the UA logo.  To me it's crap if it's too good for band kids.

Nothing has made me happier than to see their stock price get slammed due to lower earnings and the realization that the "Athleisure" market they helped create is not immune to the competition of the market.

To he11 with Under Armour, the stock, and the bus they rode in on, IMO.  This is the prettiest picture:

uaa_chart_012717.jpg

From a high of about $53 in October, 2015 to just over $20 today...  Maybe if they include some band kids in their marketing their sales would would look better, eh?

 

(disclaimer: this is not an endorsement, recommendation, or offer to buy or sell UAA stock.  The opinion expressed here is mine alone and does not represent the opinion of DCP, DCI, UAA, or my company.  Past performance is not indicative of future results.  Wash behind your ears and wear clean underwear, so long as it's not UA.)

 

Drum Corps is such small potato's niche activity it isn't worth it to a major apparel brand to enter into a partnership with DCI. DCI would have to settle for a smaller company.

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55 minutes ago, FlamMan said:

Drum Corps is such small potato's niche activity it isn't worth it to a major apparel brand to enter into a partnership with DCI. DCI would have to settle for a smaller company.

Face value this is true.  But (as Yamaha and many others know) they are the superstars of the marching band world.  And THAT market is not small potatoes at all.  It's an interesting situation.

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2 hours ago, corpsband said:

Face value this is true.  But (as Yamaha and many others know) they are the superstars of the marching band world.  And THAT market is not small potatoes at all.  It's an interesting situation.

This is my entire argument in a nutshell.

But the arrogance of UA's reasoning was more insulting than the business decision, IMO.

 

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On 2/10/2017 at 4:00 PM, N.E. Brigand said:

(Jeff Ream sees and thinks: slacker.)

Christ i havent cared about a post count since 2007

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On 2/15/2017 at 9:01 PM, garfield said:

This is my entire argument in a nutshell.

But the arrogance of UA's reasoning was more insulting than the business decision, IMO.

 

not always. with the number of adults living past the age of 62, reverse mortgages are growing more popular by the day....yet I work the the largest lender in the country and we got out of the game 5 1/2 years ago solely because you can't escrow taxes and insurance on those loans.

 

others scoff at us for this, and call us short sighted? Are we?

 

Well when you consider the number of tax liens being put on the homes of reverse mortgage holders because they cant pay their taxes and they max out their equity in their mortgage, no, not really. We arent foreclosing older people who cant pay their taxes.

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9 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

not always. with the number of adults living past the age of 62, reverse mortgages are growing more popular by the day....yet I work the the largest lender in the country and we got out of the game 5 1/2 years ago solely because you can't escrow taxes and insurance on those loans.

 

others scoff at us for this, and call us short sighted? Are we?

 

Well when you consider the number of tax liens being put on the homes of reverse mortgage holders because they cant pay their taxes and they max out their equity in their mortgage, no, not really. We arent foreclosing older people who cant pay their taxes.

Not the same argument, Jeff.  In your case, your company made the decision to limit losses.  

In the UA case, they proactively chose to limit their revenue because some bunch of jocks in a board room dismissed a market that mostly generated disdain in its leaders.  

I would not fault your company for limiting losses, even if the losses are contrived or never show up.  I absolutely fault UA for being so short-sighted for, again, under-appreciating the market opportunity of halftime, let alone the DCI brand name in that market space.  You could only make a corollary case if you believe that band kids represent a loss-leader for UA.

Again, the stock year ago - at $40 per share; today it's under $20.  And in Sept, '15 it was a $52 stock! It's awfully hard to say that management has made a series of great business decisions in the last twelve months.

Is the band market going to save a failing company with a stupid management team?  Not likely.  But I do know that DrumLineBattle, SoundSport, and DCI Open and World-Class corps have traveled globally, and a TON of kids do indoor every year.  How would their earnings reports have differed had they had a million band kids wearing "band-Armor" (or some such)?  Would they have a better market share and attract more residual attention?  (They wouldn't have lost MY business, but I'm a geek so they don't care.)  Of course, revenue doesn't mean profit and the stock trades on profit.  But their profits don't run on their free sponsorship of major athletes, either.  Every band kid in the country, and their parents, wearing rock-star corps-branded apparel scales up to a HUGE market at which they thumbed their noses.  Now, other manufacturers nip away at UA's market share and force them to lower prices to compete and maintain share, perpetuating their downward spiral until their product is completely commoditized and their arrogance crushes the desire for anyone prominent to be connected to the company.  Maybe they'd not have had such vulnerabilities had they paid a little more attention to the market for music kids.

Just my two cents to go along with my personal joy at seeing the stock get hammered.

 

Edited by garfield
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Hate to break it to you Garfield. UA isn't a failing company and they will bounce back. I recall Addidas struggling in the US market not that long ago, and they seem to be doing well again. 56 colleges and universities have switched to UA...and that number is growing. In my earlier post that you chose to ignore, I stated that UA outfitted my college marching band. Clearly some of your statements are misguided. Also your obsession to see an American company and brand that employs thousands to fold because your feelings were hurt is rather odd

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Living in the Baltimore area... seeing what Mr. Plank and his company have done to help the region,  and what they have planned for the future here, "arrogance" is not  a term I would use to describe how they do business or how they make business decisions.  

He's as good a "corporate citizen" as you will ever find. Whatever was said in that meeting regarding any decision having to do with the marching music world, I'm pretty sure it wasn't "arrogant."

Edited by Fran Haring
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