Under Armour Fashion Story

Kevin Plank founded Under Armour in 1996. At the time, he was a 23-year-old special teams captain of the University of Maryland football team. Plank got the idea for the Under Armour brand after noticing how much dryer his compression shorts stayed than the shirts he wore while playing football. Plank set out to design a shirt made of synthetic fabric that would wick away moisture and began selling the apparel out of the trunk of his car and his grandmother’s basement. At the end of 1996, Plank made his first large sale, selling apparel to a team for $17,000. Even the name of the company itself is a testament to Kevin Plank’s rags-to-riches success; he only chose the British spelling of the word “Armor” because of the toll-free vanity number for that name was still available.