Under Armour “needs to spend significantly more on marketing,” states MediaPost

Tariffs, rising costs, soft consumer demand: Baltimore-based Under Armour is fighting all of it. But according to analysts, the brand’s deeper problem is one no trade policy can fix: Consumers are confused about who Under Armour is for, states MediaPost.

The company posted another quarter of sales declines which, states MediaPost, is “a sizable loss and a weak forecast, and now says the best it can hope for next year is a little stability. Revenue slipped 1% to $1.2 billion, dragged down by a 7% drop in North American sales to $641 million, though international sales gained 10%. Apparel was flat at $778 million, footwear flat at $282 million, and accessories grew 2% to $94 million. The company narrowed its loss to $43 million from $80.1 million in the year-ago period — but analysts had hoped for more.”

MediaPost states that while Under Armour navigates the same tariff minefield as the rest of the apparel sector, “it carries an extra burden: It needs to spend significantly more on marketing just to remind consumers it exists. Rivals like On, Hoka and Adidas are managing sales gains while facing the same headwinds, which makes Under Armour’s struggles harder to explain away as purely situational.”

The brand problem may be the hardest thing to fix, states MediaPost. Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, notes that even though this is Under Armour’s best quarterly performance in two years, the company continues to lose market share. “In our data for customer affinity, Under Armour has only shown very modest signs of improvement in the U.S. and remains significantly below many other brands,” he writes. “Many consumers remain confused.”

IMAGE: Under Armour’s website