UA took a took a ton of missteps (I am sure that I am forgetting some):
- They did well in and got the whole moisture wicking apparel going for everyone, but then they were never really able to get anything going with shoes.
- It took them forever to realize that fashion was changing and that customers did not want giant Under Armour logos splashed across their premium priced clothing.
- They were extremely late to the athleisure movement (lululemon like items) when they finally did move in that direction they tried to go with high end fashion instead and the clothes looked like items out of Zoolander with astronomical price tags.
- They continuously overestimated what they would sell leading to large inventories that they then needed to sell at heavy discounts which damaged their brand which had previously been viewed as a premium brand.
- They then took that a step further by making a deal to sell directly with Kohls all but abandoning any premium brand reputation they had.
- They also spent a ton of money buying myfitnesspal, mapmyrun, endomondo and then tried to get into hardware (heart rate monitors, etc). To be fair on this one I do not know how the apps turned out for them from a revenue perspective, but the hardware seems to have been mostly a bust.
I was a big fan of UA and had bought their stock at the IPO as a 23 year old, but man has it been frustrating to watch what they have done for the last 6 or so years.