By the end of 1996,
Under Armour had
generated $17,000 in
revenue purely by word
of mouth. In 1997, Plank
had $100,000 in orders
to fill and found a
factory in Ohio to make
the shirts. People began
to take notice of the
brand when a front page
photo of USA Today
featured Oakland Raiders
quarterback Jeff George
wearing an Under Armour
mock turtleneck.
Following that front
page, Under Armour’s
first major sale came
when an equipment
manager from Georgia
Tech asked Plank for 350
shirts. The deal with
Georgia Tech opened the
door to a contract with
N.C. State. With
positive reviews from
players, word began to
spread and orders began
to increase.
Under
Armour first made a
profit in 1998 and
received its first big
break in the 1999 Oliver
Stone movie Any Given
Sunday, in which
Willie Beamen, played by
Jamie Foxx, wore an
Under Armour jockstrap.
Plank sent samples of
his products to the
costume designer and
convinced Stone’s
assistant to pay for the
Under Armour goods.
Leveraging the
release of Any Given
Sunday, Plank
purchased an ad in ESPN
the Magazine. The ad
generated close to
$750,000 in sales, and
three years after
starting the company,
Plank finally put
himself on the payroll.
