Kevin Plank Story: From Problem, Failure, Broke and then Billionaire
The founder and the chairman of the well-known sportswear company Under Armour, Kevin Plank is a prominent American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. His business which manufactures sportswear, footwear and accessories and based in Baltimore, Maryland had sales of almost 5.7 billion USD in 2021, making it the second-largest sportswear supplier in the whole United States. As of October 2021, the net worth of Kevin Audette Plank is estimated to be US$1.8 billion.
Early Days
Plank was born on August 13, 1972, and raised in Kensington, Maryland, where his mother served as mayor and father as a property developer. Playing football with the Maplewood Maple Leafs at a young age, he had a liking for athletics. After completing his high school education at St. John’s College, he attended the University of Maryland, where he earned a BA and an MA in business administration.
Plank was a born entrepreneur. Even before launching Under Armour, he began many enterprises when he was a student at the university. He started many small businesses and used the proceedings to fund his flagship sportswear project at the later stage. Cupid’s valentine was one of them which earned him about $17,000 on Valentine’s Day.
Personal Life
Plank has been married to Desiree Guerzon since 2003 and resides in Lutherville, Maryland with their two kids. Forbes estimated his net worth at US$1.8 billion as of February 2021. He was a Georgetown resident of Washington, DC before moving to Lutherville. When he listed his last residence for sale, it was the most expensive property available in Washington, DC.
Personal Stats-
Birthday: 13th August, 1992, (49 years)
Education: B.A, and MBA
Source of Wealth: Under Armour
Nationality: American
Residence: Lutherville-Timonium, Maryland
Marital Status: Married
Children: 2
How it started
Surprisingly, the concept of Under Armour arose from a need of Plank. He was the sweatiest guy on the soccer field, and was looking for an alternative that would keep him comfortable and dry while playing- something that his sweat-soaked cotton shirts couldn’t do. As a result, he began his search for a matching material that would drain sweat from the body and make the player feel lighter and faster. Plank, a former captain of the University of Maryland football team who was then 23 years old, noticed that compression shorts kept dry during practise. He made the decision to use the same material to make clothing that wicks away moisture.
He tested at least 7 prototypes before he found the perfect match. He explained to his former teammates how his T-shirt would help and improve their performance greatly on the soccer field and asked them to try his formula. Also, he mailed the T-shirts to his friends and requested them to pass on those T-shirts to other players in the locker room. In this way the popularity of Plank’s T-shirts started increasing.
He started the company in the basement of his grandmother’s house in Washington, D.C. He sold his product for the first time to Georgia Tech for roughly $17,000. Soon after, 20 NFL clubs also bought from him. He sold $100,000 worth of merchandise at the end of his second year. The product then gained popularity and well-known teams and shops started carrying them. Planks’ own savings and credit card debt provided Under Armour with its initial capital. Plank had made around $20,000 selling t-shirts at concerts while in college. He ultimately racked up five credit card balances totalling roughly $40,000 in debt. He was bankrupt by 1997, the year the firm was founded.
The Breakthrough
Year 1999 brought the breakthrough for Plank and Under Armour when he generated a revenue of $1 million after giving a $25,000 ad in ESPN magazine from direct sales and teams began to buy the apparel The business generated $1 billion in sales in 2010. Under Armour was the first US initial public offering to double on its first day of trading in five years. It went public in November 2005 and trades on NASDAQ. All this resulted in the growth of a multi-million-dollar company with over 5,900 workers and revenues of close to $2BB.
Extension
In an effort to create a worldwide digital health platform to compete with Google, Apple, and Fitbit, the business paid $475 million in February 2015 to purchase two significant fitness applications, Endomondo and MyFitnessPall. Tim Coppens was hired by Under Armour the following year to serve as executive creative director of a brand-new non-performance men’s and women’s clothing collection that will debut in 2016.
He serves on a number of boards in the US, including those for the National Football Foundation, the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, the Board of Directors of the Baltimore City Fire Foundation, and the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Also, Plank promised the University of Maryland $25 million in November 2014 to be utilised for the anticipated sporting and academic facility.
Final Words
“Your business needs to be controlled by you, so you must put your hands around its throat. Nothing else will work,” Kevin Plank told the students at the University of Maryland in a speech about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Despite the initial failure, Plank was able to pull off a billion-dollar company for which he gives credit to his network- family, friends and colleagues. This story surely infuses a new life in those entrepreneurs who feel stuck after seeing initial failures in their ventures.
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