Why Are Executives Fleeing Under Armour?

The performance decline is still not improving, but executives are fleeing from the troubled company.

According to the world clothing shoes and hats net, November 21st, supervisor.

Peter Rapp, senior vice president of business (Peter Ruppe) recently left suddenly.

Subsequently, Under Armour issued a statement confirming the news and said that his position would be temporarily replaced by Ryan Drew Ryan Drew, vice president of the global basketball department.

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The spokesman declined to disclose the specific reasons for Peter Rapp's departure, but almost everyone thought it was the result of unsalable sales of sports shoes.

It is worth noting that three weeks ago, Ben Pruess, President of Under Armour sports fashion, just decided to resign.

Since last October, at least 5 leading executives have left their jobs, including co-founder, chief marketing officer, female business leader, youth business leader and sports fashion president.

Today, Peter Rapp has become the latest executive officer to leave.

After Peter Rapp's departure news, the company's share price fell 5.88% to 11.36 dollars, refreshing its record low since 2005, and its current market value is about 5 billion dollars.

In the case of sustained downturn in performance, the company will not be excluded from losing more executive talent.

Peter Rapp

Peter Rapp, director of footwear business, entered Under Armour in 1 months in 2015 and has served for more than two years.

Previously, he served for Nike for 25 years as a global footwear general manager and experienced in sports shoes industry.

After switching to Under Armour, as a highlight of his senior vice presidency, in September this year, he led the company's footwear team to set up a shoe creative design center in Nike headquarters backyard Portland, USA.

Including designers from competitors, hundreds of shoe experts are stationed in the office, hoping to boost the brand's footwear performance.

In fact, Peter Rapp faces many challenges in his new business.

In 2015, Under Armour launched the first signature basketball shoes for its star Stephen Currie. With the extreme heat of the warrior star, the shelves of the American brand were swept away. It can be said that the sports shoes product line has just begun to taste the sweetness of the star effect.

In the past year, however, the footwear business in the United States has stagnated as the heat of the Curie has fallen and the footwear products of Under Armour lack innovative design and clarity.

As for the latest product, Curry 4, which is highly anticipated, it has been postponed to the third party retailers because of the pportation problem, and the sales situation is not optimistic.

From the earnings data, as of the second quarter of June 30th, sales of its footwear business dropped by 2% compared to the same period last year, and the group's net loss was expanded to $12 million 300 thousand.

In the third quarter, footwear sales rose by only 2% to $285 million, compared with 42% in the same period last year.

After the two quarter of the fiscal year, the US brand has repeatedly lowered its annual sales forecast.

In September this year, the latest survey report of Wells Fargo showed that only 27% of young consumers expressed interest in Under Armour shoes when they could choose more. The curry product, which was once very popular, received only 19% support.

On the contrary, as many as 70% of consumers choose Adidas and 81% choose Nike.

A consensus in sports consumption is that sports shoes are the core business and performance driver of sports brands.

Footwear sales account for 65% of Nike's total revenue, and Adidas's proportion is more than 50%. This is the key factor for the stability of the two giants in the world.

However, the Under Armour, which started with sports tights, has only about 20% of the sales of footwear business, and there is always a lack of truly influential sports shoes.

Against this background, the opening of Under Armour Portland shoe innovation and design center is regarded as the determination of the US upstart brand to reverse the decline.

At that time, Peter Rapp even set goals publicly. "Footwear is the key driving force for our long-term growth and success in the future.

The goal of Portland's headquarters is to design shoes and make footwear sales account for half of the company's total revenue.

In order to focus on footwear and other key areas, Under Armour announced its restructuring plan in October of this year.

In addition to layoff 2%, the brand decided to "downsizing" the business and throw away some of the less efficient ones, and focused on the potential overseas market.

However, it is regrettable that two months ago, Peter Rapp, who vowed to lead the team to raise the proportion of footwear sales to 50%, has suddenly left the company. This move reveals the frustration of the company's performance.

For Under Armour, compared to the current predicament, it is even more frightening to lose confidence in counterattack and do not rule out more executives leaving in the near future.

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