Under Armour is not trying to disguise its efforts to shake Nike. The under dog opened the doors to its UA Lighthouse in South Baltimore’s City Garage, a new 35,000-square-foot center for manufacturing and design innovation. The June 28 opening strategically fell on the morning of Nike’s anticipated fiscal fourth quarter 2016 earnings in a planned marketing move to pull some of the spotlight away from the swoosh on a generally quiet news week leading into the Fourth of July weekend.
And UA wasn’t pulling small jabs. The Lighthouse promises to be a powerful pawn in the race to innovate.
SGB got an insider peak into the Lighthouse, which will be the hub for UA designers, developers and other technology/research partners.
With the mission to make great product for athletes around the world, UA plans for its Lighthouse creations to be shared with global teammates and partner factories. Employees and partners will have access to cutting-edge technology including:
- 3D Design and Body Scanning: Allows for the design of custom footwear and apparel while reducing waste in the development process and providing better service for Under Armour’s roster of athletes.
- 3D Printing and Rapid Prototyping: Where ideas are turned into tangible products, this hard good model shop has a state-of-the art 5-axis simultaneous machining center as well as a suite of fabrication tools.
- Apparel and Footwear Prototyping: Where designers and developers come to ideate, test, and refine products and processes with concepts brought to life in new ways beyond the traditional cut-and-make methods.
- Apparel and Footwear Pilot Lines: Proving ground for process and evaluating how concepts will perform in a full-scale production environment.
Founder and CEO Kevin Plank said, “As Under Armour celebrates 20 years in business, we are committed, more than ever, to driving global innovation and continuing to expand our Global Headquarters in our great hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, USA…The UA Lighthouse will serve as a beacon to make product better, faster, and more efficiently, ultimately solving real problems for athletes and making them better around the world.”
Under Armour partnered with organizations including The University of Maryland’s Engineering Department, The Dow Chemical Company, Huntsman, Lectra, Bemis, Epson, Desma, and 3dMD, among others to team up on advancing the drive toward technology. (A big, ‘watch your back’ to Nike. The partnerships are also a move to advance UA’s new local-for-local vision, where product is to be designed for and made in local markets around the world.
So, depending on whether Nike reflects strong earnings later this afternoon, Under Armour may pull ahead in the headlines. We’ll be on the lookout at UA’s second quarter 2016 earnings to see if the swoosh comes back swinging.
Photos courtesy Under Armour
