Under Armour Inc. announced a strategic partnership with HTC Tuesday that calls for the maker of smart phones to design a series of products that work seamlessly with UA Record, a web site and app collection it launched at CES that will expand the Under Armour Connected Fitness ecosystem.
“HTC is renowned for its fearless commitment to innovation, coupled with an attention to detail and premium design that makes it the ideal partner for Under Armour and UA Record,” said Robin Thurston, SVP, Connected Fitness, Under Armour. “By applying these shared values to our collaboration, we will allow athletes everywhere to take their performance to the next level in a more connected and intuitive way than ever before.”
Under Armour's team of designers, sports scientists and athletes are working closely with HTC's Connected Products business unit, as well as its design and engineering teams, to ensure the shared efforts will meet the highest expectations of athletes everywhere.
“Mobile innovation has completely changed people's lives in recent years, making us more connected to our world than ever before,” said HTC CEO Peter Chou. “Now we want to help people be better connected with themselves, helping them to achieve their goals and gain deeper insight into their own lives to become the best they can be.”
UA said its MapMyFitness applications, which included MapMyRun and MapMyRide, arleady have more than 31 million members. UA Record will provide this connected health and fitness community with an extended way to track personal health data with fitness activity, participate in community challenges, and easily share content to sync with your fitness goals on a 24/7 basis.
“It's an incredibly exciting new direction for us,” said Chou. “We want our products to meet the needs of every individual whether you're training for a personal best in your next half marathon, or a professional athlete honing your performance with a full training staff behind you. So far, no company has been able to deliver this level of support and we feel we have a tremendous opportunity to disrupt and accelerate the development of this market.”
