Under Armour, a 13 year old company that  has traditionally focused it's offerings on team sports and performance technical fabrics and fabrications is focusing nearly 13% of its revenue this year on marketing its entry into running footwear.  And as it turns out, a good deal of this effort will be focused on the female runner.

Now, going up against the likes of Nike and Adidas is risky in any environment, but doubly so in a declining economy. However, in a recent article in Brand Week, Steve Battista, SVP of Brand at Under Armour noted that the company saw sales increases in it's women's lines of more than 27% last year.  Accoding to Battista, the company has always served more female than male athletes, so don't be surprised when you see an expansion of the company's women's performance running shoe line  through 2009.

I haven't been in the market for a new pair of shoes for several months and I haven't personally experienced these shoes, but evidently Under Armour's line offers a proprietary cartilage cushioning technology and a trademarked "footsleeve" that ensures a secure fit  in neutral, stability and trail constructions.  According to Battista (and the company's website), the Under Armour line can provide runners a competitive advantage - though the exact nature of this advantage is not really clear.  Mmm - worth checking out at least.

As for the recession, UA's SVP cites research indicating that running actually becomes more popular in tough economic times. Whether that translates into sales increases is anyone's bet .  I know that I'll be trying to get a few extra miles out of my shoes come spring.  But the line is price competitive to Nike's upper tier ($90-$100+), so it's not totally out of the question.

According to the Under Armour website the running footwear line can currently be pre-ordered and will deliver by the end of this month.  If anybody tries these shoes, let us know what you think.  I'm really curious.

One question for Steve Battista though.  If the women's markets are so important to Under Armour, what's that hunky guy doing on the Home page of your site?  Oh wait - yeah, I get it. ;-) 

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Tags: under armour, running shoes, new shoes, stability shoes, motion control, pronation, training shoes, cushioning shoes, performance