At first glance, there are not a lot of similarities between the hospitality industry and the activewear space. But there are actually more synergies than it appears — just ask Stephanie Linnartz.
The new chief executive officer of Under Armour spent more than 25 years at Marriott International before joining the Baltimore-based company in February. And in her new role, she’s taking her learnings from Marriott and applying them to the sports brand.
“It was all about connecting with consumers and building brand love and loyalty at Marriott International,” she said in conversation with Footwear News executive editor Katie Abel at WWD x FN x Beauty Inc Women in Power in New York. “It’s the same thing at Under Armour. It’s all about consumer connections. It’s all about making products that people love and adore and can’t live without.”
During her time at Marriott, Linnartz said she watched it grow from a “relatively small company to the world’s largest hotel company,” after it acquired Starwood Hotels and Resorts in 2016. “It was a wonderful journey and I loved every single minute,” she said.
But it was during the pandemic that she discovered it was time for a change.
“One of the industries that was most impacted was travel. And the company that I loved so much went away overnight. Our business was down by 90 percent, we laid off 80 percent of the employees — it was really devastating for the lives of so many. And at the exact same time, my dear friend/boss/mentor for eight years, the CEO of Marriott International, was dying of pancreatic cancer.”
Arne Sorenson eventually died in early 2021 and his passing was “life-changing” for Linnartz. “I realized life is short. And I’ve always wanted to lead a company.” So when she was approached with the Under Armour opportunity, she decided to take the plunge.
Although she initially felt nervous about making this major move, she said: “I always ask myself and others this question: do you like winning more than you fear losing? So I thought, let’s go for it.”
Interestingly, she went to high school across the street from Kevin Plank’s grandmother’s house, which is famously where he founded the company, in her basement. “So I grew up seeing the brand start from that to what it is today. I’ve always had a deep love and affinity for Under Armour.”
In addition, she’s now in a role where not a lot of women find themselves — CEO of a major sports brand — and she hopes she will have an impact. “There aren’t a lot of women leading hotel brands either,” she said, “so I think there is an opportunity in a lot of industries, but certainly in this one for sure.”
She said she’s “passionate” about supporting female athletes and also growing Under Armour’s women’s business. “I just think there’s so much potential,” she said, pointing to the last NCAA women’s basketball tournament where 9.9 million viewers watched the final game, and the world-record-setting 92,000 fans who turned out to watch the Nebraska Cornhuskers women’s volleyball team.
“It’s incredible to see women excelling in sports. And I just feel honored that I can have an impact and help create products for them to make them better at their sports,” she said. “Under Armour has always had this strong connection with male athletes. But I just feel like female athletes need an advocate on the inside of a brand.”
She said Under Armour’s women’s business accounts for less than 25 percent of total sales, “and last time I checked, we were 50 percent of the population. So I think we can do much better than that.”
In her new role, she’s applying the lessons she learned at Marriott — grit, will to win and empathy — to Under Armour. And she’s already learned to work with Plank, who serves as executive chairman and brand chief.
“Kevin and I have complementary skills,” she said. “He is very passionate, particularly around the product and storytelling. And I’m running the company. We have clear roles and responsibilities and we’re finding our way, but I think it’s a good match. I also don’t have an ego, so I can let him be the star of the show when he wants to be with certain things.”
Although she’s only been on board a little over six months, Linnartz has already made some big changes, bringing John Varvatos on board as chief design officer and introducing a new loyalty program, UA Rewards.
“The loyalty program at Marriott was world-class,” she said of the Bonvoy program, which has 180 million members. What she learned is that it “can’t just be transactional. It needs to be about building experiences into the loyalty program.” So UA Rewards will pick one customer for an all-expenses-paid trip to Baltimore to “hang out for the day with Steph Curry, one of our athletes. That’s the kind of stuff that creates excitement and buzz.”
Since joining Under Armour, Linnartz said she’s had the opportunity to meet Curry and a number of the company’s athlete ambassadors, including golfer Jordan Spieth and female soccer players Kelly O’Hara and Alex Greenwood. “Spending time with the athletes and understanding what they need and what they like and what they don’t like has been super helpful,” she said.
And she’s also met with the employees. “You’ve got to have a great product, and you’ve got to have all the great skills on your team. But at the end of the day, it’s about building a culture that people love and where they want to work and where they want to excel. And so I’m spending a lot of time on that.”
She’s also going to spend time growing the women’s business. “Part of it is really designing better product,” she said. “We will always be engaged in performance. But that intersection of performance and style and design is critical.” That’s where Varvatos comes in. “He is obviously an incredibly talented designer, but he’s an equally nice human being and just great to work with every day,” she said. In addition, she’s bringing on sneaker branding experts and other talent to create products both women and men want.
Beyond that, she said her strategy for Under Armour is focused on three pillars. First is building back the “brand heat” in the U.S. “Under Armour has over 1,800 [UA-branded] stores in 100 different countries. And depending on where you are in the world, the brand is quite hot, for example, in Europe — particularly in the U.K., Spain, in Germany. But here in the United States, we have work to do.”
The company is experiencing double-digit growth in Europe, and in Asia, athletes “just adore Under Armour,” she said. “But we really need to supercharge our growth here in the United States.”
Second is to deliver more product for the “better” and “best” part of the pricing pyramid. “And we need to have better marketing and distribution to support it,” she said.
Third is to continue to bolster the team. She said she’s searching for a new chief product officer and recently named a new head of retail who will expand the company’s physical presence in the U.S.
Much like the hotel industry, apparel retailing is “all about the experience. Of course, the physical space needs to be beautiful, but the service in the stores needs to be spectacular, and they need to be well merchandised,” she said. “In the case of Under Armour, we need to have a better mix of full price stores to outlets. We have too many outlets as a percentage of our overall portfolio in this country. So I’m focused on how we can build out our footprint.”
This story was reported by WWD and originally appeared on WWD.com.
