Competition between the premiere sports apparel empires, Nike and Under Armour, has risen to new heights. Under Armour has made some major changes in the last year improving their sales and sponsoring some of the biggest names in sports, more than ever in their history. Just last year, the company was able to increase annual sales by more than 25 percent. With Nike being their biggest competitor it's going to take a lot to compete with their sales. Sponsoring some of the world's top athletes in professional sports, they expect to make a huge push to compete against Nike in the upcoming years.

Just to name some of Under Armour top sponsored athletes, they include: NBA's Stephen Curry, NFL's Cam Newton, Tom Brady and Julio Jones, PGA's Jordan Speith, MLB's Bryce Harper, Buster Posey and Clayton Kershaw, Swimmer Micheal Phelps, NHL's Tyler Seguin, MLS' Jermaine Jones, ATP's Andy Murray, MMA fighter Georges St-Pierre and female athletes skier Lindsey Vonn and Ballerina Misty Copeland. Curry, Newton, Brady, Speith, Harper, Posey and Kershaw have all recently been named the MVP in their respective sport in the last four years. Those are some key players to market their brand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikmd-vtRCqo

A few of Under Armour's major marketing areas are to increase footwear sales, international sales and its "I Will What I Want" campaign aimed towards women. The help of their athletes is critical for their future advertising and marketing programs. In addition to that, new hardware devices and operations such as their new fitness-tracking app called Record is expected to be another key area that'll see improvement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ThYKHShRqY

Under Armour opened up their third distribution facility in the United States, in Tennessee this past December to help production. Its new one-million square foot warehouse will create 1,500 new jobs, and the company plans to invest over $100 million in the next five years in the new facility.

Being founded in 1996, 32 years after Nike was created, they still have some time to reach their competitor. One major contributor to Nike's success that Under Armour doesn't really have is that they sponsor of hundreds of college and professional teams. In time, they'll be able to sponsor more teams and possibly take some of Nike's current sponsorships. Also, in my opinion, some of Nike's most well-known athletes are at the end of their career, while Under Armour has some of the most premiere athletes in pretty much every major sport.

It'll be very interesting to see which direction these top tier companies will go in the next few years. Every company is clamouring to get some sort of competitive edge. They're looking for any way to make themselves better to get a leg up on their competitors. Especially with Under Armour's shares being 18 percent higher than Nike's. CEO Phillip Knight stepped down from Nike recently, only making Under Armour more attractive to prospective athletes and clients.