Under the hood of Under Armour’s quest to reconnect with its football roots

Earlier in his career, Eric Ogbogu, a former NFL defensive end, was the face of Under Armour, fronting the brand’s iconic “Protect This House” campaign from the early aughts.

Today, he’s worked there for almost two decades, now serving as a director at the company.

In a sense, Ogbogu personifies Under Armour’s marketing strategy. The brand has roots on the football field; founder and now-CEO Kevin Plank has said he came up with the idea for the brand when he played at the University of Maryland (where Ogbogu also played college ball). While football has always been a part of Under Armour’s DNA, Ryan Collins, senior director of global sports marketing, told us, there have been recent years when the sport wasn’t necessarily front and center in the company’s messaging.

“We never got away from it,” Collins told Marketing Brew, but “we maybe weren’t as intentional all the time about speaking to football and telling that story.”

Now, Under Armour is redoubling down on the sport—this time with a more modern marketing spin that extends from traditional moves like an NFL sponsorship to forward-looking bets like flag-football partnerships. The push comes on the heels of basketball star Steph Curry parting ways with the brand after more than a decade.

As an international, endemic sports brand, Under Armour’s marketing teams around the world are focused on a variety of team sports, Collins said, but in the US, football reigns supreme: nearly a third of Americans named the sport as their favorite this year, according to Gallup, even though that percentage has declined in recent years. With Under Armour’s North American revenue down 9% YoY in its most recent quarter, the company’s marketers stateside are betting that football can help them tell the brand’s story while also driving business growth, he said.

Big play

As part of a reemphasis on football storytelling, Under Armour last year inked a long-term deal with the NFL to become the league’s official footwear and glove partner. It marks a return to the league after Under Armour and the NFL’s previous contract, which began in 2006, expired after the 2020 season. The new agreement “refocused us” on football, Collins said, including through a revamped athlete roster.

“Over the past two years, we’ve started to really build out our portfolio of athletes, bring on the right athletes that match the brand,” he said.

In May, Under Armour tapped Minnesota Vikings star wide receiver Justin Jefferson to serve as the face of its football efforts, and it has since snagged Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins from Nike. The roster also consists of Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith, Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers, Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward, and a handful of rookies, including Seattle Seahawks running back Jadarian Price.

In addition to the newbies, Under Armour recently paid homage to Ogbogu and “Protect This House” with a social video called “The Making of ‘Big E,’” which tells the story of his first campaign with the brand and honors Under Armour’s 30th anniversary this year.

Who we are

Another indication of Under Armour’s commitment to football is its ongoing “We Are Football” campaign, which rolled out last fall. It’s meant to “reframe Under Armour’s performance-driven DNA through a modern lens” and target the next generation of athletes, according to the brand, with creative tailored to different parts of the country, Collins added.

“What you’ll start to see, and it’ll evolve over time, is a campaign that is showing how…this country loves football, much like we do as Under Armour,” he said. “We want to put a spotlight on those different parts of the country and show why [football] is unique and special to [people] in that area.”

The latest iteration of the campaign is set to play out episodically from this fall through the first quarter of 2027, Collins told us.

Flag on the play

The “We Are Football” campaign extends to flag football, too, Collins said, a reflection of Under Armour’s modernized approach to the sport as a whole. The original “Protect This House” ads were heavily male-dominated, but the brand’s recent football content incorporates more women fans and athletes; the three-minute version of “We Are Football” ends on a shot of Mexican national flag football team captain and quarterback Diana Flores, who became Under Armour’s first flag football brand ambassador in 2023.

With flag football set to make its Olympic debut during LA28, and the NFL’s youth flag tournaments drawing increasing sponsor attention, the sport is naturally playing a significant role in Under Armour’s marketing strategy, especially as it stands to bring new women consumers into the brand, Collins said.

“It’s one thing being able to sell an extra pair of shoes and cleats to an existing football player,” he said. “It’s a whole other thing if you’re introducing a new athlete to a sport, and we can be their first handshake in that sport.”

In the run-up to LA28, Collins said his team is strategizing around partnerships with national governing bodies and Olympic athletes, while also maintaining Under Armour’s ties to pro leagues, college teams, and even high school athletes in order to keep up a year-round presence in football in all its forms.

“Especially when you think about tackle, 7-on-7, and flag, what used to be a couple-months sport is now a 12-month sport,” he said. “Football is now giving the brand the ability to storytell throughout the 12 months of the year.”