I love to wear Under Armour clothing, but I know I’m not their target market. Heck, I don’t believe I’m anyone’s target market or should expect to be a model for them in the foreseeable future. I wear their clothing because it does what it should and makes me look a bit better while doing it.
If you read the some of the latest information on UA you will hear that they are in trouble because they have no clear target audience, have shunned hunters, or they are not cool enough, or even worse not politically correct enough for the younger audience. I mean really?
My perception of UA’s target audience has always been someone younger, has six-pack abs and is a badass on and off the field of play. I’m a not that, I am a dad, I wear what feels comfortable and could care less if it is in style or meets the fashion trends. I also hunt and fish, which lately is politically incorrect for some reason. I still could care less. As a forty-year-old dad, I am not old, but I am also not young and hip, I have a few scars that I earned, a few nights I regret, but also two amazing children and a wife that means the world to me.
The whole UA hates hunters or anglers is hogwash if you ask me. If they really disliked us, why would they keep bringing out new gear for us? Oh, that’s right, because we buy it, but if they really we anti-hunting wouldn’t they just leave our market? Maybe they will, but for now, they are not and that’s fine with me. They have tried and are continuing to get their piece of the pie in our market place.
They are doing well in the fishing market, and if you have worn any of their clothing you will know why. How do I know they are doing so well? I recently attended my thirteenth ICAST in Orlando, if you want to see what’s hot in the marketplace, that’s where you go. A smart person though will be people watching as much as they’re looking in the hundreds of vendor’s booths. If you watch and see what the attendees are wearing, you will get a quick sense of what is hot, and from what I saw, Under Armour is hot in the casual off-the-water market as well as the on-the-water market.
Why shouldn’t they be, their clothing feels great, fits well, wears well and takes abuse. It also doesn’t look like every other fishing shirt out there.
This past spring I received two of their new UA Tide Chasers one in short sleeve and one in long sleeve. I instantly fell in love with them for the colors and the fit. They are just one of those shirts that you put on and feel good in. I have worn the short sleeve model more than twenty times this summer and after repeated washings, I think I could still pass it off as new. The Tide Chasers, like much of their clothing line, has an anti-stain system built into the fabric, it also doesn’t allow you to smell from sweat. Not that you’ll sweat too much in them because they are very lightweight and cool to wear. I am a sweater, I sweat very easily, and can soak most shirts in less than twenty minutes from just standing outside. I don’t mind it, but my wife says my sweat has a distinct stink and it is unattractive at times. In my Tide
I don’t mind it, but my wife says my sweat has a distinct stink and it is unattractive at times. In my Tide Chasers, she has yet to complain about my sweaty smell, but I know I sweat in them.
I wore one to my daughter’s dance recital if there was ever a day to sweat it was that one. Imagine a large crowd in a poorly air-conditioned auditorium on a ninety-degree day in high humidity. It was a sweat-fest! Then we hosted a small outdoor gathering after it at our house for family and friends where I worked the grill, and still, she didn’t tell me once that I smelled! Normally that day would have been a two or three shirt day for me, not only due to odor-causing bacteria that builds up quickly on me but also because I cannot stand a sweaty shirt sticking to my shapely figure. But that day I only wore the one and I was hooked!
I admit I wear them off the water more than on the water for two simple reasons. First, they do not look like the average fishing shirt with the vented fly across the shoulders or have the twenty pockets on the chest as many other fishing shirts do either. Speaking of all of those pockets other shirts have, who uses them all?
The second reason I wear them so much off of the water is, I am a dad of two young kids and do not get on the water as much as I used to, and spending time with my children is more important than anything else right now. Even though I am not on the water that much, I still wear their shirts because they fit so well and look so good. My wife hates when I wear fishing shirts, when I walk out of our closet with one on, she asks me “are you going fishing or going shopping with me if you are going shopping why are you wearing a fishing shirt?” I just smile and tell her I’ll be fishing for great deals!
She has yet to complain about my Tide Chaser shirts though, she didn’t even realize the long sleeve shirt was a fishing shirt until I rolled the sleeves up one day and she noticed the roll-up sleeve loop and button, which is a dead giveaway to it’s nature, but it still looks and feels good.
I have worn them trout fishing numerous times and love them. They do not constrict my movement and did not pick up one stain, tear or rip yet. I do not baby my clothing, clothing is meant to be worn and to protect me, most items do not last more than a season or two without at least one patch or a few stitches in a sleeve, but so far these shirts have.
Do I think UA will call me up to be a model for them? Heck no, let’s be honest; on paper, I may be physically perfect for UA; I’m six foot three, two-hundred fifty pounds. However, I’m also about thirty pounds over weight and spend more time behind the desk than I do in a gym. I won’t lie I work out, but when I do, I wear their loose gear. Their normal clothing isn’t meant for men of my stature, it is meant for someone who shuns carbs and does more crunches in a day than I do in a year. But, I think Under Armour gets people like me. They must or they wouldn’t make their “loose gear.” In plain terms, their “loose gear” is really normal clothing cut for those of us with fuller figures, or normal figures.
I have worn Under Armour for years while hunting, and will continue to do so. Will anyone know, not unless they read this. I wear most of their Cold Gear or Heat Gear, sometimes both at the same time depending on what my day will be like. This stuff works, feels good and stands up to the abuse I put it through. I wish I could say I look good in it, but that would be a lie, and honestly, unlike what you may see on television these days, hunting isn’t a fashion contest.
Will Under Armour be around for a while, I believe so, and I hope they stay in our outdoor market place. They may need to readjust their target audience and go after some of us who aren’t gym bodies, but are passionate about our sports and are loyal to the equipment that keeps us doing what we love. Even if they do not ask me to be a model for them I will still wear their clothing and support them, I have a history with them, they have been on some of the greatest hunts and fishing trips I have taken in the last decade, and they have never let me down when I needed them the most. Isn’t the point of a good relationship? Being their when you need them most and never failing you? I think so, and that’s all that matters to me.