Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank spoke in optimistic terms about the sports apparel and equipment brand’s road ahead, even as net revenue fell 6.9% year over year to $1.24 billion in the fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30.

“We delivered against our revenue expectation and exceeded our operating income outlook,” said Plank in the company’s earnings announcement. “As we progress in this transformation, we are driving greater efficiency across our business, sharpening our product offering, and amplifying global marketing to strengthen our brand and improve financial performance.”

In the meantime, Under Armour shared that it incurred a total of $13 million in Q2 costs released to its Fiscal 2025 Restructuring Plan, which expects to be “substantially complete” by the end of 2026. It expects full fiscal year revenue to ultimately fall year over year “at a mid-single-digit percentage rate.”

Under Armour is No. 158 in the Top 1000 Database. The database tracks North America’s largest online retailers, ranking them by annual ecommerce sales and more.

Under Armour wholesale and ecommerce sales in Q2

“Wholesale revenue decreased 6% to $725 million, reflecting the impact of softer full-price sell-through and pressure in parts of the distributor business, partly offset by select accounts and markets,” Plank told investors on Under Armour’s Q2 earnings call. “Direct-to-consumer revenue decreased 8% to $494 million, including a 7% decline in owned and operated stores and a 12% decline in ecommerce.”

Plank attributed the drops to a reduction in overall traffic.

“Traffic remained the primary challenge, particularly in North America, with better conversion and targeted digital initiatives providing some offset,” he stated.

How Plank expects Under Armour to benefit from AI

Speaking to analysts on the Nov. 6 earnings call, Plank touched on the role he sees artificial intelligence (AI) playing as Under Armour seeks to complete a turnaround for its business.

“I think that our industry actually lines and maps up perfectly for the advantage of what AI brings for us,” he stated.

Primarily, he noted that he believes the company needs to focus on three areas to realize benefits from AI. Those include supply chain, merchandising and marketing.

Nevertheless, he cautioned that the answer to solving Under Armour’s problems would have to eventually address one topic: “ship us everything that we ordered.” In that context, he added that “accuracy and delivering on time and full is also a priority.”

Do you rank in our databases? 

Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.

Sign up

Stay on top of the latest developments in the online retail industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News. Follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and YouTube. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.