Another VP (Vice President) level executive has left Under Armour.
This American sports brand announced in a public document released this month that its Chief Personnel and Administrative Officer, Tchernavia Rocker, will leave the company on June 1, 2024 due to "personal reasons.". According to public information, Tchernavia Rocker joined Andemar in 2019 and has been playing for Andemar for five years.
In the statement, Kevin Plank, founder and current CEO of Andemar, expressed gratitude to Tchernavia Rocker, saying, "Tchernavia has played a crucial role in cultivating a culture of inclusivity, diversity, and team member development, all of which have made Andemar one of the most trusted companies in the United States."
Including the outgoing Tchernavia Rocker, the senior management of Andemar has undergone several changes in the past four months.
Firstly, designer Yassine Saidi, who had previously worked for Puma and Adidas, replaced Dan Leraris as the new Chief Product Officer of the company. Less than two months after Yassine Saidi joined the company, CEO Stephanie Linnartz stepped down, and brand founder and chairman Kevin Plank returned to the position of brand CEO. Then came this month, news of Tchernavia Rocker's imminent departure.
(Interface News/Fan Jianlei)
In the early years, Andema gained a foothold in the sports industry with its professional fitness and sportswear that were close fitting and sweat absorbing. However, in recent years, it has faced problems such as a single design, a lack of women's products, and no popular styles.
Although Andema has attracted a certain number of female users through its brand effect, its current investment in female products is still insufficient to respond to market expectations. On Xiaohongshu, there are many notes that describe the brand's female products as "neck tightening", "unreasonable design", and "limited color selection".
In terms of stabilizing the male user market, Andma has also found it somewhat challenging. In the most popular footwear products, apart from investing heavily in Curry Flow basketball shoes launched by Curry, Andema has not produced any other explosive products in the past two years. Throughout the 2023 fiscal year, Andma's sales only slightly increased by 3% year-on-year to 5.9 billion US dollars (approximately 41.893 billion yuan). By category, apart from a 16% increase in revenue from footwear products to $1.5 billion, sales in all other categories of Andemar have declined.
(Interface News/Fan Jianlei)
In fact, Stephanie Linnartz attempted to address these issues during her tenure, explicitly proposing to increase the proportion of female products and signing new designers to design new "hot selling products". To achieve these goals, Stephanie Linnartz also underwent a major overhaul of the company's management: Marriott International's Stephanie Linnartz brought his former partner Jim Dausch, who served as Executive Vice President and Chief Consumer Officer at Andmar. At that time, the company's Chief Product Officer and Chief Operating Officer both resigned after Jim Dausch arrived at Andmar.
However, when many of Stephanie Linnartz's measures were not yet effective, or even before they could be implemented, Kevin Plank regained control of the company's steering wheel.
In 2017, Kevin Plank relinquished power at the request of shareholders and employees due to his autocratic style. However, today, such temperament has made shareholders expect him to reorganize the management team and lead the brand to continue growing.
(Interface News/Fan Jianlei)
Currently, Kevin Plank has been taking over the company for almost a month. However, apart from the departure of another executive, there have been no significant strategic adjustments at the company level. It still seems unclear how the large ship Andma will turn its course in the future.
Judging from recent actions, Kevin Plank's return may bring some turbulence to the management of Andma. Turbulence cannot be avoided, but the duration of turbulence needs to be controlled.
In the past two years, due to the turnover of company leaders, the heads of Andema's product and marketing departments have frequently changed, which is not a good thing for the execution of related business strategies. Andema, which is currently facing development difficulties, urgently needs a stable and strategically oriented management team.
