“I Will. Protect this House:” Under Armour, Corporate Nationalism and Post-9/11 Cultural Politics

From the Sociology of Sport Journal

Review by Ryan Smith in KIN 501

In this article the author talked about the company Under Armour and how it got to where it is today. This company was started in 1996 but truly found its identity after Sept. 11th 2001. It is a company that always specialized in performance apparel for sports but after 9/11, they wanted to exhibit more nationalist pride. They also wanted to show a more masculine and side to their brand of sportswear. As a former player for the University of Maryland football team, the CEO wanted to target these more masculine sports for promoting Under Armour's products. As a way to show their pride in both the military and our nation, they chose the slogan “Protect this House”. Using this marketing campaign, it showed their vision for focusing on the defense of athletic, corporate, and military spheres. To help the marketing of their products in these areas, Under Armour started a partnership with the NFL and Zephyr technology. This shows that they are current with the most popular sport in America and also have these newest advances in technology. Under Armor has shown that this is not just the words of a marketing campaign. They have proven their support by actually doing many important things to help support our troops. One of the things they've started is the "freedom initiative." This is also partnered with the Wounded Warrior Project. Under Armour also sponsors events that are both military and sport based like the "Tough Mudders," an intense race that resembles a military obstacle course. Another one of the ways they get their name into the main stream of the sports world is by providing custom football uniforms and cleats to universities of Maryland and Texas Tech. When they did this for these two teams, they wanted to keep the themes of militaristic and nationalistic pride, so they made them both in camouflage print, with the Under Armour logo on them. They have also used the NFL scouting Combine as an important event to help promote their corporate identity and reinforce a sense of national pride.

I felt that in this article by Gavin Weedon was very interesting to me because Under Armour did a very smart thing in capitalizing on nationalism after what happen on 9/11/2001. Under Armour was looking for a way to become more main stream in the sports industry, so they took their identity of the brand in a direction where the consumer would want to be a part of the company. Under Armour can show through there cloths and their advertising that they are nationalistic, masculine, and militaristic. This was a good way for people to feel like they were a part of the company and being that patriotic shows that Under Armour cares about our nation. I feel the people really responded to what the company was trying to do with their slogans that they came up with “Protect this house”. The slogan can be thought of in so many different ways like in sport or the way that the military talks about protecting the US. I think that rallying people around your corporation with something as nationalism is a good idea because it is something that everyone can relate too.