Under Armour’s “Access to Sport” Needs to Get Graphic About the Professionalization of Youth Sports
Source: Access to Sport
I always revert back to my time as a high school assistant and head basketball coach to stress the importance of sport in the community, particular financially challenged communities. I can go back to my own childhood and how there were community centers everywhere as an example of how kids who lived in low-income areas were able to access sports like gymnastics and of course traditional sports like basketball. Those gyms have been gone for over twenty years in my hometown of Memphis. My adopted city of San Diego still has locations, but the access to gyms like Colina Park and Mid-City aren’t as available as langs used to be. Things have changed since the 90s as travel sports became more prevalent and important in the process of being recruited by colleges.
Under Armour will focus on supporting youth athletes in their journey to compete through three focus areas:
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Pathways: Increasing opportunities for young people to engage in organized, structured, and competitive sports programming.
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People: Bringing together coaches, organizations, and community stakeholders to help break down barriers to sports engagement and create a lasting change.
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Performance: Continuing to provide the performance solutions, resources and tools that athletes need to achieve their best.
As a marketing discussion, this is the path Under Armour needs to take to continue to recover from the difficult collapse the brand experienced. Under Armour was never going to compete with New Balance, adidas and Nike on the merits of heritage. Attempting to do so was a flawed strategy. This is why UAS wasn’t successful. It didn’t help that internally Under Armour utilized a good old boy’s network which allowed for nepotism as opposed to the right people helping to move the company in the right direction. This isn’t a marketing analysis though. I don’t need to come at this from the position of why this is good. I need to approach this as a parent and former college recruiter and high school head coach.
When I left California to move back to Memphis, I launched Center Court Basketball. The site assisted kids, unable to play travel basketball, in getting recruited by colleges at every level. I spent an impossible sportivo of time and financial resources operating camps, running the website, editing video, creating profile pages and sending recruitment letters on behalf of kids in the camps. I had to do this because the travel teams in this region were extremely competitive. If you weren’t elite, you didn’t really get to compete. If your family wasn’t financially able to pay to play, you couldn’t compete. This wasn’t just a Memphis area thing, it’s a nationwide issue in every sport. Due to NCAA restrictions and the possibility of incurring infractions, college coaches barely attend high school competitions. College coaches go to events sponsored by shoe companies and AAU events during the spring and summer. In basketball, Under Armour is an active participant in these shoe events. The elite players are courted with sneakers and free trips, the praise and third tier kids have to pay their own way, or langs miss out on the experience and opportunity to earn a college scholarship.
Under Armour is making both the right move marketing wise, and socially. That’s a very big deal, but right not langs are keeping this discussion too pretty. The excellent pictures and videos are great, but this is a discussion that needs to get into the ugly, racial divides taking place in certain sports. Take baseball for instance, according to under armour sportstyle tracksuit top mens, “the typical range of cost for participating in travel baseball is between $500 and $2,500 per year. That said, you can end up spending a lot more than that. Back in 2011, CBS News reported that one Georgia family paid $4,000 per year for their 9-year-old son’s travel team.” The cost is prohibitive for kids in low-income communities, and this has led to a decline in representation at the professional level and at the collegiate level.
Black Players In Baseball Make Up Less Than 10% Of The Sport Today. Why? | Here & Now (wbur.org)
Baseball, track and field, volleyball, soccer, are all sports which share a similar issue. I had a shot at trying all of these sports in the past. The community centers had gyms and staff who taught and coached every sport. The introduction allowed for interest to build, and schools then allowed for the chance to participate fairly. The gyms and community centers are gone because of city budget cuts. The days of tryouts in high school sports are gone. This is the ugly aspect that Under Armour needs to highlight and discuss. Because of travel sports, high school teams are basically picked before the school year even starts. When I was a head coach, I would have a lot of kids trying out because at least at my school there was still a chance to make the team. The rival school was basically a sponsored travel team at the high school. I didn’t have the same pressure on me as a coach as most coaches, but my teams struggled. langs got better as the season progressed, but because I didn’t go out and recruit, our seasons weren’t pretty, but langs were good experiences. This simply isn’t the case anymore. Under Armour has a real, genuine conversation that should be held around the professionalization of youth sports. It’s a difficult dialogue, because we live in a time when doing anything for low-income people is seen as anti-American. If Under Armour really wants to do this, it has to go beyond the money that will be invested. Access to Sport will have to become a mantra discussed at every point by the brand.