Sports teach us to be teammates and leaders, to bounce back, never back down, and push our limits. But many young athletes face barriers that prevent them from stepping on the field and giving it their all.
Everyone deserves the right to engage in sport. That’s why we’re committed to creating opportunities for millions of youth to engage in sports by 2030, breaking down barriers for those who strive for more.
Pathways
We’re working with communities around the world to help build programs, places, and infrastructure to drive engagement in sport for EVERYONE
People
So many coaches and organizations already create impact in their communities, so we’re celebrating, elevating, and developing new ones
Performance
Athletes need the right tools to reach their best, so we’re working to ensure our gear, resources, and tech are available to all athletes
To celebrate our 25th Anniversary, we set a goal to reach a collective effort totaling I million hours -equal to $25 million investment towards communities and organizations all over the world by 2030.
How We're Breaking Barriers
Under Armour commits to breaking down barriers keeping millions of youth from sports
Read moreDiscover causes currently looking for volunteers in your community or learn more about resources and programs we provide that support the positive development of youth.
Our PartnersThe new 24,000 square-foot store is situated on the campus of the brand’s new Global Headquarters, bringing UA’s retail presence physically closer to its athletes, product, and innovation teams – the homebase where UA teammates work to shape the future of sports, push boundaries, and inspire the next generation of athletes.
Many veterans return home with invisible injuries that aren’t easily understood or treated. But the SHARE Military Initiative—a comprehensive rehabilitation program for veterans with traumatic brain injuries and mental health concerns—is changing the way these wounded warriors are treated and giving them renewed hope.
In honor of the historic and iconic local rivalry between Baltimore City College and Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Under Armour has partnered with lifestyle retailer and Baltimore community champion DTLR to co-create new school spirit Rivalry Packs. Dating back to 1889, the City vs. Poly rivalry is one of the oldest high school football rivalries in the United States, and one of Baltimore’s most highly anticipated sporting events of the year.
On Thursday, September 19, 2024, Under Armour marked its 20th annual Armour Day event with volunteer activations designed to positively impact and celebrate the brand’s hometown of Baltimore.
This year at the WNBA All-Star, Under Armour made sure a group of local middle school girls got to see their potential, providing a special experience focused on female empowerment and representation alongside some of Under Armour’s most notable WNBA athletes.
On Saturday, August 3, Under Armour and Project Rampart are hosting a community event at UA’s Tide Point campus to help you get ready for the fall 2024 athletic season.
Under Armour’s support for the military community knows no limits. For years, the brand has remained committed to positively impacting active-duty service members, veterans, and their families. One of the ways this comes to life is through Under Armour’s continued support of the annual Department of Defense Warrior Games.
In partnership with the Baltimore Community Foundation, Under Armour has released a specially designed shirt to raise awareness and support for the short and long term needs of its community following the March 26 Key Bridge tragedy.
Curry Brand, powered by Under Armour, completed its twelfth court refurbishment at DREAM Charter School East Harlem in New York City as part of the brand’s mission to impact 100,000 youth and renovate 20 safe places to play by 2025.
Under Armour and Stephen Curry became a team in 2013. What started as an underrated point guard only a few years into the league, and a challenger brand looking to shake up the sporting industry, has become an iconic partnership with disruption and innovation at its core. Now, the two have amplified their unique partnership even further, forging a long-term commitment to serve athletes and communities and drive mutual success for years to come.
Today Under Armour and City Schools celebrated Project Rampart, an ongoing six-year partnership designed to elevate the City Public High School student athlete experience and improve academic outcomes through the power of sport.
Under Armour believes that the power of sport can unite, inspire, and change the world. We are on a mission to empower the voices of our underrepresented athletes, teammates, and communities in our ongoing effort to Stand for Equality. We continue to celebrate the importance of Black History Month by delivering upon this mission.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are foundational to every industry. Yet these terms are almost exclusively used in corporate offices and boardrooms. While private businesses appoint board members with diverse backgrounds and create action plans, the sports world is being left in the dust.
Most of the greatest successes in life and in sports are brought on by a profound change. And these big changes don’t come easily—a willingness to adapt takes bravery and determination. Finding comfort in the unknown allows us to live out our true potential instead of cowering from the next big move. Joel Embiid has allowed change to propel him forward and never let comparisons slow him down. Through the new Athlete No One Saw Coming campaign, Under Armour wants youth athletes to do the same and keep moving as they forge their own paths to greatness.
Curry Brand, powered by Under Armour, is taking on its ninth court refurbishment at the Ada Jenkins Center in Davidson, North Carolina, as part of the brand’s mission to impact 100,000 youth and renovate 20 safe places to play by 2025. The project kicked off at a special time for Stephen, as he returned to his alma mater to be inducted into the Davidson College Hall of Fame and receive his diploma. The court will be refurbished in partnership with Stephen and Ayesha’s Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation and The Summit Foundation, both of which share Curry Brand’s mission of ensuring all kids have access to safe places to play.
Today, more than 70 kids received the surprise of their lives when four-time NBA Champion Stephen Curry and entertainment icon Snoop Dogg unveiled a newly refurbished basketball court at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach facility in Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. While the court had spent years in need of repair, it shined during today’s unveiling as kids took to the hardwood for the first time in more than a month to engage in hands-on skills programming through the support of Curry Brand, powered by Under Armour, on its mission to impact 100,000 youth and renovate 20 safe places to play by 2025. Since the launch of Curry Brand in 2020, Stephen and Snoop have been ideating ways they could collaborate and combine their shared passion for providing access to youth sports. Over the past two years, they remained close as they brought their vision to life, utilizing their collective platforms to make a meaningful impact in the lives of others.
Following a two-year hiatus, Stephen Curry’s hands-on training camp returned for the top high school basketball players in the country. One of the many ways Stephen gives back to the game he loves, Curry Camp provides mentoring for elite youth basketball athletes, empowering them on their journey to compete. The four-time NBA champion personally invited 26 boys and girls from across the country to receive 1:1 coaching from the three-point king himself alongside a star-studded roster of coaches and trainers. Campers had the opportunity to show off their skills while practicing and playing with some of the sport’s best, including former Los Angeles Lakers player Kent Bazemore and recently retired Davidson College head basketball coach Bob McKillop, who also served as Stephen’s coach while at Davidson from 2006-2009.
We empower those who strive for more.
Aliyah Boston is one of the country's most talented and recognizable basketball players. She has come a long way from her makeshift driveway basketball court in St. Thomas, but that doesn’t mean she’s left the islands in her past. Earlier this month, Aliyah crossed yet another milestone off her list by hosting her first UA Next Basketball camp in her hometown in the Virgin Islands. Created to educate, empower and encourage athletes of all ages, backgrounds, skill and socioeconomic levels—especially youth athletes—to get out and get moving, Under Armour’s UA Next platform launched in 2021 and has since expanded to cover several team sports categories.
Eleven Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC) cadets from University of Maryland (UMD), College Park and Bowie State University (BSU) completed their five-day wilderness expedition on Friday, June 10. The expedition took the participants along a stretch of the Appalachian Trail with their Outward Bound educators. The week-long challenge was the final step in the first year of the Building Bridges program that brought together over 40 cadets from the two schools, starting with a one-day program held in September 2021 at Chesapeake Bay Outward Bound School’s (CBOBS) Leakin Park campus. The program is sponsored by Under Armour, through its UA Freedom Initiative, which focuses on supporting front-line workers, like ROTC cadets. “This was an experience of a lifetime. I took so many lessons and so much about myself. I learned and recognized that it’s okay to fall sometimes. It’s about what you do after. Getting back up and not allowing your setbacks to stop you from pushing forward. I learned so much about allowing yourself to work with others, trusting them along with yourself, and the difference it all makes in the end,” shared Kayla, an ROTC cadet from Bowie State University after completing the five-day expedition with their crew.
In 2021 the relationship between brands and student-athletes changed forever with the move to allow students to profit off of their name, image, and likeness (or NIL), in addition to making money from signing autographs, starting their own businesses, teaching camps or lessons, starring in advertising campaigns and posting sponsored social media content. Before this landmark decision, critics claimed for decades that compensating student-athletes would make it harder for them to focus on competition and schooling. Instead, athletes have found the new rules are not only lucrative but liberating. Now, on the first anniversary of this significant shift, Under Armour reflects on its successful roster of purpose-first, NIL partnerships and outlines its future goals for this new frontier of collegiate sports marketing.
Under Armour is committed to breaking down barriers all over the world that keep young people from accessing sports and sports education. That’s why we set out to “Change the Game for Good,” an ongoing initiative from Curry Brand aimed at creating opportunity, access, and equality for youth sports in neighborhoods around the world. In service of this mission, Curry Brand has proudly forged a partnership with Charity Bounce — an Australian organization that uses sports, the arts, and education to uplift disadvantaged communities, with a particular focus on Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders and culturally diverse communities, including newly arrived refugees. Using the power of sport, Charity Bounce inspires change, builds resiliency, and creates positive job opportunities for young people at risk. As part of this partnership, Curry Brand has committed to rejuvenating youth facilities in Arncliffe New South Wales, Australia that are used for Charity Bounce programs — making it the first official Curry Brand basketball court outside of the United States. “We are thrilled to partner with a purpose-led performance brand,” said Charity Bounce CEO Ian Heininger. “The new court will provide inspiration for the young athletes across our programs to look beyond themselves and use the game for good. This initiative will not only encourage them to be their best, but our ambition is also that it will create a lasting impact on their sense of worth and increase their expectation of what is possible in life. Stephen Curry has one of the most inspiring stories of resilience, and we know this partnership will be a critical piece in empowering every young person that now steps on the court.”
As the Human Performance Company, Under Armour is delivering on its mission to make all athletes better through a new retail store experience. The UA Brand House City Concept delivers an elevated store design, experiential touchpoints and product and service offerings that provide athletes with new ways to interact with the brand unique to the in-store experience. More than 18 months in the making, Under Armour put the concept to the test, listening and leveraging insights from its Focused Performer consumer to inform the retail expression.
Coronavirus may have shut down competition for young athletes, but Under Armour wants to ensure they can still play. That’s why this fall, the company is continuing to invest in young athletes and providing them with a performance mask – a training necessity in today’s pandemic environment that often runs a higher price than generic masks currently in the market and may be unattainable for many young athletes. The company announced that, in partnership with pro athletes, it will donate more than 35,000 UA SPORTSMASKs to young athletes dealing with the effects of the pandemic in cities like Oakland, Nashville, Baltimore and others around the world. The UA SPORTSMASK, which launched earlier this summer, is the first to be designed for athletes to train in with innovative technology to keep them cool and comfortable while being active.
For 24 years, Under Armour has pushed the limits of the world of sports performance with product innovations developed to make all athletes better. Last week, the brand began putting that experience to work helping health care systems defend against the coronavirus pandemic. To support the University of Maryland Medical System’s (UMMS) 28,000 health care providers and staff, Under Armour has begun to manufacture and assemble face masks, face shields and specially equipped fanny packs, and is also exploring fabricating hospital gowns for the statewide medical system. The brand will also begin providing face masks to LifeBridge, a regional health care organization based in Baltimore. Additionally, Under Armour is currently discussing the needs for supplies with Johns Hopkins Medicine, MedStar and other local medical institutions. "When the call came in from our local medical providers for more masks, gowns and supply kits, we just went straight to work," said Randy Harward, SVP of Advanced Material and Manufacturing Innovation at Under Armour. “More than 50 Under Armour teammates from materials scientists to footwear and apparel designers from laboratories in Baltimore and Portland quickly came together in search of solutions.”
The true scrimmage line is off the field for many Baltimore City student-athletes. Too often, it’s a game of high stakes and low expectations. On the other side of doubt, there’s a team working hard to change negative perceptions around Baltimore City schools. Project Rampart, which began in 2017, is UA’s commitment to elevating the Baltimore student-athlete experience. “When we invest in apparel, equipment and facilities, provide professional development for coaches, and support student academic and leadership experiences, we empower student-athletes to reach their full potential,” says Stacey Ulrich, Under Armour's Senior Director of Global Philanthropy and Community Outreach.
The story of Under Armour’s start-up success is a well-known representation of the American Dream of entrepreneurship – a dream that is alive and well in today’s youth. In fact, a survey of 500 teens conducted by Junior Achievement (JA) and ORC International found that 87 percent of high school students want to start a business someday. With guidance from UA teammates, some innovative students are getting the chance to do just that. Twelve Baltimore City high school students are the brains behind Creators 4 Change, a non-profit developed as part of Junior Achievement of Central Maryland’s JA Company Program, a 15-week entrepreneurship experience that gives students a chance to start and run their own businesses backed by real investors and revenue. The group meets weekly on Under Armour’s campus to discuss business strategies with UA teammates, who serve as volunteer mentors.
Study after study has shown that the physical environment of a school has a significant impact on the quality of a student’s education. In Baltimore City, due to a multitude of circumstances, there are many schools that are in need of updated facilities but lack in resources and funding. Seeing this need, Under Armour has partnered with the Heart of America Foundation to identify schools to transform and renovate. Now in its third year, Under Armour and the Heart of America Foundation completed its annual Week of WILL – a week of volunteerism and giving back to the city, all rooted in the brand’s ongoing commitment to the Baltimore community.
The transformative nature of sport, beyond the wins and the losses, can often be overlooked and underappreciated. With that in mind, in 2016 Under Armour pulled together a team to understand the needs of Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) students in the company’s backyard, with the goal of enriching the lives of every student-athlete throughout the school district. As a result the Baltimore Student Athlete Coalition was formed by Under Armour, the Baltimore Ravens, the InSideOut Initiative and the Fund for Educational Excellence to use the power of sports to transform the lives of student athletes throughout BCPS while promoting more equitable access to enriching activities, particularly sports. This fall, the power of that partnership takes shape for the second straight school year as students, teachers and coaches begin the 2018/19 school year. “Successful schools provide opportunities for students to explore their interests, with enriching activities both in and out of the classroom. They also create positive cultures where students have the confidence to explore those opportunities,” said Dr. Sonja Brookins Santelises, BCPS chief executive officer. In 2017, BCPS launched a blueprint (www.baltimorecityschools.org/blueprint) that lays out how the district will build a generation of young people with the skills, knowledge, and understanding to succeed in college, careers, and community. Addressing the holistic needs of the student, including physical activity, was a critical component. Professional development for athletic directors and coaches that began in the summer of 2017, being led by the InSideOut Initiative, is being put into action as student-athletes return to school and on fields of play this fall. The program promotes sports as a human growth experience and aims to create an environment where sports are education-based, ultimately becoming co-curricular rather than extra-curricular.
Under Armour’s city-wide commitment to inspiring and investing in Baltimore City athletics to help elevate opportunity and access to sports for students. Through this commitment Baltimore City Public High Schools’ athletic facilities will be upgraded, students and coaches are equipped with new on-field performance apparel, student athletes will receive leadership development, and coaches will receive training through specialized programing.