Under Armour is a global performance apparel, footwear, and accessories brand focused on innovation in athletic wear. Founded in 1996 in Baltimore, Maryland, the business operates across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. Under Armour distributes its products globally through national, regional, independent, and specialty wholesalers and distributors, as well as through its direct-to-consumer sales channels, including owned retail stores and e-commerce websites.
Success Story
Under Armour
Demand, Merchandise Financial Planning, Allocation, Supply Planning, Fulfillment, Blue Yonder Platform
Under Armour transforms end-to-end planning with Blue Yonder
Das Unternehmen
Die geschäftliche Herausforderung
Under Armour’s planning operations faced increasing complexity across global markets and channels. Forecast accuracy gaps made it difficult to align supply with demand, and inventory imbalances. Manual spreadsheet-based processes limited scalability, and challenged workflows to keep pace with the volume of data required for accurate planning. Decision-making often relied on fragmented information, slowing response times during critical in-season periods. The company’s planning teams needed a more connected, data-driven approach to improve speed, accuracy, and consistency across functions.
Die Lösung
Under Armour selected Blue Yonder to modernize its planning processes on a unified platform. Running on Blue Yonder Platform powered by Microsoft Azure public cloud, its solutions include Fulfillment, Demand, Supply Planning, Merchandise Financial Planning, and Allocation. Through its transformation, Under Armour has taken a sizable step forward in driving unified decisioning, improving forecast accuracy, and delivering measurable planning improvements across its global regions.
“What really led us to Blue Yonder was the strength of its out of the box capabilities. We weren't looking for point solutions, and we also weren't looking for a highly free form tool that could be configured endlessly. We already had disparate processes across the planning organization! Blue Yonder stood out because it brought mature, proven planning processes with best practices embedded directly into the platform."
–Kelly Maher, SVP of End-to-End Planning and Global Supply Chain Operations, Under Armour
Aligning planning with real-time demand signals
Forecasting challenges can stem from disconnected systems and inconsistent data inputs. Merchandising and planning teams operated with limited synchronization, which can risk gaps between financial plans and operational execution. Addressing these gaps with the Blue Yonder end to end solution has strengthened Under Armour’s capability to improve product availability and reduce markdown risk driven by overstocked inventory. The solution has also positioned Under Armour to create more efficient allocations across stores and channels, and improve visibility into real-time performance metrics.
Blue Yonder introduced a unified data foundation that connected demand signals, inventory positions, and financial plans. This shift has replaced static forecasts with dynamic models that adjust based on real-time inputs.
“Three things really stand out to us: Process alignment, one shared set of data, and faster, more confident decisions. Moving to a single, end to end platform has shifted us from a very linear supply chain to a more connected planning continuum; one that's anchored in innovation and decision making, not just execution,” says Maher.
Driving precision in allocation and fulfillment
Under Armour’s allocation processes previously relied on manual intervention and historical assumptions. This approach limited its ability to optimize product placement across stores and channels.
With Blue Yonder Allocation, inventory distribution has become more data-driven. The solution evaluates demand signals, store performance, and inventory levels to determine optimal product placement.
Blue Yonder Fulfillment has also helped Under Armour’s processes become more efficient. Automation has reduced the need for manual adjustments, allowing the company’s teams to focus on higher-value activities such as strategic planning and exception management.
Integrating financial and merchandise planning
Under Armour’s financial planning and merchandise planning processes previously often operated in parallel rather than as a fully integrated process, which created inconsistencies between financial targets and operational execution.
Blue Yonder Merchandise Financial Planning (MFP) has introduced a more synchronized approach. The solution uses predictive analytics to inform sales, inventory, and margin plans by channel, category, and time period. MFP incorporates historical sales patterns, seasonality, promotional, and pricing behavior to ensure financial plans are aligned with execution.
Under Armour’s planning teams can also evaluate scenarios more effectively. For example, changes in pricing or promotions can be assessed for impact on both revenue and inventory levels before execution. The result is a more disciplined planning process that balances growth objectives with margin protection.
Looking ahead to expanding advanced planning capabilities
Under Armour continues to build on the foundation established with Blue Yonder. Its priorities include expanding the use of AI and increasing automation across additional planning processes. Increased usage of Blue Yonder Merchandise Financial Planning will support deeper scenario analysis and more precise financial alignment, and use cases within Supply Planning are expected to enhance responsiveness to demand fluctuations.
Under Armour has transformed planning and inventory management by adopting a connected, data-driven platform from Blue Yonder. This transformation has established a scalable foundation for continued innovation in planning and supply chain operations.
“We've made a strong commitment to the partnership, and it really feels like we're entering the optimization and innovation phase together where we can continue to learn, evolve, and scale the impact of the platform in a very practical, sustainable way,”
–Kelly Maher, SVP of End-to-End Planning and Global Supply Chain Operations, Under Armour
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