Baltimore, Md. – Unless you’ve been living in a television-free cave the past 10 years or so, you’ve heard of Under Armour, the sports apparel company that markets its high-performance gear through its often-raw â??Protect this house!â? commercials. What you don’t know about Under Armour is that it was launched by a guy who was then a student athlete at the University of Maryland in College Park.
The story of how former Terrapin football player Kevin Plank built Under Armour from an idea in 1995 to a company that will exceed $500 million in net revenue this year is instructive to young entrepreneurs everywhere.
It’s also a real-life example as the UW-Madison begins to work more with student entrepreneurs on its own campus, as well as other communities across Wisconsin, with the help of a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.