Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank speaks at Project Play Summit 2024, May 15 in Baltimore.
Photo: Howard Korn for the Aspen Institute
- Baltimore as Beacon with Kevin Plank
- Health Equity in Youth Sports, featuring Mike Locksley, Marci Goolsby & Mayrena Hernandez
- The Key to 63, featuring Christina Hixson, Kim Hegardt & Kevin Martinez
- Catch Her If You Can, featuring Diana Flores
- Service Learning Through Sports, featuring Josie Portell and Rishan Patel
- Building a Youth Sports Policy Agenda
- State of Play Session, featuring Maryland Gov. Wes Moore
Baltimore may not be his hometown, but Under Armour Founder and CEO Kevin Plank is committed to the city. With an ambitious project to raise high school graduation rates in Baltimore public schools and a new company headquarters opening in the fall, Plank is using the brand he built to energize a city he loves.
At the Project Play Summit on May 15, Plank discussed Project Rampart, an initiative Under Armour started in 2017 that has renovated Baltimore school gyms and outfitted every varsity athlete and coach in the city with uniforms.
“Every company has their own currency … for Under Armour, our currency is product,” Plank said.
The Under Armour executive hopes that Project Rampart will help increase participation in high school athletics,, along with the graduation rate (71%) of high school students in Baltimore. Plank called the city’s graduation rate “unacceptable on any level.”
“One in three kids isn’t going to make it through high school?” Plank said. “As Americans, let alone Baltimoreans, we should not accept that.”
Plank emphasized that while sports serves as an afternoon activity for high school students, it also can be a place of “belonging” and provide athletes with mentors. Plank believes these qualities can inspire positive academic outcomes for students, referring to data showing the graduation rate among Baltimore high school athletes is 93%.
Project Rampart has impacted 34,000 students in Baltimore. Plank said he wants Under Armour to expand the program to Washington, D.C., where the Aspen Institute is currently working on a State of Play Washington D.C. report.
However, Baltimore will always be home for Under Armour. The company’s new, 285,000- square foot headquarters, which opens in November, will solidify the company’s connection to the city.
For Plank, Under Armour is more than a brand that brings money to shareholders. It represents the city it inhabits, deriving its ambition from the “blue-collar” identity of the city, he said.
“We like to say we have not yet built our defining product as a brand,” Plank said “But we’re going to do it in that house and we’re going to do it with our anchored headquarters in Baltimore City.”
Student journalists from the University of Maryland’s Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism covered the Project Play Summit on behalf of the Aspen Institute. More of their stories can be found here. For Project Play’s recap of the Summit, click here. For the full Summit agenda, including replays of every session, click here. The full conversation with Plank can be found here.
