Under Armour 2014 Annual Report Download - page 18

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p
roducts and new businesses and investments, particularly in our Connected Fitness business. As we continue to
ex
p
and and drive innovation in our
p
roducts, we ex
p
ect to seek
p
atent
p
rotection on
p
roducts, features an
d
concepts we believe to be strategic and important to our business. We will continue to file patent application
s
where we deem appropriate to protect our new products, innovations and designs, and we expect the number of
applications to increase as our business grows and as we continue to expand our products and innovate
.
C
om
p
et
i
t
i
on
The market for performance apparel, footwear and accessories is highly competitive and includes many ne
w
competitors as well as increased competition from established companies expanding their production an
d
marketing of performance products. Many of the fabrics and technology used in manufacturing our products ar
e
not unique to us, and we own a limited number of fabric or process patents. Many of our competitors are larg
e
apparel and footwear companies with strong worldwide brand recognition and significantly greater resources
than us, such as Nike and adidas. We also compete with other manufacturers, including those specializing i
n
o
utdoor apparel, and private label offerings of certain retailers, including some of our retail customers.
I
n addition, we must compete with others for purchasing decisions, as well as limited floor space at retailers
.
W
e believe we have been successful in this area because of the relationshi
p
s we have develo
p
ed and as a result o
f
the strong sales of our products. However, if retailers earn higher margins from our competitors’ products, they
may favor the display and sale of those products
.
We believe we have been able to compete successfully because of our brand image and recognition, th
e
p
erformance and quality of our products and our selective distribution policies. We also believe our focuse
d
gearline merchandising story differentiates us from our competition. In the future we expect to compete fo
r
consumer preferences and expect that we may face greater competition on pricing. This may favor larger
competitors with lower production costs per unit that can spread the effect of price discounts across a larger array
o
f products and across a larger customer base than ours. The purchasing decisions of consumers for our products
o
ften reflect highly subjective preferences that can be influenced by many factors, including advertising, media,
p
roduct sponsorships, product improvements and changing styles
.
E
m
pl
o
y
ees
A
s of December 31, 2014, we had approximately 10,700 employees, including approximately 7,000 in ou
r
brand and factory house stores and 1,2
6
0 at our distribution facilities. Approximately 4,300 of our employee
s
were full-time. Most of our employees are located in the United States. None of our employees in the
U
nited States are currently covered by a collective bargaining agreement and there are no material collectiv
e
bargaining agreements in effect in any of our international locations. We have had no labor-related wor
k
stoppages, and we believe our relations with our employees are good.
Ava
i
lable In
f
ormat
i
on
We will make available free of charge on or through our website at www.underarmour.com our annua
l
r
eports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to thes
e
r
eports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 1
5
(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonabl
y
p
racticable after we file these materials with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We also post on thi
s
website our key corporate governance documents, including our board committee charters, our corporate
governance guidelines and our code of conduct and ethics
.
8