For the Sochi Olympics, as the sponsor of the US skating team, Under Armour has sponsored the US olympics skating team with its state-of-art sportswear, that was supposed to deliver optimal performances for the skating team. Tested in the labs, and thought to be the most efficient technology around, it was considered a secret by the team, only to be revealed on the day of the competitions.

However, the team was severely under performing, ending up with no medal in the end. Things started getting really bad for under armour as the players and coaches started blaming their losses on the under armour skating suits and even changed back to their old outfits. After it was made public, it didn’t matter whether the problem actually did lie in the skating suits itself, or whether it was just a matter of the US skaters being outperformed. The damage was already done, and under armours brand image was badly tarnished.

I think that the best thing under armour could do in the situation is to maintain silence, and  be quick on developing the next best thing, quickly covering up this negative direction that the brand is taking due to its olympic catastrophe. While the article indicates that under armour is trying to be defensive and talk about all their lab tests, it is quite obvious that no matter how much truth they tell, only the next performance will determine weather the brand image will be revived, or tarnished even more.

http://www.brandingmagazine.com/2014/02/19/under-armour-brand-management-problem-sochi/