Under Armour (UA) 10-K2020 FY Annual report

Our business has been and may continue to be materially impacted by the effects of the widespread outbreak of COVID-19, which was reported to have surfaced first in December 2019 and declared a global pandemic in March 2020. This pandemic has negatively affected the U.S. and global economies, disrupted global supply chains and financial markets, and led to significant travel and business restrictions, including mandatory closures, orders to “shelter-in-place” and restrictions on how businesses operate.

The COVID-19 pandemic materially negatively impacted our business and results of operations in Fiscal 2020, and the extent and duration of ongoing impacts remain uncertain. The pandemic resulted in temporary closures of our retail stores and the stores of our wholesale customers where our products are sold, reduced consumer traffic and consumer spending, temporary layoffs of certain employees in our North America retail stores and distribution centers and incremental operating expenses from adopting preventative health and safety measures in our stores and distribution centers. These negative impacts to our business may continue through Fiscal 2021 or later depending on the development of the virus and related responses. Related industries have been and may continue to be adversely affected, including distribution and logistics and manufacturing and textile production. Professional, collegiate and amateur sporting leagues, events and activities experienced postponements or cancellations. We are unable to predict with certainty the near and long-term impacts of the pandemic on consumer behavior. To the extent the impact of COVID-19 continues or worsens, consumer behavior may be altered for an extended period, which could impact our sales, cash generated from operations and liquidity and financial condition.

Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic disruption has also led to significant volatility in the capital markets and adversely impacted our stock price. While we took measures throughout Fiscal 2020 to maintain our operations and preserve and enhance our access to liquidity, our cash generated from operations has been negatively impacted and future cash flows may be further impacted by the development of the pandemic. If we are unable to effectively manage our spending in response, our profitability may be negatively impacted. Further, currently many of our employees in our corporate offices are working remotely. An extended period of remote work arrangements could strain our business continuity plans, introduce operational risk, including but not limited to cybersecurity risks, and impair our ability to manage our business. The disruption caused by the pandemic has also disrupted the operations of our business partners, including our customers, suppliers, and vendors, and the financial condition of certain of our partners has been significantly impacted. We cannot predict the impact the pandemic will continue to have on these partners and any material effect on these parties could negatively impact us.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic may also exacerbate other risks discussed below, any of which could have a material effect on us. Though we continue to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic closely, the situation is changing rapidly, including a resurgence in many countries, and additional impacts may arise that we are not aware of currently.

Many of our products may be considered discretionary items for consumers. Many factors impact discretionary spending, including general economic conditions, unemployment, the availability of consumer credit and consumer confidence in future economic conditions. Uncertainty in global economic conditions continues, particularly in light of the impacts of COVID-19, and trends in consumer discretionary spending remain unpredictable. The United States and other countries have experienced a significant increase in unemployment and financial markets remain turbulent. Historically, consumer purchases of discretionary items tend to decline during recessionary periods when disposable income is lower or during other periods of economic instability or uncertainty, which may lead to declines in sales and slow our long-term growth expectations. Any near or long-term downturn in

The market for performance apparel, footwear and accessories is highly competitive and includes many new competitors as well as increased competition from established companies expanding their production and marketing of performance products. Many of our competitors are large apparel and footwear companies with strong worldwide brand recognition. Due to the fragmented nature of the industry, we also compete with other manufacturers, including those specializing in products similar to ours and private label offerings of certain retailers, including some of our retail customers. Many of our competitors have significant competitive advantages, including greater financial, distribution, marketing, digital and other resources, longer operating histories, better brand recognition among consumers, more experience in global markets, greater ability to invest in technology and the digital consumer experience and greater economies of scale. In addition, our competitors have long-term relationships with our key retail customers that are potentially more important to those customers because of the significantly larger volume and product mix that our competitors sell to them. As a result, these competitors may be better equipped than we are to influence consumer preferences or otherwise increase their market share by quickly adapting to changes in customer requirements or consumer preferences, readily taking advantage of acquisition and other opportunities, discounting excess inventory that has been written down or written off, devoting resources to the marketing and sale of their products, including significant advertising, media placement, partnerships and product endorsement, adopting aggressive pricing policies and engaging in lengthy and costly intellectual property and other disputes.

Our industry is subject to significant pricing pressure caused by many factors, including intense competition, consolidation in the retail industry, pressure from retailers to reduce the costs of products and changes in consumer demand. These factors may cause us to reduce our prices to retailers and consumers or engage in more promotional activity than we anticipate, which could negatively impact our margins and cause our profitability to decline if we are unable to offset price reductions with comparable reductions in our operating costs. For example, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on our industry, we and many of our competitors have engaged in, and may continue to engage in, additional promotional activities focused around e-commerce sales in managing excess inventory levels. Ongoing and sustained promotional activities could negatively impact our brand image. On the other hand, if we are unwilling to engage in promotional activity on a scale similar to that of our competitors, for instance, to protect our premium brand positioning, and unable to simultaneously offset declining promotional activity with increased sales at premium price points, our ability to achieve short-term growth targets may be negatively impacted, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

The fabrics used by our suppliers and manufacturers are made of raw materials including petroleum-based products and cotton. Significant price fluctuations or shortages in petroleum or other raw materials can materially adversely affect our cost of goods sold. In addition, certain of our manufacturers are subject to government regulations related to wage rates, and therefore the labor costs to produce our products may fluctuate. The cost of

We operate retail, distribution and warehousing facilities and offices around the world and substantially all of our manufacturers are located outside of the United States. We are subject to numerous risks and events beyond our control which could negatively impact consumer spending or the operations of us or our customers or business partners, and therefore our results of operations, including political or labor unrest, military conflict, terrorism, public health crises, disease epidemics or pandemics (such as COVID-19), natural disasters, extreme weather conditions and economic instability resulting in the disruption of trade from foreign countries; the imposition of new laws and regulations, including those relating to labor conditions, minimum wage, quality and safety standards and disease epidemics or other public health concerns, as well as rules and regulations regarding climate change; uncertainties and the ongoing effect of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union; changes in trade policy or actions of foreign or U.S. governmental authorities impacting trade and foreign investment, particularly during periods of heightened tension between U.S. and foreign governments, including the imposition of new import limitations, duties, tariffs, anti-dumping penalties, trade restrictions or restrictions on the transfer of funds; and changes in local economic conditions in countries where our stores, customers, manufacturers and suppliers are located.

These risks could hamper our ability to sell products, negatively affect the ability of our manufacturers to produce or deliver our products or procure materials and increase our cost of doing business generally, any of which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations, profitability, cash flows and financial condition. In the event that one or more of these factors make it undesirable or impractical for us to conduct business in a particular country, our business could be adversely affected.

In Fiscal 2020, sales through our wholesale channel represented approximately 53% of our net revenues. We extend credit to our wholesale customers based on an assessment of a customer’s financial condition, generally without requiring collateral or getting customer insurance against non-collection. We face increased risk of order reduction or cancellation when dealing with financially ailing customers or customers struggling with economic uncertainty. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our wholesale customers throughout the world have had to temporarily close their stores or operate their stores under significant restrictions and continue to experience reduced consumer traffic and purchasing, which has resulted in lower sales and cancellations of orders of our products. The financial impact of continued temporary store closures and operating restrictions on many of our wholesale customers remains uncertain. However, if our wholesale customers continue to experience significant disruptions, this could result in further reductions or cancellations of orders or late or extended payment terms to us, which could negatively impact our results of operations. In addition, during weak economic conditions, customers may be more cautious with orders or may slow investments necessary to maintain a high quality in-store experience for consumers, which may result in lower sales of our products. Furthermore, a slowing economy in our key markets or a continued decline in consumer purchases of sporting goods generally could have an adverse effect on the financial health of our company.

From time to time certain of our customers have experienced financial difficulties. To the extent one or more of our customers experience significant financial difficulty, bankruptcy, insolvency or cease operations, this could have a material adverse effect on our sales, our ability to collect on receivables and our financial condition and results of operations.

Our ability to execute on our long-term strategies depends, in part, on successfully executing on strategic growth initiatives in key areas, such as our international business, footwear and our global direct-to-consumer sales channel. Our growth in these areas depends on our ability to continue to successfully grow our e-commerce and mobile application offerings and digital experiences throughout the world, expand our global network of brand and factory house stores and continue to successfully increase our product offerings and market share in footwear. Our ability to invest in these growth initiatives on the timeline and at the scale we expect will be negatively impacted if we continue to experience significant market disruption due to COVID-19 or other significant events, particularly if our North America business, which represented 66% of our total net revenues in Fiscal 2020, does not grow sufficiently. In addition, as we expand our global network of brand and factory house stores, if we are unable to operate our stores profitably, our financial results could be impacted, or we could be required to recognize impairment charges. For example, during Fiscal 2020, we recognized impairment charges related to a number of our retail stores as individual store profitability was significantly impacted by the effects of COVID-19. Our long-term strategy also depends on our ability to successfully drive expansion of our gross margins, manage our cost structure and drive return on our investments. If we cannot effectively execute our long-term growth strategies while managing costs effectively, our business could be negatively impacted and we may not achieve our expected results of operations.

Since 2017, we have executed three separate restructuring plans designed to more closely align our financial resources against the critical priorities of our business and rebalance our cost base to further improve future profitability and cash flow generation. We have also implemented several changes to our operating model. We may not achieve the operational improvements and efficiencies that we targeted in our restructuring plans and operating model changes, which could adversely impact our results of operations and financial condition. Implementing any restructuring plan or operating model change presents significant potential risks including, among others, higher than anticipated implementation costs, management distraction from ongoing business activities, failure to maintain adequate controls and procedures while executing our restructuring plans and operating model changes, damage to our reputation and brand image and workforce attrition beyond planned reductions. If we fail to achieve targeted operating improvements and/or cost reductions, our profitability and results of operations could be negatively impacted, which may be dilutive to our earnings in the short term.

Our success depends on our ability to identify and originate product trends and anticipate and react to changing consumer demands in a timely manner. All of our products are subject to changing consumer preferences that shift rapidly and cannot be predicted with certainty. Accordingly, our new products may not receive consumer acceptance. In addition, long lead times for certain of our products may make it hard for us to respond quickly to changes in consumer demands. Our ability to adequately react to and address consumer preferences depends in part upon our continued ability to develop and introduce innovative, high-quality products. Moreover, if consumers are not convinced performance apparel, footwear and accessories are a better choice than, and worth the additional cost over, traditional alternatives, sales of performance products may not grow or decline and growth in the industry and our business could be adversely affected. In addition, consumers are increasingly focused on the environmental and social policies of brands, including the sustainability of the products sold. From time to time, we may also introduce limited run or specialized products that may increase our sales in the near term, but that may fail to maintain sustained consumer demand. If we are unable to effectively anticipate and respond to consumer preferences as a result of any of these factors, our brand image could be negatively impacted, and our sales, net revenues and profitability may be negatively impacted.

Consumer preferences regarding the shopping experience continue to rapidly evolve. We sell our products through a variety of channels, including through wholesale customers and distribution partners, as well as our own direct-to-consumer business consisting of our brand and factory house stores and e-commerce platforms. If we or our wholesale customers do not provide consumers with an attractive in-store experience, our brand image and

We generate a significant portion of our wholesale revenues from sales to our largest customers. We currently do not enter into long-term sales contracts with our key customers, relying instead on our relationships with these customers and on our position in the marketplace. As a result, we face the risk that these key customers may not increase their business with us as we expect, or may significantly decrease their business with us or terminate their relationship with us. The failure to increase or maintain our sales to these customers as much as we anticipate would have a negative impact on our growth prospects and any decrease or loss of these key customers' business could result in a material decrease in our net revenues and net income or loss. For example, during Fiscal 2020 certain of our wholesale customers delayed purchases of our products or cancelled previously placed orders in response to pandemic-related store closures. These risks have materially increased and may persist as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. In addition, our customers continue to experience ongoing industry consolidation, particularly in the sports specialty sector. As this consolidation continues, it increases the risk that if any one customer significantly reduces their purchases of our products, we may be unable to find sufficient alternative customers to continue to grow our net revenues, or our net revenues may decline materially. In addition, we may from time to time exit relationships with certain wholesale customers to further drive our premium brand position. This may negatively impact our net revenues if we are unable to replace those sales with additional sales to our other customers.

A significant element of our growth strategy depends on our continued expansion outside of North America, and we have limited brand recognition and operating experience in certain regions. We must continue to successfully manage the operational difficulties associated with expanding our business to meet increased consumer demand throughout the world. We have limited experience with regulatory requirements and market practices in certain regions outside of North America, and may face difficulties expanding into and successfully operating in those markets, including differences in regulatory environments, labor and market practices, and difficulties in keeping abreast of market, business and technical developments and consumers’ tastes and preferences. We must also continually evaluate the need to expand critical functions in our business, including sales and marketing, product development and distribution functions, our management information systems and other processes and technology. We may not manage these efforts cost-effectively or these efforts could increase the strain on our existing resources. If we experience difficulties in supporting the growth of our business, we could experience an erosion of our brand image or operational challenges leading to a decrease in net revenues and results from operations.

To ensure adequate inventory supply, we must forecast inventory needs and place orders with our manufacturers before firm orders are placed by our customers. In addition, a significant portion of our net revenues may be generated by at-once orders for immediate delivery to customers, particularly during the last two quarters of the year, which historically has been our peak season. If we fail to accurately forecast customer demand we may experience excess inventory levels or a shortage of product to deliver to our customers. Excess inventory may result in inventory write-downs or write-offs or sales at discounted prices or in less preferred distribution channels, negatively impacting gross margin. On the other hand, if we underestimate the demand for our products, our manufacturers may not be able to produce products to meet our customer requirements, resulting in delays in the shipment of our products and our ability to recognize revenue, lost sales, as well as damage to our reputation and retailer and distributor relationships.

The difficulty in forecasting demand also makes it difficult to estimate our future results of operations and financial condition from period to period. A failure to accurately predict the level of demand for our products could adversely impact our profitability or cause us not to achieve our expected financial results. These risks have materially increased and may persist with the market disruption caused by COVID-19 and the expected high levels of inventory across our industry.

Many of the materials used in our products are technically advanced products developed by third parties and may be available, in the short-term, from a very limited number of sources. Substantially all of our products are manufactured by unaffiliated manufacturers, and, in Fiscal 2020, 10 manufacturers produced approximately 57% of our apparel and accessories products, and 6 produced substantially all of our footwear products. We have no long-term contracts with our suppliers or manufacturing sources, and we compete with other companies for fabrics, raw materials, production and import quota capacity.

A number of factors may require us to seek alternative or additional suppliers, which we may not be able to do in a timely or cost-effective manner. We may experience a significant disruption in the supply of fabrics or raw materials from current sources or, in the event of a disruption, we may be unable to locate alternative materials suppliers of comparable quality at an acceptable price, or at all. Moreover, our suppliers may not be able to fill our orders in a timely manner depending on market conditions or increased demand for product. In addition, in Fiscal 2020 certain of our manufacturers experienced significant financial and operational disruption due to COVID-19. We have historically provided supply chain finance support to certain of our supply chain partners, and the financial markets supporting supply chain finance programs experienced disruption in 2020, resulting in a temporary disruption to our program and challenging the cash flow and liquidity of our partners. While we worked with our partners through the disruption and have re-established a supply chain finance program, if one or more of our suppliers were to experience significant financial difficulty, bankruptcy, insolvency or cease operations, we may be required to seek alternative suppliers. In addition, if we lose or need to replace an existing manufacturer or supplier as a result of adverse economic conditions or other reasons, additional supplies of fabrics or raw materials or additional manufacturing capacity may not be available when required on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all, or suppliers or manufacturers may not be able to allocate sufficient capacity to us in order to meet our requirements. Even if we are able to expand existing or find new manufacturing or fabric sources, we may encounter delays in production and added costs as a result of the time it takes to train our suppliers and manufacturers on our methods, products and quality control standards. Any delays, interruption or increased costs in the supply of fabric or manufacture of our products could have an adverse effect on our ability to meet retail customer and consumer demand for our products and result in lower net revenues and net income (or higher net loss) both in the short and long term.

We have occasionally received, and may in the future continue to receive, shipments of product that fail to conform to our quality control standards. If we are unable to obtain replacement products in a timely manner, we risk the loss of net revenues resulting from the inability to sell those products and related increased administrative and shipping costs. In addition, because we do not control our manufacturers, products that fail to meet our standards or other unauthorized products could end up in the marketplace without our knowledge, which could harm our brand and our reputation in the marketplace.

Our business depends on our ability to source and distribute products in a timely manner. As a result, we rely on the free flow of goods through open and operational ports worldwide and on a consistent basis from our suppliers and manufacturers. Labor disputes and disruptions at various ports or at our suppliers or manufacturers could create significant risks for our business, particularly if these disputes result in work slowdowns, decreased operations, lockouts, strikes or other disruptions during our peak importing or manufacturing seasons. For example, COVID-19 has resulted in delays and disruptions at ports due to workforce decreases, shipping backlogs and

From time to time, we may engage in acquisition opportunities we believe are complementary to our business and brand. Integrating acquired businesses can require significant efforts and resources, which could divert management attention from more profitable business operations. From time to time we have also disposed of certain assets where we did not think our activities aligned to our operating model. If we fail to successfully integrate acquired businesses or effectively manage dispositions, we may not realize the financial benefits or other synergies we anticipated. In addition, in connection with our acquisitions, we may record goodwill or other indefinite-lived intangible assets. We have recognized goodwill impairment charges in the past, including in Fiscal 2020 with respect to our Latin America reporting unit, and our Canada reporting unit, within our North America operating segment. Additional goodwill impairment charges could have an adverse effect on our results of operations and financial position. Additionally, from time to time, we may invest in business infrastructure, new businesses and expansion of existing businesses, such as the expansion of our network of brand and factory house stores and our distribution facilities, implementing our global operating and financial reporting information technology system, supporting our digital strategy (including our e-commerce platform), or supporting our corporate infrastructure (including our global and regional headquarters). These investments require substantial cash investments and management attention, and infrastructure investments may also divert funds from other potential business opportunities. We believe cost effective investments are essential to business growth and profitability. The failure of any significant investment to provide the returns or synergies we expect could adversely affect our financial results.

Our business could be adversely impacted if negative publicity regarding our brand, our company or our business partners diminishes the appeal of our brand to consumers. For example, while we require our suppliers, manufacturers and licensees of our products to operate their businesses in compliance with applicable laws and regulations as well as the social and other standards and policies we impose on them, including our code of conduct, we do not control the conduct of these third parties. A violation, or alleged violation of our policies, labor laws or other laws could interrupt or otherwise disrupt our sourcing or damage our brand image. Negative publicity regarding production methods, alleged practices or workplace or related conditions of any of our suppliers, manufacturers or licensees could adversely affect our reputation and sales and force us to locate alternative suppliers, manufacturers or licensees. The risk that our business partners may not act in accordance with our expectations may be exacerbated in markets where our direct sales, supply chain or logistics operations are not as widespread. In addition, we have sponsorship contracts with a variety of athletes, teams and leagues, and many athletes and teams use our products. Negative publicity regarding these partners could negatively impact our brand image and result in diminished loyalty to our brand, regardless of whether such claims are accurate. Furthermore, social media can potentially accelerate and increase the scope of negative publicity. This could diminish the value of our proprietary rights or harm our reputation or have a negative effect on our sales and results of operations.

A key element of our marketing strategy has been to create a link in the consumer market between our products and professional and collegiate athletes. We have developed licensing agreements to be the official supplier of performance apparel and footwear to a variety of sports teams and leagues at the collegiate and professional level and sponsorship agreements with athletes. However, as competition in the performance apparel and footwear industry has increased, the costs associated with athlete sponsorships and official supplier licensing agreements, including the costs of obtaining and retaining these sponsorships and agreements, have varied and at times increased greatly. If we are unable to maintain our current association with professional and collegiate athletes, teams and leagues, or to do so at a reasonable cost, we could lose the on-field authenticity associated with our products, and we may be required to modify and substantially increase our marketing investments. In addition, because professional and collegiate athletics and other sporting events have been largely cancelled or delayed in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic and future plans for these remain uncertain, we may not realize

We rely on a limited number of distribution facilities for our product distribution. Our distribution facilities utilize computer controlled and automated equipment, which means the operations are complicated and may be subject to a number of risks related to security or computer viruses or malware, the proper operation of software and hardware, power interruptions or other system failures. In addition, because many of our products are distributed from a limited number of locations, our operations could also be interrupted by severe weather conditions, floods, fires or other natural disasters in these locations, as well as labor or other operational difficulties or interruptions, including public health crises or disease epidemics. For example, the current COVID-19 pandemic may impede our ability to operate our distribution facilities at full capacity and may similarly impact our third-party logistics providers. We maintain business interruption insurance, but it may not adequately protect us from the adverse effects that could be caused by significant disruptions in our distribution facilities or from all types of events causing such disruptions. Significant disruptions could lead to loss of customers or an erosion of our brand image. In addition, our distribution capacity is dependent on the timely performance of services by third parties. This includes the shipping of product to and from our distribution facilities, as well as partnering with third-party distribution facilities in certain regions where we do not maintain our own facilities. From time to time, certain of our partners have experienced disruptions to their operations, including cyber-related disruptions. If we or our partners encounter such problems, our results of operations, as well as our ability to meet customer expectations, manage inventory, complete sales and achieve objectives for operating efficiencies could be materially adversely affected.

Our business and global operations rely on information technology. Our ability to effectively manage and maintain our inventory and internal reports, and to ship products to customers and invoice them on a timely basis depends significantly on our enterprise resource planning, warehouse management, and other information systems. We also heavily rely on information systems to process financial and accounting information for financial reporting purposes. Any of these information systems could fail or experience a service interruption for a number of reasons, including computer viruses or malware, programming errors, hacking or other unlawful activities, disasters or our failure to properly maintain system redundancy or protect, repair, maintain or upgrade our systems, and, although we maintain business continuity plans, there can be no assurance that our business continuity plans, or those of our vendors, will effectively resolve the issues in a timely manner or adequately protect us from the adverse effects that could be caused by significant disruptions in our information systems. The failure of our information systems to operate effectively or to integrate with other systems, or a breach in security of these systems could cause delays in product fulfillment and reduced efficiency of our operations, which could negatively impact our financial results. If we experience any significant disruption to our financial information systems that we are unable to mitigate, our ability to timely report our financial results could be impacted, which could negatively impact our stock price. We also communicate electronically throughout the world with our employees and with third parties, such as customers, suppliers, vendors and consumers. A service interruption or shutdown could have a material adverse impact on our operating activities. Remediation and repair of any failure, problem or breach of our key information systems could require significant capital investments.

In addition, we interact with many of our consumers through our e-commerce website and our mobile applications, and these systems face similar risk of interruption or cyberattack. Consumers increasingly utilize these services to purchase our products and to engage with our digital community. If we are unable to continue to provide consumers a user-friendly experience and evolve our platform to satisfy consumer preferences, the growth of our e-commerce business and our net revenues may be negatively impacted. The performance of our digital business is dependent on reliable performance of its products, applications and services and the underlying technical infrastructure, which incorporate complex software. If this software contains errors, bugs or other vulnerabilities which impede or halt service, this could result in damage to our reputation and brand, loss of users or loss of revenue.

In 2015, we began the process of implementing a global operating and financial reporting information technology system, SAP Fashion Management Solution ("FMS"), as part of a multi-year plan to integrate and

Our future success is substantially dependent on the continued service of our senior management, particularly Kevin A. Plank, our founder, Executive Chairman and Brand Chief, Patrik Frisk, our Chief Executive Officer and President, other top executives and key employees who have substantial experience and expertise in our business, including product creation, innovation, sales, marketing, operational and other support personnel. The loss of the services of our senior management or other key employees could make it more difficult to successfully operate our business and achieve our business goals and could result in harm to key customer relationships, loss of key information, expertise or know-how and unanticipated recruitment and training costs.

In addition, to profitably grow our business and manage our operations, we will need to continue to attract, retain and motivate highly talented management and other employees with a range of skills, backgrounds and experiences. Competition for employees in our industry is intense and we may experience difficulty in attracting the personnel necessary to support the growth of our business. If we are unable to attract, assimilate and retain management and other employees with the necessary skills, we may not be able to grow or successfully operate our business and achieve our long-term objectives. In addition, we have invested significant time and resources in building, maintaining and evolving our company culture and our values, which we believe to be critical to our future success. Failure to maintain and continue to evolve our culture could negatively affect our ability to attract, retain and motivate our employees and to achieve our long-term objectives.

We have, from time to time, financed our liquidity needs in part from borrowings made under our credit facility and the issuance of debt securities. Our Senior Notes limit our ability to, subject to certain significant exceptions, incur secured debt and engage in sale leaseback transactions. Our amended credit agreement contains negative covenants that, subject to significant exceptions limit our ability, among other things to incur additional indebtedness, make restricted payments, sell or dispose of assets, pledge assets as security, make investments, loans, advances, guarantees and acquisitions, undergo fundamental changes and enter into transactions with affiliates. In addition, during specified periods, we must maintain a certain leverage ratio and interest coverage ratio as defined in the amended credit agreement. Our ability to continue to borrow amounts under our amended credit agreement is limited by continued compliance with these financial covenants, and in the past we have amended our credit agreement to provide certain relief from and revisions to our financial covenants for specified future periods and provide us with sufficient access to liquidity during those periods. During certain quarters, our amended credit agreement requires us to maintain a specified amount of minimum liquidity. If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to maintain this liquidity level, we may need to take further actions to reduce our expenditures, and potentially seek alternative sources of liquidity, including but not limited to accessing the capital markets, sale leaseback transactions or other sales of assets, or other alternative financing measures. Failure to comply with these operating or financial covenants could result from, among other things, changes in our results of operations or general economic conditions. These covenants may restrict our ability to engage in transactions that would otherwise be in our best interests. Failure to comply with any of the covenants under the amended credit agreement or our Senior Notes could result in a default, which could negatively impact our access to liquidity.

Managing and growing our business will require significant cash outlays and capital expenditures and commitments. We have utilized cash on hand and cash generated from operations, accessed our credit facility and issued debt securities as sources of liquidity. During the first and second quarter of Fiscal 2020, our cash generated from operations was negatively impacted due to widespread temporary store closures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, we amended our credit agreement to provide certain relief from and revisions to our financial covenants for specified future periods and provide us with sufficient access to liquidity during those periods. In May 2020, we issued $500 million of Convertible Senior Notes and utilized the net proceeds to repay amounts outstanding under our revolving credit facility, thereby increasing our borrowing capacity under that facility. We also took a number of actions to preserve existing capital, including managing payments to vendors, allowing extended payment terms to certain customers, reducing capital expenditures and managing inventory levels. As of December 31, 2020, our cash and cash equivalents totaled $1.5 billion. However, if in future periods our cash on hand, cash generated from operations and availability under our credit agreement are not sufficient to meet our cash requirements, we will need to seek additional capital, potentially through debt or equity financing, to fund our operations and future growth. Our ability to access the credit and capital markets in the future as a source of liquidity, and the borrowing costs associated with such financing, are dependent upon market conditions and our credit rating and outlook. Our credit ratings have been downgraded in the past, and we cannot assure that we will be able to maintain our current ratings, which could increase our cost of borrowing in the future. In addition, equity financing may be on terms that are dilutive or potentially dilutive to our stockholders, and the prices at which new investors would be willing to purchase our securities may be lower than the current price per share of our common stock. The holders of new securities may also have rights, preferences or privileges which are senior to those of existing holders of common stock. If new sources of financing are required, but are insufficient or unavailable, we will be required to modify our growth and operating plans based on available funding, if any, which would harm our ability to grow our business.

In addition, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority announced in 2017 that it intends to phase out LIBOR by the end of 2021. Our credit agreement permits us to borrow based on an adjusted LIBOR rate, plus an applicable margin. While the credit agreement provides for a mechanism for determining an alternative interest rate following this phase out, uncertainty regarding alternative rates may make borrowing under our credit agreement or refinancing our other indebtedness more expensive or difficult to achieve on terms we consider favorable.

We have experienced, and expect to continue to experience, seasonal and quarterly variations in our net revenues and income or loss from operations. These variations are primarily related to the mix of our products sold during the fall selling season, including our higher price cold weather products, along with a larger proportion of higher margin direct-to-consumer sales. Our quarterly results may also vary based on the timing of customer orders. The majority of our net revenues are historically generated during the last two quarters of the calendar year. Our quarterly results of operations may also fluctuate significantly as a result of a variety of other factors, including, among other things, the timing of marketing expenses and changes in our product mix. As a result of these seasonal and quarterly fluctuations, we believe that comparisons of our operating results between different quarters within a single year are not necessarily meaningful and that these comparisons cannot be relied upon as indicators of our future performance. Any seasonal or quarterly fluctuations that we report in the future may not match the expectations of market analysts and investors. This could cause the price of our publicly traded stock to fluctuate significantly.

We maintain certain minority investments, and may in the future invest in additional minority investments, which we account for under the equity method, and are required to recognize our allocable share of its net income or loss in our consolidated financial statements. Our results of operations are affected by the performance of these businesses, over which we do not exercise control, and our net income or loss has been negatively impacted by losses realized by our Japanese licensee’s business. We are also required to regularly review our investments for impairment, and an impairment charge may result from the occurrence of adverse events or management decisions that impact the fair value or estimated future cash flows to be generated from our investments. During Fiscal 2020, we further impaired our investment in our Japanese licensee and recognized a $7.1 million charge as a result, and there is currently no carrying value associated with this investment. In addition, to the extent our Japanese licensee

We generated approximately 31% of our consolidated net revenues outside the United States. As our international business grows, our results of operations could be adversely impacted by changes in foreign currency exchange rates. Revenues and certain expenses in markets outside of the United States are recognized in local foreign currencies, and we are exposed to potential gains or losses from the translation of those amounts into U.S. dollars for consolidation into our financial statements. Similarly, we are exposed to gains and losses resulting from currency exchange rate fluctuations on transactions generated by our foreign subsidiaries in currencies other than their local currencies. In addition, the business of our independent manufacturers may also be disrupted by currency exchange rate fluctuations by making their purchases of raw materials more expensive and more difficult to finance. As a result, foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations may adversely impact our results of operations. In addition, we have previously designated cash flow hedges against certain forecasted transactions. If we determine that such a transaction is no longer probable to occur in the time period we expected, we are required to de-designated the hedging relationship and immediately recognize the derivative instrument gain or loss in our earnings. The ongoing impacts of COVID-19 have caused and may continue to cause uncertainty in forecasted cash flows, which has resulted and may continue to result in the de-designation of certain hedged transactions.

The labeling, distribution, importation, marketing and sale of our products are subject to extensive regulation by various federal agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Product Safety Commission and state attorneys general in the United States, as well as by various other federal, state, provincial, local and international regulatory authorities in the locations in which our products are distributed or sold. If we fail to comply with these regulations, we could become subject to significant penalties or claims or be required to recall products, which could negatively impact our results of operations and disrupt our ability to conduct our business, as well as damage our brand image with consumers. In addition, the adoption of new regulations or changes in the interpretation of existing regulations may result in significant unanticipated compliance costs or discontinuation of product sales and may impair the marketing of our products, resulting in significant loss of net revenues.

Our international operations are also subject to compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, and other anti-bribery laws applicable to our operations, as well as U.S. sanctions laws. Although we have policies and procedures to address compliance with the FCPA and similar laws and sanctions requirements, there can be no assurance that all of our employees, contractors, agents and other partners will not take actions in violations of our policies or that our procedures will effectively mitigate against such risks. Any such violation could subject us to sanctions or other penalties that could negatively affect our reputation, business and operating results.

We collect sensitive and proprietary business information as well as personally identifiable information in connection with digital marketing, digital commerce, our in-store payment processing systems and our digital business (including our Connected Fitness business). In particular, in our digital business we collect and store a variety of information regarding our users, and allow users to share their personal information with each other and with third parties. We also rely on third parties for the operation of certain of our e-commerce websites, and do not control these service providers. Hackers and data thieves are increasingly sophisticated and operate large scale and complex automated attacks. Any breach of our data security or that of our service providers or cyber fraud incident could result in an unauthorized release or transfer of customer, consumer, vendor, user or employee information, or the loss of money, valuable business data or cause a disruption in our business. These events could give rise to unwanted media attention, damage our reputation, damage our customer, consumer or user relationships and result in lost sales, fines or lawsuits. We may also be required to expend significant capital and other resources to protect against or respond to or alleviate problems caused by a security breach, which could negatively impact our results of operations. Like other companies in our industry, we have in the past experienced, and we expect to continue to experience, cyberattacks, including phishing, cyber fraud incidents and other attempts

We must also comply with increasingly complex and evolving regulatory standards throughout the world enacted to protect personal information and other data. Compliance with existing, proposed and forthcoming laws and regulations can be costly and could negatively impact our profitability. For example, the European Union adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which became effective in May 2018, and California passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), which became effective in January 2020. These laws impose additional obligations on companies regarding the handling of personal data and provide certain individual privacy rights to persons whose data is stored. In addition, data privacy laws and regulations continue to evolve. For example, in 2016, the European Union and the United States agreed to a framework for data transferred from the European Union to the United States, called the Privacy Shield. However, in July 2020 the Privacy Shield was invalidated by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) and the alternative basis upon which companies can continue to transfer data remains subject to continued regulatory and judicial scrutiny. As requirements continue to evolve, it may be costly for us to adjust our operations to comply with new requirements. Failure to comply with these regulatory standards could result in a violation of data privacy laws and regulations and subject us to legal proceedings against us by governmental entities or others, imposition of fines by governmental authorities, negative publicity and damage to our brand image, all of which could have a negative impact on our profitability.

We are subject to income taxes in the United States and numerous foreign jurisdictions. Our effective income tax rate could be adversely affected in the future by a number of factors, including changes in the mix of earnings in countries with differing statutory tax rates, changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities, changes in tax laws and regulations or their interpretations and application, the outcome of income tax audits in various jurisdictions around the world, and any repatriation of non-U.S. earnings for which we have not previously provided applicable foreign withholding taxes, certain U.S. state income taxes, or foreign exchange rate impacts. We are unable to predict what impact future tax reform efforts may have on our results of operations, including as a result of any changes enacted during the new U.S. presidential administration.

Additionally, we engage in multiple types of intercompany transactions, and our allocation of profits and losses among us and our subsidiaries through our intercompany transfer pricing arrangements are subject to review by the Internal Revenue Service and foreign tax authorities. Although we believe we have clearly reflected the economics of these transactions and the proper documentation is in place, tax authorities may propose and sustain adjustments that could result in changes that may impact our tax provision. Moreover, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and many of the countries in which we do business continue to evaluate changes to tax laws which could significantly impact the allocation of profits and losses among us and our subsidiaries and impact our mix of earnings in countries with differing statutory rates.

We regularly assess all these matters to determine the adequacy of our tax provision, which is subject to significant judgment.

Our success depends in large part on our brand image. We currently rely on a combination of copyright, trademark, trade dress, patent and unfair competition laws, confidentiality procedures and licensing arrangements to establish and protect our intellectual property rights. The steps taken by us to protect our proprietary rights may not be adequate to prevent infringement of our trademarks and proprietary rights by others, including imitation of our products and misappropriation of our brand. In addition, intellectual property protection may be unavailable or limited in some jurisdictions. In addition, intellectual property rights in the technology, fabrics and processes used to manufacture the majority of our products are generally owned or controlled by our suppliers and are generally not unique to us, and our current and future competitors are able to manufacture and sell products with performance characteristics and fabrications similar to certain of our products.

From time to time, we have brought claims relating to intellectual property rights of others or have discovered unauthorized products in the marketplace that are either counterfeit reproductions of our products or unauthorized irregulars that do not meet our quality control standards. If we fail to protect, maintain and enforce our intellectual property rights, the value of our brand could decrease and our competitive position may suffer. In

We are currently involved in a variety of litigation, investigations and other legal matters and may be subject to additional investigations, arbitration proceedings, audits, regulatory inquiries and similar actions, including matters related to commercial disputes, intellectual property, employment, securities laws, disclosures, tax, accounting, class action and product liability, as well as trade, regulatory and other claims related to our business and our industry, which we refer to collectively as legal proceedings. For example, we are subject to an ongoing securities class action proceeding regarding our prior disclosures (including regarding the use of "pull forward" sales and the investigations referred to below) and derivative complaints regarding related matters, as well as past related party transactions, among other proceedings. Refer to Note 10 to our Consolidated Financial Statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding these specific matters. In addition, as previously disclosed in November 2019, we have been responding to requests for documents and information from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Department of Justice (“DOJ”) beginning with submissions to the SEC in July 2017, and in July 2020 we and two members of our senior management received “Wells Notices” from the SEC relating to our disclosures covering the third quarter of 2015 through the period ending December 31, 2016, regarding the use of “pull forward” sales in connection with revenue during those quarters. In the course of cooperating with the SEC and DOJ requests, we have reviewed our disclosures and we continue to believe they were appropriate. However, we cannot predict the outcome of any particular proceeding, or whether ongoing investigations, including the SEC and DOJ investigations, will be resolved favorably or ultimately result in charges or material damages, fines or other penalties, enforcement actions, bars against serving as an officer or director, or practicing before the SEC, or civil or criminal proceedings against us or members of our senior management.

Legal proceedings in general, and securities and class action litigation and regulatory investigations in particular, can be expensive and disruptive. Our insurance may not cover all claims that may be asserted against us, and we are unable to predict how long the legal proceedings to which we are currently subject will continue. An unfavorable outcome of any legal proceeding may have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations or our stock price. Any proceeding could negatively impact our reputation among our customers or our shareholders. Furthermore, publicity surrounding ongoing legal proceedings, even if resolved favorably for us, could result in additional legal proceedings against us, as well as damage our brand image.

Our Class A common stock has one vote per share, our Class B common stock has 10 votes per share and our Class C common stock has no voting rights (except in limited circumstances). Our Executive Chairman and Brand Chief, Kevin A. Plank, beneficially owns all outstanding shares of Class B common stock. As a result, Mr. Plank has the majority voting control and is able to direct the election of all of the members of our Board of Directors and other matters we submit to a vote of our stockholders. Under certain circumstances, the Class B common stock automatically converts to Class A common stock, which would also result in the conversion of our Class C common stock into Class A common stock. As specified in our charter, these circumstances include when Mr. Plank beneficially owns less than 15.0% of the total number of shares of Class A and Class B common stock outstanding, if Mr. Plank were to resign as an Approved Executive Officer of the Company (or was otherwise terminated for cause) or if Mr. Plank sells more than a specified number of any class of our common stock within a one-year period. This concentration of voting control may have various effects including, but not limited to, delaying or preventing a change of control or allowing us to take action that the majority of our stockholders do not otherwise support. In addition, we utilize shares of our Class C common stock to fund employee equity incentive programs and may do so in connection with future stock-based acquisition transactions, which could prolong the duration of Mr. Plank’s voting control.

The trading prices of our Class A and Class C common stock may differ and fluctuate from time to time in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. These factors may include, among others, overall performance of the equity markets and the economy as a whole, variations in our quarterly results of operations or those of our competitors, our ability to meet our published guidance and securities analyst expectations, or recommendations by securities analysts. In addition, our non-voting Class C common stock has traded at a discount to our Class A common stock, and there can be no assurance that this will not continue.

Under Armour’s Class A Common Stock and Class C Common Stock are traded on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the symbols “UAA” and "UA", respectively. As of January 31, 2021, there were 1,765 record holders of our Class A Common Stock, 5 record holders of Class B Convertible Common Stock which are beneficially owned by our Executive Chairman and Brand Chief, Kevin A. Plank, and 1,170 record holders of our Class C Common Stock.

The following MD&A is intended to help readers understand our results of operations and financial condition, and is provided as a supplement to, and should be read in conjunction with, our Consolidated Financial Statements and the accompanying Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements under Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. All dollar and percentage comparisons made herein refer to the year ended December 31, 2020 ("Fiscal 2020") compared with the year ended December 31, 2019 ("Fiscal 2019"), unless otherwise noted. Please refer to Part II, Item 7 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for Fiscal 2019, filed with the Securities Exchange Commission ("SEC") on February 26, 2020, for a comparative discussion of our Fiscal 2019 financial results as compared to year ended December 31, 2018 ("Fiscal 2018"). See "Forward-looking statements."

The Company will continue to permanently reinvest these earnings, as well as future earnings from our foreign subsidiaries, to fund international growth and operations. If we were to repatriate indefinitely reinvested foreign funds, we would be required to accrue and pay certain taxes upon repatriation, including foreign withholding taxes and certain U.S. state taxes and record foreign exchange rate impacts. Determination of the unrecorded deferred tax liability that would be incurred if such amounts were repatriated is not practicable.

On March 8, 2019, we entered into an amended and restated credit agreement by and among the Company, as borrower, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., as administrative agent, and the other lenders and arrangers party thereto (the “credit agreement”). The credit agreement has a term of five years, maturing in March 2024, with permitted extensions under certain circumstances. In May 2020, we entered into an amendment to the credit agreement (the “amendment” and, the credit agreement as amended, the “amended credit agreement” or the “revolving credit facility”), pursuant to which the prior revolving credit commitments were reduced from $1.25 billion to $1.1 billion of borrowings. From time to time throughout Fiscal 2020, we borrowed funds under this facility as a precautionary measure in order to increase our cash position and preserve liquidity given the ongoing uncertainty in global markets resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. As of the end of Fiscal 2020 and Fiscal 2019, there were no amounts outstanding under the revolving credit facility.

In connection with the issuance of the Convertible Senior Notes, we recorded an $11 million net deferred tax liability and a corresponding reduction in valuation allowance. As a result, there was no net impact to our deferred income taxes or additional paid in capital on the Consolidated Financial Statements.

The future cash installment payments for the one-time transition tax on deemed repatriation of undistributed earnings of foreign subsidiaries enacted as part of the Tax Act in 2017, will be fully offset by our net operating loss carryback receivable under the CARES Act and therefore are no longer reflected as a long-term liability as of the balance sheet date.