Under Armour and the Ravens turn sponsorship into retail experience

Move over logos and stadium signage. Under Armour and the Baltimore Ravens are taking their hometown relationship into its next era.

The Baltimore-based athleticwear brand and NFL team recently extended their partnership for another 10 years, with plans that include an exclusive Ravens x Under Armour collection, an expanded hospitality presence at M&T Bank Stadium, and continued investment in youth football.

For Under Armour, the extension reflects how sports sponsorships have increasingly become broader consumer and retail platforms.

“It’s been more of a strategic partnership together versus transactional,” Ryan Collins, Under Armour’s senior director of sports marketing, told Retail Brew. “It used to be that something was just some signage that has turned into a much wider and more expansive relationship than before.”

One of the biggest additions is an exclusive collection sold at the team’s Flock Shop at M&T Bank Stadium. But instead of releasing the products all at once, Under Armour is planning multiple drops throughout the season, allowing the product to shift alongside the weather and consumer demand.

“You’ll see the products start to evolve in those drops too, going from something that’s a little more warm-weather based to what is kind of fall and winter-esque,” Collins said. “We feel like having different drops allows us some newness, some freshness, and matches that seasonality.”

It will also lean into more elevated fan apparel, including products from Under Armour’s Unstoppable line.

“I think a little bit more premium, a little bit more elevated products, some tastefully done products are becoming more in high demand,” he said. “There’s a lot of just simple fan gear that is out there. We try to elevate and bring more of a premium touch to that.”

For now, Under Armour is keeping the collection exclusive to the stadium, partly because it wants to see how fans respond. The Ravens’ newly expanded team store is also accessible outside the stadium, meaning customers can shop there all year, not just on game days.

The partnership is also increasingly experiential. Under Armour has naming rights to the new Under Armour Landing hospitality area, located above the stadium store, creating what Collins described as an opportunity to extend the brand experience from shopping into game-day hospitality.

Can Under Armour replicate its retail drops, hospitality, and community programming with other teams?

“Absolutely,” Collins said, adding that the longstanding relationship has helped the brand understand “what works, what doesn’t work, what we need to tweak, and how we think about that for future partnerships.”