Beneath Armour’s Stephanie Linnartz Applies Classes Realized at Marriott to New Function

At first look, there will not be a variety of similarities between the hospitality business and the activewear area. However there are literally extra synergies than it seems — simply ask Stephanie Linnartz.

The brand new chief government officer of Beneath Armour spent greater than 25 years at Marriott Worldwide earlier than becoming a member of the Baltimore-based firm in February. And in her new position, she’s taking her learnings from Marriott and making use of them to the sports activities model.

“It was all about connecting with shoppers and constructing model love and loyalty at Marriott Worldwide,” she stated in dialog with Footwear Information government editor Katie Abel at WWD x FN x Magnificence Inc Girls in Energy in New York. “It’s the identical factor at Beneath Armour. It’s all about client connections. It’s all about making merchandise that individuals love and adore and may’t stay with out.”

Throughout her time at Marriott, Linnartz stated she watched it develop from a “comparatively small firm to the world’s largest lodge firm,” after it acquired Starwood Lodges and Resorts in 2016. “It was an exquisite journey and I liked each single minute,” she stated.

Nevertheless it was throughout the pandemic that she found it was time for a change.

“One of many industries that was most impacted was journey. And the corporate that I liked a lot went away in a single day. Our enterprise was down by 90 %, we laid off 80 % of the workers — it was actually devastating for the lives of so many. And at the very same time, my pricey good friend/boss/mentor for eight years, the CEO of Marriott Worldwide, was dying of pancreatic most cancers.”

Arne Sorenson finally died in early 2021 and his passing was “life-changing” for Linnartz. “I noticed life is brief. And I’ve at all times needed to guide an organization.” So when she was approached with the Beneath Armour alternative, she determined to make the leap.

Though she initially felt nervous about making this main transfer, she stated: “I at all times ask myself and others this query: do you want successful greater than you worry shedding? So I believed, let’s go for it.”

Apparently, she went to highschool throughout the road from Kevin Plank’s grandmother’s home, which is famously the place he based the corporate, in her basement. “So I grew up seeing the model begin from that to what it’s at this time. I’ve at all times had a deep love and affinity for Beneath Armour.”

As well as, she’s now in a task the place not a variety of ladies discover themselves — CEO of a significant sports activities model — and he or she hopes she is going to have an effect. “There aren’t a variety of ladies main lodge manufacturers both,” she stated, “so I believe there is a chance in a variety of industries, however definitely on this one for certain.”

She stated she’s “passionate” about supporting feminine athletes and in addition rising Beneath Armour’s ladies’s enterprise. “I simply assume there’s a lot potential,” she stated, pointing to the final NCAA ladies’s basketball event the place 9.9 million viewers watched the ultimate recreation, and the world-record-setting 92,000 followers who turned out to observe the Nebraska Cornhuskers ladies’s volleyball staff.

“It’s unbelievable to see ladies excelling in sports activities. And I simply really feel honored that I can have an effect and assist create merchandise for them to make them higher at their sports activities,” she stated. “Beneath Armour has at all times had this sturdy reference to male athletes. However I simply really feel like feminine athletes want an advocate on the within of a model.”

She stated Beneath Armour’s ladies’s enterprise accounts for lower than 25 % of complete gross sales, “and final time I checked, we have been 50 % of the inhabitants. So I believe we are able to do significantly better than that.”

In her new position, she’s making use of the teachings she realized at Marriott — grit, will to win and empathy — to Beneath Armour. And she or he’s already realized to work with Plank, who serves as government chairman and model chief.

“Kevin and I’ve complementary abilities,” she stated. “He’s very passionate, significantly across the product and storytelling. And I’m operating the corporate. We have now clear roles and duties and we’re discovering our means, however I believe it’s a great match. I additionally don’t have an ego, so I can let him be the star of the present when he desires to be with sure issues.”

Though she’s solely been on board a bit over six months, Linnartz has already made some large modifications, bringing John Varvatos on board as chief design officer and introducing a brand new loyalty program, UA Rewards.

“The loyalty program at Marriott was world-class,” she stated of the Bonvoy program, which has 180 million members. What she realized is that it “can’t simply be transactional. It must be about constructing experiences into the loyalty program.” So UA Rewards will decide one buyer for an all-expenses-paid journey to Baltimore to “hang around for the day with Steph Curry, certainly one of our athletes. That’s the sort of stuff that creates pleasure and buzz.”

Since becoming a member of Beneath Armour, Linnartz stated she’s had the chance to satisfy Curry and various the corporate’s athlete ambassadors, together with golfer Jordan Spieth and feminine soccer gamers Kelly O’Hara and Alex Greenwood. “Spending time with the athletes and understanding what they want and what they like and what they don’t like has been tremendous useful,” she stated.

And she or he’s additionally met with the workers. “You’ve bought to have a fantastic product, and also you’ve bought to have all the nice abilities in your staff. However on the finish of the day, it’s about constructing a tradition that individuals love and the place they need to work and the place they need to excel. And so I’m spending a variety of time on that.”

She’s additionally going to spend time rising the ladies’s enterprise. “A part of it’s actually designing higher product,” she stated. “We’ll at all times be engaged in efficiency. However that intersection of efficiency and magnificence and design is vital.” That’s the place Varvatos is available in. “He’s clearly an extremely proficient designer, however he’s an equally good human being and simply nice to work with day by day,” she stated. As well as, she’s bringing on sneaker branding specialists and different expertise to create merchandise each ladies and men need.

Past that, she stated her technique for Beneath Armour is targeted on three pillars. First is constructing again the “model warmth” within the U.S. “Beneath Armour has over 1,800 [UA-branded] shops in 100 completely different international locations. And relying on the place you’re on this planet, the model is kind of scorching, for instance, in Europe — significantly within the U.Ok., Spain, in Germany. However right here in the US, now we have work to do.”

The corporate is experiencing double-digit progress in Europe, and in Asia, athletes “simply adore Beneath Armour,” she stated. “However we actually have to supercharge our progress right here in the US.”

Second is to ship extra product for the “higher” and “greatest” a part of the pricing pyramid. “And we have to have higher advertising and distribution to help it,” she stated.

Third is to proceed to bolster the staff. She stated she’s trying to find a brand new chief product officer and just lately named a brand new head of retail who will broaden the corporate’s bodily presence within the U.S.

Very like the lodge business, attire retailing is “all concerning the expertise. After all, the bodily area must be stunning, however the service within the shops must be spectacular, and so they must be effectively merchandised,” she stated. “Within the case of Beneath Armour, we have to have a greater mixture of full value shops to retailers. We have now too many retailers as a proportion of our total portfolio on this nation. So I’m targeted on how we are able to construct out our footprint.”