A biography for Kevin Plankhasn’t been written yet.
“Nothing ever surprises me about the market.”
“Maryland is one of the greatest schools that we have in this country.”
“I realized early on that I was pretty good at organizing. A lot of it was about control. While my friends were out getting hammered at concerts, I was making money. I am a control freak.”
“I run five miles three times a week; I log everything. I look up routes when I travel.”
“Stop with the stupid messages. I don't need a message that says, 'Go on, you can do it today.' What does that mean?!”
“I believe people change. I think that they can learn from mistakes.”
“I don't have the option of getting fat. I like to try as much of our products as I can. Our sample size is size large, and I can't fit into our samples unless I'm at that size.”
“Go find out if you can make your product. Once you make it, stop projecting what's going to happen and go find out whether your product can sell. Find out whether someone is willing to take hard-earned cash out of their pocket and exchange it for your product.”
“At Under Armour, we've created a very strong culture, a culture that first and foremost is built on people.”
“It's absurd that you know more about your car than you know about your body.”
“I want people to believe in themselves. I want intellectual curiosity. I want someone who realizes that they don't know it all and that they're dying to learn.”
“I was a general business major, which meant that in any business school and particularly at Smith School, which is a very good school, you do a lot of team projects. Well I was the guy who gave the presentations for the team projects.”
“We don't tell a 17-year-old kid that Nike sucks, because the fact of the matter is, Nike doesn't suck. They're actually very good at what they do.”
“In getting Under Armour started, like any business, I think, number one, you need a great idea.”
“I wake up in the morning and I think about one brand. I don't have enough time to wake up twice and think about two.”
“Brands are about editing.”
“You're convincing these big, tough football players to wear what was essentially women's lingerie. There was a little bit of a Jedi mind trick that needed to take place. The product really spoke for itself once guys felt it and touched it.”
“Any self-respecting entrepreneur has borrowed money from their mother at some point.”
“I was a not-big-enough, not-fast-enough football player who wanted a little bit of an edge on the field. I figured my own sweat, if I could get that off my body, and more importantly, the weight that stood behind it, that would help.”
“I've got a pretty addictive personality.”