Good morning, and welcome to the Under Armour, Inc. Second Quarter 2027 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Lance Allega, Senior Vice President of Finance and Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Under Armour's Fiscal 2027 Second Quarter Earnings Call. Today's call is being recorded, and a replay will be available at our investor relations website shortly after the call concludes. Joining us this morning are Kevin Plank, President and CEO, and Reza Taleghani, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, please note that certain statements made on today's call are forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. These statements reflect management's current expectations as of November 6, 2026, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. For a discussion of these results and risks and uncertainties, please refer to this morning's press release, our filings with the SEC, including our most recent Forms 10-K and 10-Q, and other public disclosures. During today's call, we may reference certain non-GAAP financial measures.
We believe these measures provide additional insight into the underlying trends of our business when considered alongside our GAAP results. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in today's press release. They are also available on our investor relations website at about.underarmour.com. With that, thank you for joining us this morning and for your continued interest in Under Armour. I'll now turn the call over to Kevin.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Our focus at Under Armour is to build a stronger brand through compelling products and more consistent execution. This quarter, we delivered against our revenue expectation and exceeded our adjusted operating income outlook. We remain focused on revenue quality and profitability, putting our resources behind innovative products, aspirational storytelling, and elite execution while maintaining expense discipline. Our cleat business in American football is a good example of this. It grew double digits in the quarter with higher average selling prices and market share gains. In fact, Under Armour is now the number two brand in football cleats in the U.S. HeatGear and Vanish also grew double digits, and France and Spain continue to grow. These results give us confidence to back proven franchises and bring that same execution to upcoming launches. This starts with a simpler company.
We have deliberately evolved our leadership structure, clarified accountability, and reduced competing priorities. We are concentrating resources where our performance credibility gives us the strongest opportunity to win. Our leaders are then responsible for translating those actions into product athletes choose, stronger partner relationships, and improved financial performance. Our industry is changing, and how we operate 18- 24 months from now will look different from today, but we are acting now. Last week, we held our supplier summit, where we worked with key manufacturing partners on shorter lead times, more efficient use of materials, and faster response. Scale alone can no longer provide the advantage it once did. I believe, though, we are big enough to work with the best partners in the world, yet small enough to move quickly with them, drawing on their expertise and challenging familiar ways of working.
We are building a stronger operational foundation, improving the systems and processes behind our products and how we bring them to market. Our initial work with AI is focused on supply chain, product merchandising, and marketing. A priority is calendar compression, shortening the time from an athlete insight to a product in the market, supported by a complete launch plan. We see opportunities for AI to speed decisions and reduce repetitive work so our teams can spend more time developing products and serving athletes. We are also evaluating where asset-light models can bring in expertise and scale.
We will judge those opportunities by the earnings and cash we retain and the complexity and capital requirements we can reduce. An early example of this work is our decision to transition our youth apparel business to an expanded licensing model with Centric Brands, a longstanding partner with deep children's product and retail expertise.
Beginning in fall 2027, the model should reduce inventory, working capital, and operating complexity while delivering a consistent Under Armour product experience for young athletes. As a key entry point for consumers discovering Under Armour, this category plays an important role in building our community. We are confident that this decision will help grow this business over the coming years. This partnership should give our teams more time to concentrate on the products and categories where Under Armour's capabilities can create the greatest value. We are simplifying our product line as well, targeting a reduction of nearly 50% in SKUs from the level when I returned in 2024. We have also removed more than 60% of materials while increasing global product commonality. A smaller assortment lets us invest more deeply in our strongest products, simplify decisions, focus our storytelling, and make the offer clearer for our teams, partners, and consumers.
This is about taking weight out of the system so we can amplify the products we make with volume and demand. That means selling so much more of so much less at full retail price. Within that focus line, we are sharpening our good, better, best offerings across price points and channels to elevate Under Armour. That means strengthening product performance and presentation at every level, giving athletes a compelling reason to choose UA at full price. Our essentials must deliver performance and value, our established franchises must offer differentiated benefits, our most advanced innovation must set a higher standard for performance. All the while, we are communicating a much clearer story to the consumer as to why UA is different and better. We are being more deliberate about design, features, pricing, and distribution, so each level strengthens the brand and earns its place in the athlete's closet.
That opportunity reaches into our highest volume programs, including Tech Tee, a staple that we sell in the tens of millions, but not often enough at full price. We are building on that work with Tech Helix, an upgrade launching later this month, with the ambition to become one of our top 10 volume drivers over time. The Under Armour innovation team developed a completely new fabric by taking two separate polyester fibers and wrapping them into a coil construction that creates an actual helix shape. This allows the fabric to lift off the skin and provide stretch without spandex, enhancing airflow and helping the fabric dry at amazing rates. It addresses a need central to Under Armour from the beginning, helping athletes feel better and perform in the heat.
At $35, that innovation can reach a broad athlete base, and with focused marketing supporting its story, this should be a multi-million unit program for us at full price. Our focused assortment lets us invest more behind products with performance value and potential to become meaningful business contributors. Innovation is there. Our job is to explain the science clearly and connect it to what athletes feel and how they perform, earning pricing power by taking credit for the innovation we build into every UA product. We have seen what that combination can deliver with our $65 Bouncy Tee. Its launch, sell-through, and growing volumes across geographies are an encouraging example of consumers choosing Under Armour at full price when they understand and value the product difference. That response gives us confidence in the opportunity ahead.
We are applying those lessons to Tech Helix and future launches with the goal of making that success more consistent across our business. Another example comes next month with the Armour Short, based on our goal to build the best compression short an athlete can wear. Compression shorts are already one of our largest volume programs, but we have traditionally served that athlete with only a $35 good level option. Applying our 50% SKU reduction across categories, the discipline good, better, best architecture is not just about cutting, but also about highlighting on brand opportunities and leaving room to create something better. During team sports competition, less than 10% of male athletes wear a hard plastic cup because of the bulk and restriction. We saw an opportunity to address that trade-off. Our brand new Shield Form technology brings targeted groin padding into a compression short without sacrificing mobility.
It does not replace the protection of a hard cup, but it gives athletes who otherwise go without one an added layer of confidence. The Armour Short's patent-pending design launches in December at $80 for adults and $55 for kids on ua.com and in 500 DICK'S Sporting Goods stores in the U.S. Yes, we believe the opportunity is significant over the long term, as the addressable market is virtually every male athlete who plays almost any sport. We are building on the trust athletes already place in us for their first layer, with a benefit they understand immediately in one single item. Early next spring, we plan to expand the Under Armour collection with a different enhanced solution for female athletes as well. This is where Under Armour plays best, bringing differentiated innovation to a real athlete need. That is our DNA.
All in, the Armour Short made it from concept to market inside of 10 months, with the product, athlete storytelling, and full marketing and retail support all developed together. That is the speed and coordination we aim to make repeatable as we compress our calendar, earn a place in athletes' everyday routines, and strengthen our position as the official first layer of sports. That focus on athletes' needs is guiding our footwear reset as well. We are building on strength in team sports while improving design and value across the portfolio. Running offers an opportunity to expand on the performance credentials we have established with our Velociti franchise. Our task is to translate that expertise into a broader segmented assortment that meets the needs of more athletes and earns its place at retail. Sharon Lokedi demonstrated those credentials at the Chicago Marathon in October.
She finished second in the Velociti Elite 3, improving her personal best by over three minutes and becoming the eighth fastest female marathoner in history. It was an exceptional achievement for Sharon and another demonstration of Under Armour footwear at the highest level. Her work with our product teams brings elite athlete insight into the continued evolution of our running footwear. More commercial-based execution of this $250 elite shoe will build on this momentum with upcoming expressions at more accessible price points this coming spring. Across apparel and footwear, each introduction must address a specific athlete need and have a defined place in the line, with enough depth to become a business we can build over multiple seasons. Building demand is central to this stage of the transformation.
Over the past several months, we have established a more unified marketing model, bringing global creative direction, content, and campaign priorities together under Simon Pestridge. Simon became Chief Marketing Officer in June after overseeing our Asia-Pacific business. He brings more than 30 years of global brand marketing and leadership experience, together with a direct understanding of our consumers and commercial operations. Our investments moving forward will support fewer, bigger campaigns, giving our strongest products and athlete stories more reach and a more recognizable Under Armour voice. Regional teams will bring those stories to life through local media, our own DTC channels, and wholesale partners. We are aligning product inventory and retail plans earlier so athletes can find what they see in our marketing. We will assess that work through product discovery and full-price sell-through alongside reach and engagement.
We are also introducing a globally consistent creative platform built on the concept of This is your armor. It connects an athlete's ambition with product performance, giving our stories a recognizable Under Armour identity across sports and markets. Also in marketing, starting with this month's Tech Helix launch, followed by the Armour Short in December, we plan to introduce one major product story each month throughout the calendar year. The approach is deliberately simple, one global product priority and coordinated execution across regions and markets. Local teams will adopt their story for their consumers while reinforcing the same technical product benefit. Support across social, digital, and retail will continue beyond launch to build recognition and demand. This coordinated execution will come to life with athletes demonstrating the product's benefit through science, of course, but also through personality and, yes, humor. Social content and digital education will further support that connection.
Dedicated retail presentations will bring that story into stores, with select U.K. retailers joining our U.S. launch. Our product and athlete stories are generating encouraging social engagement. From July through September, our Instagram brand account generated approximately 43 million impressions, up 55% year over year, and 27 million video views, up 126%. Our TikTok account just crossed one million followers. That engagement gives us useful direction for our creative work. Our focus now is converting that attention into product consideration and purchase. Alongside marketing, evolving our retail concepts is a priority. Our stores must strengthen the brand and improve the productivity of our business. We're developing key city showrooms that highlight our strongest products, refining our full-price stores around a clearer performance assortment, and reworking our Factory House locations with a more deliberate mix of full-price product.
Each format has a distinct role, with assortments tailored to local athletes and shopping behavior. Execution means connecting product presentation, launch support, and availability so consumers can understand the benefit and find what they came to buy. These lessons will help guide investment with an emphasis on conversion, full-price selling, and store profitability. Our regional teams are translating these product marketing and retail priorities into focused commercial plans. In North America, we're concentrating support behind the apparel franchises and cleated footwear that are performing, while addressing traffic and broader sell-through pressure. That means coordinating launches more closely with wholesale partners and our own channels, aligning inventory with demand, and making our product benefits more visible at retail. Our priority is to turn strength in these businesses into more consistent performance across our largest market, right here in North America.
In EMEA, we're building on momentum in France and Spain while improving e-commerce execution. We're connecting marketing more closely with locally relevant assortments and product availability, so consumer interest has a clearer path to purchase. In the U.K., we're focused on execution with existing partners and aligning inventory and investment with current demand. Across the region, we're backing the markets and channels where we see opportunity while maintaining discipline where conditions remain dynamic. In Asia Pacific, our priorities are improving productivity and product availability in China and optimizing our licensing business. We're refining assortments in each channel, so our strongest products are supported by a better shopping experience. Carol Chen, who succeeded Simon as APAC's regional leader, brings more than 30 years of brand and commercial leadership experience across Greater China, Asia, and the United States.
Her mandate is to bring those priorities together into stronger marketplace execution, drawing on her understanding of local consumers and retail partners to improve the performance of the business. Altogether, we're challenging ourselves to improve how we operate every day, from the products we build, how we create demand, and serve athletes. We're setting clearer priorities, acting on what we learn, and directing resources toward the work that can make the greatest difference. Under Armour has a long track record of solving problems for athletes. Our responsibility is to bring that same discipline to the business, follow through on our decisions, and turn product strength into stronger results. Our ambition remains high. We'll measure progress by the results we deliver. With that, thank you. Reza, over to you.
Thanks, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. Turning to our second quarter fiscal 2027 results, revenue declined 7% to $1.2 billion. By region, North America revenue declined 7%, reflecting continued traffic pressure in our direct-to-consumer business and softer wholesale sell-through. Growth in select apparel franchises helped, but did not fully offset broader demand pressure. EMEA revenue declined 9%. Retail traffic remains challenged in the U.K., partly offset by growth in France and Spain. Shipment timing also remains a factor in quarterly progression, particularly in our distributor business. APAC revenue declined 9%, reflecting pressure in China and our licensing business. Pockets of improvement in e-commerce and areas of wholesale resilience provided some offset. Latin America revenue increased 3%, largely due to favorable foreign exchange, as revenue in the region declined 4% on a constant currency basis.
Looking at performance by channel, wholesale revenue decreased 6% to $725 million, reflecting the impact of softer full-price sell-through and pressure in parts of the distributor business, partly offset by select accounts and markets. Direct-to-consumer revenue decreased 8% to $494 million, including a 7% decline in owned and operated stores and a 12% decline in e-commerce. Traffic remained the primary challenge, particularly in North America, with better conversion and targeted digital initiatives providing some offset. Revenue decreased 4% to $28 million, driven by a decline in North America. By product category, apparel revenue decreased 6% to $880 million. HeatGear and Core Vanish were areas of strength, while fleece and women's bottoms were challenged. We saw declines across most categories, partially offset by growth in outdoor and sportswear.
Footwear revenue decreased 11% to $234 million, with most categories down, although selected cleated businesses and run grew, providing some offset to the broader weakness in the footwear portfolio. Accessories revenue decreased 7% to $105 million, with differentiated products such as StealthForm providing encouraging signals within a softer overall environment. Gross margin was 47%, down 30 basis points. The year-over-year decline was due to 40 basis points of unfavorable foreign currency impacts, 35 basis points of combined unfavorable channel and regional mix, and 20 basis points of unfavorable pricing, as slightly higher discounting than in the prior year more than offset the benefit of our pricing actions. These headwinds were partially offset by 55 basis points of supply chain benefits, including more favorable product costs, and 10 basis points of favorable product mix.
SG&A decreased 4% to $557 million, driven by lower marketing expenses and continued cost discipline across other expense categories. Adjusted SG&A decreased 3% to $559 million, excluding $2 million in transformation expenses related to the Fiscal 2025 Restructuring Plan and a $3 million benefit from the reversal of certain previously accrued litigation reserve expense. In the quarter, we recorded $13 million under the Fiscal 2025 Restructuring Plan, including $11 million in restructuring charges and $2 million in transformation-related SG&A. Costs incurred to date total $280 million against the projected $305 million, with the plan expected to be substantially complete by December 31, 2026. Second quarter operating income was $15 million, or $25 million adjusted for restructuring and transformation costs and the reversal of certain previously accrued litigation reserve expense. Reported and adjusted diluted loss per share were both approximately break-even.
We ended the quarter with $1.1 billion in inventory, up 4% year-over-year. The approximate $200 million reduction in our revenue outlook in August left inventory above our planned sales needs. We are reducing future buys and taking targeted sell-through actions to release working capital and strengthen liquidity, with the anticipated margin impact reflected in our outlook. We ended the quarter with $285 million in cash and $190 million of borrowings under our $1.1 billion revolving credit facility. We remain focused on liquidity, working capital discipline, and investments supporting our transformation. Fiscal 2027 capital expenditures are expected to be modestly below last year's level. Turning to our fiscal 2027 outlook, we are maintaining the expectation that revenue will decline at a mid-single-digit rate.
While current traffic and macroeconomic pressures could result in North America being down modestly more than the mid-single-digit decline we previously anticipated in that region, that potential downside is reflected within our unchanged full-year outlook. For fiscal 2027 gross margin, we now expect expansion of 170 to 220 basis points compared with our previous expectation of 220 to 270 basis points. This includes roughly 150 basis points of benefit from IEEPA tariff refunds related to cost expense in fiscal 2026. Excluding that benefit, we expect gross margin improvement of approximately 20 to 70 basis points, supported by pricing actions, lower discounting, and favorable channel and product mix. The 50 basis point reduction in our gross margin outlook reflects ongoing elevated fuel and freight costs, planned markdowns to improve inventory alignment, and a stronger U.S. dollar.
Keep in mind, our previous outlook assumed disruption from the Middle East conflict through September 30th. Those pressures have now extended into the second half. We reiterate our expectation for adjusted SG&A to decline at a low single-digit rate, reflecting lower marketing spend and active expense management while preserving priority investments. Our focus is not simply on spending less, but on making our marketing dollars work harder, reducing waste and duplicated content production, and deploying resources more efficiently behind priority franchises and launches to improve marketing efficacy. Across the business, we are simplifying operations to strengthen profitability while protecting investments essential to the transformation. The additional second-half costs and planned inventory actions more than offset our second quarter operating income upside. As such, we continue to expect full-year adjusted operating income in the $140 million-$160 million range.
This excludes anticipated restructuring and transformation expenses of approximately $44 million and the $3 million benefit from the litigation reserve accrual reversal, and includes about $70 million of benefit from IEEPA tariff refunds related to fiscal 2026 expenses. This also assumes about $45 million of headwinds related to the ongoing Middle East conflict, up from the $35 million we cited previously. All in, we continue to expect full-year adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.08-$0.12. Turning to our third quarter, we expect revenue to decline approximately 8% to 9%. In North America, we expect a low double-digit decline, which includes about a point of wholesale shipments that were recognized in the second quarter. In EMEA, we expect a high single-digit decline, which includes about five percentage points of distributor shipment timing moving into the fourth quarter.
In APAC, we anticipate roughly flat revenue as the business continues to stabilize. Third quarter gross margin is expected to increase 30-50 basis points, with pricing and mix benefits partly offset by higher supply chain costs and foreign currency headwinds. Adjusted SG&A is expected to decline at a low single-digit rate as we continue to manage marketing towards greater productivity and discretionary expenses. For the third quarter, we expect adjusted operating income to range from a loss of $5 million to a profit of $5 million, with an adjusted diluted loss per share of $0.01-$0.03. The third quarter adjusted operating income expected anywhere around break-even at the midpoint. Our full-year outlook includes a stronger fourth quarter.
In North America, we expect a couple of percentage points of revenue benefit from the youth transition and a few additional points from wholesale initiatives to reduce excess inventory. In EMEA, distributor shipments shifting into the fourth quarter account for about five percentage points of improvement. That timing supports fourth-quarter revenue without changing our full-year demand assumption. We are expecting stronger year-over-year profitability in the fourth quarter, supported by pricing and favorable channel and product mix, alongside continued expense discipline, partly offset by the external cost pressures and inventory actions mentioned earlier. In closing, our second-half priorities are clear: improve inventory alignment, maintain expense discipline, and preserve liquidity while supporting key launches. With that, we will open the call for questions.
We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Simeon Siegel with Guggenheim. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Hey, guys. Morning. If I forget, hope you and your families have a happy holiday season ahead. Kevin, I think your excitement around the existing and upcoming product innovation definitely shines through. Could you speak to us, maybe help us understand where you think the customer might not be seeing? If we were to just take a step back, look at the overall revenues, and maybe right now, more importantly, the margins, just how do you translate that excitement into the price people are willing to pay, maybe the gross and operating margins the company's going to capture? Just any help you can share with us on how you're thinking about the timeline of the revenue reset and stabilization in North America.
Reza, maybe can you just elaborate on that last piece you were talking about, the drivers of the confidence in the stronger fourth quarter embedded within the full-year guide? Thank you.
Hi, Simeon, and thank you. There's absolutely a passion for the product here. We know that that's everything, but I think the good news is that we have an almost embarrassment of riches when it comes to product. I feel like the biggest place we've fallen down has just been in our competent storytelling. That reflection needs to come through first and foremost, and we want to be clear that our priority is stabilizing and getting North America going. Obviously, it's a bit complicated out there, and we have where we use the map differs from the terrain. That is certainly something we've been dealing with, and we've been seeing some softer consumer traffic and a bit of a promotional marketplace out there. We're also seeing some of the sensitivity when we look at things like our Factory House business.
Let me maybe characterize this in three ways of where and how I think we're going to do this, and I think it's going to be product, it's going to be marketing, it's going to be distribution, followed with how we execute on that. First of all, on the product side, we've got a force of nature in Kara Trent, who's been simplifying assortments and reducing SKUs to help us just emphasize and make us focus. We're leaning into our famous franchises, things like HeatGear and ColdGear that the consumer already knows us that we can build on.
We've got great appetite from training, and it's something where we're looking to lean on and make sure that those products like Helix, again, at a $35 accessible price point, really begin to come through for us, and things like the Armour Short, which I'm happy to report, just in case, I'm wearing one this morning. Footwear is also something for us. It's a billion-dollar business that we believe can be much larger for us as a whole, and we think you're going to see a lot more of that proof coming through in spring 2027, especially the way that we storytell. And I'll say that, and I'll maybe emphasize here, because I think there is that disconnect between the consumer, to your question, and where we are. I believe, as I say, North America is our regional priority without question, and make sure we get it going.
Marketing remains our largest opportunity as a brand to turn the trajectory of our business, because we have what we need. We have leadership, we have budget, and we absolutely have desire. But frankly, as we found, just putting things out there and putting an Under Armour logo do not do it, meaning a shirt or a shoe without a story, it is just a shirt or a shoe. The riches we have is from innovation, I do not think there is another brand that is close. We just need to make sure that people actually see that, because every Under Armour product actually does something. We are just going to make sure that we tell you exactly what that something is.
The other thing, I think, is we are just applying this globally, is that I mentioned this idea of singular product launches per month, which may sound pretty unsophisticated, because it is meant to be that, so we can coordinate this global pitch and story that we have to making sure it comes through, because we have been running basically smaller regional plays versus leveraging this incredible global brand that we have. Distribution. I want to be comprehensive here. We have been working really diligently on the partnerships, especially with some of the elite partners that we have around the world, and it is the DSGs, and it is the Sports Directs, and JDs, and El Corte Inglés as we go globally with it, with that focus on rebuilding our e-comm approach for full-price selling. I mean, that is it.
We talk about premiumizing the brand, and it means our definition of that is making sure that we sell at full price. Finally, I guess I would just say execution. We talked and I touched lightly on our own AI transformation that we are in, and I think that our industry actually lines and maps up perfectly for the advantage of what AI brings for us. It is a matter of us focusing, as I said, on supply chain, merchandising, and marketing, of course. But this outside focus that we have, just making sure, and one of the best things I ever heard is, How can we increase or grow our business? And the answer is, ship us everything that we ordered. So forecast accuracy and delivering on time and full is also a priority.
That is a long way to say it, but I guess I wanted to be comprehensive because, to be clear, we have everything that we need, and we are just here, I want you to know that our job, and with myself, Reza, our entire executive team, is ensuring that we have got nothing that we do not.
Just to pick up on the point on gross margin specifically, obviously we are in an environment that is very promotional if you are looking at the U.S. and U.K. As we have said, just in the script that we just went through, overall, we are looking at gross margin improvement over the course of the year. In a highly promotional environment, the premiumization that we are looking at and selling more at full price, I think, is something that should ladder as we continue to build on these franchises over time.
That is great. Thanks, guys. Again, happy holidays ahead.
Thank you.
The next question is from Jay Sole with UBS. Please go ahead.
Great. Thank you so much. Kevin, I would love to follow up on your point about the marketing opportunity. What are some of the metrics that you are using to sort of establish how the brand is trending with consumers over the last 90 days? You talked about some social media, but I thought the We Love Football campaign, great campaign. I love football. It was exciting. Can you talk about that, and just kind of how you are seeing the plans that you put for marketing play out the way you expect when you actually launch them and put them out there into the world? If you could give us a little update there, that would be great. Reza, maybe if we talk about the incremental 50 basis points of margin change in the guidance. If you could talk about what the biggest driver was. Was it fuel?
Was it promotions, FX? If you could kind of break it down for us a little bit more, that would be really appreciated. Thank you.
Thanks, Jay. Yeah, number one, we measure marketing by how we are doing with our selling, and so I do not think that we have been doing what we need to. Metrics that we are measuring with are some of the things where we have seen really great positivity is, in Q2, we saw consideration rise over 19% year over year, and brand perception up over 24%. You are right, the campaigns we have are things that just underscore what our center is.
As you are thinking about marketing for the brand as a whole, everything is changing in marketing. We want to make our story much simpler to understand, and again, establishing that one global brand voice, as I talked about. The innovation pipeline that we have, it is extreme. It just needs to be spoken. We have not gotten there. The opportunity is telling our story more clearly and more consistently.
What we will see from us is probably, as I said, moving to the singular product launch per month, when we go through it. It is making sure that we are not just doing brand storytelling, but we are really focusing on product storytelling. As we say, you shouldn't be able to tell the difference when we do that. So, the This is your armor is something that is going to anchor us globally, and supporting what we are doing. I also just want to make sure as we think about the way that we measure what we are doing, it is significantly reducing things like performance marketing. You are still going to see discounts as we work on inventory and we work through getting out in the market, but traffic is being replaced by spending on our story versus just spending on getting people here.
What you will see around things like the upcoming Helix and the Armour Short is us really emphasizing the product benefits and how that will translate to consumers.
Great. With regards to the gross margin, pricing is a benefit. Pricing and favorable channel mix are on the positive side, as well as some product and regional mix, but that is being more than offset by supply chain headwinds. I would say the greatest negative for us is logistics, freights, impacts, that we are looking at for the balance of the year. There is some unfavorable FX from translation that is playing into that as well. I would say if I had to characterize the single biggest negative, it would be the supply chain headwinds that we have.
Got it. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thanks, Jay.
The next question is from Sam Poser with Williams Trading. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my question. Kevin, can you talk a little bit about the evolution, I guess, these new franchise launches you are going to be doing on a monthly basis, and you talked about how many stores the new shorts were going to with DICK'S. Can you talk about the Helix, how big that is? How does that build into fiscal 2028? Do you anticipate revenue growth in 2028 with all the actions you are taking? I have another question, a more near-term question as well.
We are not getting into 2028 right now, Sam, but we are just taking this thing one quarter at a time. The franchises that we are built on, it is wide-ranging. Helix in particular, as I said, that is a multi-million unit program that we think can be a top 10 driver for us over time, so something we are really focused on. As far as things like the Armour Short, we believe we may have invented a new category there. Time will tell. More importantly, this is not about just the new innovation pipeline we are really excited about. If we said there is going to be 12 product launches over the next 12 months, I would say probably five or six of them would be existing products that we already have in our pipeline we are just not getting good enough credit for.
I think we want to make sure that we are amplifying that, number one, to our customers, meaning our retail partners, to get out there and get placement in store, because we need to create this premium profile for the consumer to really see and be able to believe in the brand that consumers will then have access to it. You can see these great ideas, sometimes it can be more difficult to getting it at retail. We have great partners. We just need to make sure we are doing a good job giving them the story and then giving them the tools to actually sell when it shows up at retail.
That leads to my second sort of all related, for both you and Reza. Your inventories are a bit high. You are working them down. How do you make sure when you are doing these new launches, such as the Armour Short, that you are not being too aggressive out of the gate and then run into potential inventory problems down the road? I mean, how do you do this in a meaningful, measured way to sort of optimize the business, but not put too much risk on it if it does not work?
Why do I start on that one? If you are talking about the new launches specifically, obviously we look at what the demand is coming in from the regions when we put in the buys for these different products. The other thing is these products that, if the inventory comes in and the sell-through is slower than we anticipate, it is not like it spoils out of the gate. I mean, it is going to be high-quality inventory anyway, so we can manage the inventory levels through watching the sell-through and adjusting the future buys that we have for those categories. When we are talking about kind of inventory and looking at the +4% that we had in this quarter, that is largely because of the revenue decline that we forecast on the last call, where we took out $200 million of revenues.
Because of that, all of that inventory was already in flight. We are managing through that by working through our factory partners in terms of trying to delay some shipments, looking at basically what we can do in terms of some other wholesale strategies that we have for the back half of the year to try to manage that as best as we can.
Sam, building on that, we spoke about with AI, hopefully get us a lot smarter with getting closer to what the demand actually forecasts for us. Coming out of a couple weeks ago of having all of our key manufacturing partners here and working on what we can do to streamline our go-to-market, our industry, and I think a clear message from the market, is our industry just moves too slowly. As I said in my prepared remarks, the 18- 24 months from now, I think that we will have a much better evolved model that is something which can be more streamlined to deal with getting closer to market, being closer to the consumer, and frankly, the ability to react. We do see opportunity in certain products.
I am sorry, one more. I mean, retail buyers buy. That is what they do. They tend to go, Oh, that looks cool. I am going to buy it. They tend, their eyes often end up being bigger than their stomach is relative to the actual consumer demand. With this increase of speed, this 10 months to market that you talked about, is there an opportunity for you to put, and I will just use the Armour Short, for example, on your website into some stores to really see consumer demand prior to counting on buyers who tend to like anything shiny new and then buy too much of it? Really use your, given your increased speed, to use your own data to then really be able to measure the demand and put a check on what some of these retail buyers tend to do.
I feel like you answered the question in that ask, Sam, because it is exactly what we want to be doing. We want to make sure that we can just get early reads, and so that is why we are testing things out, like the athlete wear testing. I mean, when I say storytelling, I think there are so many steps that Under Armour includes in our go-to-market that other brands do not contemplate. What we do not want to do is eliminate that, which is the athlete testing, the certifying the product, make sure it lives up to what we want it to do. Then, of course, how is it going to be received by the market? Is it something which is a runaway hit? Is it something that we maybe want to hedge on? Is it something that we want to wait and see?
Is it something that we are going to build scarcity around it? All that builds into everything we do. But yeah, we are not being crazy with the buys. We just want to make sure that we have more intentional product that is required or necessary from the consumer. The world does not need more stuff. The world does not need another capable apparel or footwear manufacturing. It needs a hope and a dream. It needs something that translates through that with something like the Under Armour brand, which should be an aspirational, as our mission statement says, providing solutions that athletes never knew they needed, and once they try them, they cannot imagine living without. So, making sure that we test the commercial viability of these things as they get to market and building a demand beneath of that is what is required from us.
Yes, test and learn before we make too big of bets is the way that we're thinking about the future.
Thank you very much. Good luck.
The next question is from Bob Drbul with BTIG. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. You mentioned asset light. Can you give more color on what that means, how you're thinking about it, and what other areas could be up for consideration?
Yeah. Thanks, Bob. I think it's a unique phrase, and I think it's something which our industry is screaming for, because we have been built big and heavy, and I think that there's just opportunities for other partners to help us there. The shift to asset light's about building bottom line. It's about building brand value for us and finding where we can evoke the most value or the most bottom line from what we're doing. As I said, as we think about how we'll evolve in the next 18- 24 months, it's the way that we do business. As a brand, we effectively do three things. We make products in factories, we market and make them compelling to consumers to want to buy them, and then we sell them at retail. It's roughly a third of our time.
We'd prefer to focus more than 50% of our time on the managing and the marketing and the brand building, creating the feeling that people have for this, because we have incredible partners at both the factory and at the retail level, and it's what they're really good at. We believe our real value, it lies in the brand. The brand lens is that every dollar of resource spent, it must help us sell more shirts and shoes, and we think we can be the drivers of that, while putting more of this opportunity into our factory partners, more of what we've had in our traditional go-to-market, into our factory partners and into our retailers. That's an ongoing work in process, as our operating model and the strategic partnerships as they evolve.
So, 30 years of doing this, we have incredible relationships at both ends of that, with the manufacturers and the retailers. We want to work on shortening lead times, we want to work on better execution at retail. What we're doing is, we're testing. I mean, this move that we had with our youth business, for instance, the idea of that is, what is this like if we were a bit more asset-light there? We think agility is going to be the key to this next chapter for any brand, and we want to make sure that we're demonstrating that in every way, shape, or form.
Thanks, Kevin. I guess a question on the footwear business. The footwear business continues to be challenging. What do you believe is missing the mark there, and how long do you think it'll take to stabilize and even return to growth?
Yeah. We have a brand that is much bigger than our business, especially when it comes to footwear, but it's still a billion-dollar business for us to build on. We've got authentic equity to build from, though, that our job is to extract the value from that I don't think we've done a good enough job, obviously, of making that come through. So delivering a clear point of view on what we want consumers to buy and then telling them why to buy it. As I said, we have an overwhelming amount of innovation. I think as we sharpen our design and get better, as we make a clearer and better, good, better, best segmentation for products, it's something that could come through. Meanwhile, we are seeing some signs of things that we can work on. Our run business did actually grow in Q2 for us as well.
As we build out and looking at our cleated business, we mentioned becoming the number two cleated brand in American football. It's a small category, but it's an important sign, especially as we're driving higher ASPs. So that on-field credibility, the on-race course performance we're seeing from things like our Velociti platform, we need to make that authenticity translate into commercial success. So focusing on team sports, focusing on running, focusing on training. Again, it's not just waiting for the next thing in the innovation pipeline. We have plenty to work with. We need to do a better job packaging those stories into a reason that consumers need to buy it. So making these franchises actually matter for us better.
Thanks, Kevin.
The next question is from Laurent Vasilescu with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you very much for taking my question. Kevin, I wanted to follow up on your comment about the 50% SKU reduction initiative. Half of it has been completed. Curious to know if you can quantify in any way for the audience how much this pullback represents in revenue dollars, so that we can understand the underlying trajectory of the business. From a gross margin perspective, when should we start to see this initiative kick in as a benefit to the gross margin? Thank you.
Reza and I will take that in two parts, and I will just start with the first. Seeing the benefit of this is the first thing is we can start to feel the weight coming out of the line, but from our industry of working with this traditional 18-24 month go-to-market, you are not exactly seeing it come through just yet. What we are feeling is we have our teams now working on less products, less weight in the system, and getting more streamlined with putting our best people against the best products. That does not mean just $140 or $150 + footwear, but we are putting our best people on taking probably an overcrowded market of where our family channel or value footwear in that $70-$90 range, making sure we have got real design there.
In the past, that is what this good, better, best exercise has really been able to give for us, is making sure that we can be clear with the product proposition we have for the consumer, and that, as we say, premiumizing means selling at full price regardless of the good, better, or best level, and that is what we want to create. Getting that out of the system, and more importantly, just creating that architecture of a clear proposition at good, a clear proposition at better, and a clear proposition at best, is much better than having six or seven styles between $70 or $80. We need to make sure that we make that product proposition for the consumer just much clearer. It will run through, and is there a revenue impact to it?
The goal is that we are putting ourselves behind and focusing on these key styles and storytelling about them. For instance, our Assert 11 that we launched over our Assert 10, which is our highest volume shoe, is something that we are now, we are driving higher ASPs, we are getting what we want, we are putting athlete storytelling behind it to make sure it is not just a shoe or a foot covering on the wall, but it actually has a reason to exist, talking about the Charged+ that we have in the midsole and talking about the innovation and the athletes who support and wear it.
Yeah. Just to add to that, Kevin, to get to the gross margin point, I think part of it, Laurent, is also looking at just the quality of revenues that come from these changes as well. There is some benefit as you start to rationalize from a gross margin perspective the different materials that you use, et cetera. I just finished saying the gross margin, the reduction that we just talked about on gross margin is largely due to supply chain. What's essentially happening is there's some benefit that comes from the rationalization that you do over the 18-month cycle that you have or 24-month cycle that you have. But also, we're in an environment right now that's clouded by higher freight costs and other things as well.
But if you were looking at it and drilling down at that level in terms of the product costing that's coming in, there are definitely improvements that come as you rationalize on the back end.
Very helpful. Kevin, there's one particularly large brand out west that sold in a lot of product into the North American marketplace. Curious to know what you're hearing from your key retail partners when they think the North American marketplace will be clean. Are you hearing something like spring 2027, or is it going to be later into fall of 2027? Any comments there would be very helpful. Thank you very much.
Yeah, I can't speak to what they're doing, but we certainly feel the impact of a lot of brands are clearing inventory right now. They're not doing it to keep in the marketplace, not as healthy as we would like or prefer it to be, which means that we just need to focus on ourselves. I think that's where we are of staying in the pocket, delivering, doing what we said we're going to do, making sure that we do that really clear for our teams to know how to execute. But yeah, that applies some of the pressure, that I think speaks to where the consumer's sitting right now in a bit of a challenging macro. It makes it complicated, but it doesn't make it impossible.
It is our job to make sure that we are cutting through from a brand lens and giving them a reason to purchase us. The sheer volume of what that means in some of the clearance places where you are finding product right now, it is where we do not want to be, but we are going to be mindful of our inventory as well. It is something which is always a hyper-focus for us in this industry.
Thank you very much, and best of luck.
Thank you.
Thanks.
The next question is from Brooke Roach with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thank you for taking our question. Kevin, I was hoping you could speak to the changes you're implementing in your North America stores to improve consumer engagement and traffic. What are you seeing in the Factory House stores where you've added full-price product, and where can that initiative go from here? How do you expect that to impact traffic both near and medium-term?
Yeah. Thanks, Brooke. It's absolutely initiative. We've got a lot of touch points when it comes to our Factory House business here in the U.S., and it's a place where we don't want that experience just to be the product proposition or the buying proposition is not just there's a discount associated to it, but actually applying story there. So, the first way we started with what were previously pure outlet experiences of putting some of our premium products in there, putting our StealthForm caps into our stores at a full $45 price point. That consumer, it's not unattainable, and it allows them to start getting used to what we're trying to do to premiumize the brand, which means getting consumers to pay full price for Under Armour. But they need to see and understand the innovation.
I think the opportunity we have in our Factory House stores is to go deeper on the technology that sits there. Sometimes that's left for just our full-price distribution, and I think we have a great opportunity to increase that. As I said, we're targeting double digits of what that impact will be of selling full-price product in that mix at Factory House stores, meaning brand new innovations that we can take advantage of the distribution footprint that we have. But yeah, we're looking driving ASPs as one of the key metrics that we're using to evaluate our business on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly basis.
Great. Reza, as a follow-up, can you unpack the fourth quarter inflection in operating margins in a little bit more detail? It looks like you'll see improvements in both the gross and the SG&A line. Could you potentially quantify the magnitude of improvement that's coming from the youth business, the proportion that's happening from timing shifts, and your assumptions on the underlying base business profit improvement?
Yeah, absolutely. If you are looking at the Q4 numbers specifically, if you basically do the math around it, you will see that there is a fair bit of moving parts, especially in our North America business. We have traffic and promotion that are being offset by some future product launches that we have where we anticipate that we are going to be gaining traction.
There is a couple points that are coming from the youth transition specifically in Q4 in North America, and there is also a few points from wholesale initiatives that we have specifically in terms of trying to make sure that we manage our inventory levels in the final quarter of the year. I also mentioned on the call that with EMEA specifically, there is a shift of about five points from Q3 to Q4 for EMEA. That is working its way into those numbers as well.
As you look at gross margin and if you are looking at just the overall SG&A, we have been taking a lot of SG&A actions over the course of the year, and some of those are really bearing fruit on the back half of the year and going into next year. As you start to see the improvement in operating margin, it is a combination of those factors basically coming and working their way through the P&L as well.
Great. Thanks so much. I will pass it on.
Thank you.
We'll take our last question from Peter McGoldrick with Stifel. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to get some clarity around the kids licensing. Can you illuminate the economics on the new business model? What's the existing run rate for revenue? How had that been contributing to the operating income line? What should we be thinking of the net contribution when that has been fully transitioned? As you pointed out, that does have an impact on the fourth quarter. I'd be interested on the influence of the transition and how long that takes.
Yeah. Why don't I take that one? First of all, let's start with the fact that youth absolutely remains strategic to what we're doing. It's an entry point to our brand, and this is an existing longstanding partner with us that we're looking at basically expanding the relationship with. You should know that we will still be selling youth in our own DTC channels. In terms of what we're looking at, our DTC business around youth continues to go forward as well. Youth is focused on specifically, this transaction is looking at North America and EMEA, and so our APAC business would be on the outside of that as well. We're not going to be giving you the revenue or profitability breakdown today.
Obviously, as we basically come forward with our May outlook, our May 2027, our May call with our fiscal 2028 outlook, we'll basically, or we'll go through and you'll get a sense in terms of royalties, transferred costs, inventory commitments, et cetera, that we'll do. But overall, our objective is to retain earnings and cash contribution, as the royalties basically replace the product sales that we have coming in. Obviously, it's a specialized provider in the space, so we think that that'll have a net benefit to us overall.
Yeah, not piling on too much for that, but we are really in a test and learn. We want to know what we can do to have a more nimble organization, making sure that agility is something that defines this brand. We have been doing this a long time, as we are closing out 30 years, and that means that we just need to be more thoughtful about what this next chapter looks like for us.
We are also looking for other areas where, what makes sense for us are places that do not matter and they are not strategic to the brand of what it means. But youth is certainly a strategic place, and so that is why we think this is a really healthy balance for us, and with a partner that we know and understand, and someplace where we can leverage and optimize to drive a better bottom line.
Appreciate that. Last one from me. Thinking about pricing as a driver in the fiscal fourth quarter, and perhaps dovetailing with the earlier commentary around the marketplace health, can you help us think about the contribution from pricing, embedded mix, full price, and like-for-like pricing considerations?
Yeah. Overall, we are expecting gross margin to improve as we get into the quarter. We have taken pricing actions, but obviously, we are also in a highly competitive environment. We are talking about looking at some of our competitors that are trying to move a lot of inventory right now. So, we are selling into a market right now that is very promotional if you look at North America, and especially the U.K. as well. So, while we have taken pricing actions and we do expect some gross margin benefit to come from that on a net basis, some of that is being offset by greater promotional activity that is happening in the market. It is across both wholesale and DTC, frankly. So, we are seeing it just as an overall market dynamic.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks, everyone.
This concludes Under Armour's second quarter fiscal 2027 earnings conference call. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.