Under Armour - the Leader in Performance Apparel

Under Armour has made a big splash in the sports apparel business in the last 10 years since their founding. They originally planned on making high-performance t-shirts for athletes that helped control body temperature and keep you drier by wicking away perspiration, with a focus on the college athletics market. The name Under Armour came from the concept that their clothing was meant to be worn UNDER the clothing and sporting gear the athletes wore. In their ads you'll often see tight-fitting shirts that look like some kind of Spartan armor chestplate, rippling with muscles. As the under garments became popular and widely used in both college and professional sports, Under Armour came out with more consumer targetted products aimed at regular, everyday athletes, which is obviously a much more massive market than just the world of professional sports. Today, Under Armour sells a wide variety of athletic clothing and athletic cleat shoes, as well as socks, watches, sports bras, and even sunglasses. In this guide, we will take look at some of the hottest Under Armour products, including how much they cost and where the best places are to buy them.

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Under Armour Heat Gear - Cool Gear - All Season Gear

Under Armour breaks their product line down into a few main categories - Heat Gear, Cool Gear, and All Season Gear. While they make sports clothing for men, women, and children, these larger categories still define their products. Under Armour Heat Gear is designed for hot environments, where athletes want to keep their bodies dry and cool. Cold Gear is designed for temperatures below 55F and features specially designed double sided fabric, with one side still wicking away moisture while the other side retains heat - warm and dry. In between is the All Season Gear with fabrics that change with weather conditions. So decide how and where you will be wearing your sports clothing before deciding which type of Under Armour product is right for you. When it comes to fit, most of their products are compression wear, which cling tightly to the body for a supportive fit. They also offer fitted and loose designs, with "fitted" tapering to the body shape but not clinging, and "loose" offering more mobility and freedom of movement.

Under Armour Legging, Jackets, Shorts, Shirts

Though Under Armour makes a wide range of products, the core of their line is still their t-shirt replacement products, both long and short sleeve, leggings and shorts, and underwear. Under Armour Short Boxerjock and other underwear products tend to sell for about $20-$35 per pair, making them significantly more expensive than standard underwear. When it comes to sweat pants and leggings, Under Armour Side Pant Mens sell for about $55, and their other workout pants also tend to be in the $50-$65 range, making them competitive with other leading competitors (Nike, etc.) The Under Armour Cold Gear Action Leggings have a compression fit and sell for $50 -- like most of these Under Armour products they are made for people with good muscle tone, since they don't hide much! A lot of runners will wear these underneath for support, warmth, and moisture control, with a pair of shorts over them. They also sell sweatshirts, like the Under Armour Fleece Hoodie Mens, for $50 -- one of their few products that we are not big fans of, not crazy about the look or the price. One of their products we really like are the Under Armour Coldgear Mock Mens - at $50, these shirts are awesome for working out in cold weather - we used to wear one under a fleece while jogging in New England. Keep in mind most of these clothes are meant to be worn "under" something else, though you will see people wearing them as outerwear as well. The Metal Coldgear Mock Mens is a little more pricey at $79, but this compression fit long sleeve shirt has a high-loft fleeced back for extra warmth and is a great workout shirt for cold weather -- and good looking to boot! For shorts, you can pick up the Under Armour Loose Gear Micro Short for as little as $25 or Pacer Shorts for $40. In our opinion, the shorts don't offer quite the same sports performance as the underwear, leggings, and shirt products, but for $25-$35, the price is not too bad for good fitting workout shorts. When it comes to buying Under Armour products online, you can check out just about any of the leading sporting goods sites, like DicksSportingGoods.com, SportsDepot.com, SportsAuthority.com, SportsUnlimitedInc.com, etc. Even Amazon.com carries a large selection of Under Armour gear and good prices.

Under Armour Shoes and Cleats

Just recently, Under Armour has gotten into the sporting shoe market, with baseball cleats (about $110), football cleats ($65-$130), lacrosse cleats, turf shoes, and flip flop style slides ($30), in the look and tradition of the old Adidas shower slippers. Their biggest push by far is into the football market, with their Click Clack campaign. Overall, the look and design of these shoes is first rate. While my football days are long behind me, I could see lacing up a pair of these shoes and hitting the field with no problem. College kids we know that wear them swear by them, and a number of schools have exclusive contracts with Under Armour for providing footwear to their teams.

Finding a Under Armour Retailer or Store Near You

You can find Under Armour clothing at most sporting goods stores. If you visit their official website (UnderArmour.com) and click on the FIND A RETAILER link at the bottom of the homepage, you will be taken to another page where you enter your ZIP code and up pops the 10 closest retail outlets near you that carry Under Armour sports apparel. In our case, we came across Sports Authority, GI Joe's Sporting Goods, REI, and Nordstroms, to name a few. If you haven't worn or purchased Under Armour gear before, it is a good idea to try some things on at a store -- these can be some pretty tight-fitting, clingy clothes, and the right fit can be important for you to look right and feel comfortable -- we don't recommend blindly buying something online before knowing how it looks.

Do you have a quality site or product that belongs in this guide? We are always happy to evaluate or review new products and websites. Feel free to contact us at the email address below and let us know about you. If you have a demo product you'd like us to look at, please contact us before sending anything. Thank you.

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