Under Armour is closing its Portland office by year-end, moving most of its 60 staff to Baltimore and New York. The 2017 opening was a play for footwear talent in a city described as the epicenter of sneaker design. The retreat is part of a wider restructuring.
Under Armour will be closing its office in Portland, Oregon, by the end of the year and moving most of the office’s employees across the country to Baltimore, Maryland, and New York City, according to the Portland Business Journal. There are plans for a “much smaller” office in Portland, but the company has yet to sign a lease.
“Under Armour is making a strategic shift to strengthen key functions in Baltimore and expand our presence in New York by relocating some capabilities from the West Coast,” the company’s statement reads. “This will help us move faster, collaborate more closely, and better align our teams around serving athletes and building the brand.”
Under Armour opened the office back in 2017, converting a former YMCA building and moving in a staff of 100 – since reduced to 60, according to Chief Communications Officer Matt Dornic.
The idea behind the office was to tap into Portland’s pool of talent for sneaker design. For comment on the subject SGB Executive quotes Matt Powell, who was, among other things, Senior Sports Industry Adviser at The NPD Group and author of the Sneakernomics blog at Forbes before founding his own consultancy, Spurwink River. According to him, Portland has long been the “epicenter” of sneaker design, and brands struggle to find talent elsewhere. Presence in Portland has meant staying “relevant in athletic footwear.” Nike is, of course, headquartered nearby, and Adidas maintains an office.
According to Prosper Portland, the city’s agency for economic development (which therefore has a dog in this fight), Portland’s metropolitan area has “more than 20,000 jobs in the Athletic and Outdoor industry.”
According to Tamara Kennedy, Director of Economic Development for the Port of Portland, Oregon produces more patents in footwear than any other US state (Footwear News).
Under Armour is restructuring. Last month, for example, and as we’ve reported, it finished cutting a quarter of its SKUs. The departure of Steph Curry and his Curry Brand accounts for a percentage point of fiscal 2027’s headwinds, according to CFO Reza Taleghani.
