Lifestyle
Wordmark
Co‑Creation
the streets — building a script wordmark that outperformed its category 5 to 1.
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The Brief
A new identity for life
off the field.
Under Armour’s internal product creation team engaged Centered Human in Fall 2024 with a clear mandate: develop a distinct lifestyle wordmark to drive wear beyond the field of play. The mark needed to resonate with a younger, trend-aware, fashion-forward consumer — bridging UA’s performance heritage with the booming streetwear and athleisure markets without compromising either world.
Inspiration Deep Dive
The Centered Human team began the creative process with extensive market research. This first step involved a deep dive into prevailing fonts and typographies currently dominating the fashion and lifestyle sectors. To inject a sense of raw, authentic energy and edginess, the team also pulled graphic references from unexpected sources, particularly 70’s punk rock show flyers. This counter-culture aesthetic was intended to give the new wordmark a bold, disruptive feel, moving beyond standard sports branding conventions.
Creative Process
50+ variations.
One perfect mark.
Following the research phase, the team embarked on an intensive ideation stage, exploring over 50 distinct variations of the Under Armour wordmark. These variations encompassed numerous font styles, weights, treatments, and graphic integrations. The iterative process involved constant feedback loops between Centered Human and the Under Armour product creation team. Ultimately, through this rigorous exploration and refinement, the teams collectively landed on a sophisticated and dynamic script logo as the chosen final direction. This script wordmark offered the desired balance of history, modernity, and lifestyle appeal.
Inspiration
Deep Dive Research
Extensive market research into fashion typography, paired with an unconventional pull from 70s punk show flyers. The counter-culture reference was the key ingredient — injecting edge and authenticity into a heritage performance brand.
Ideation
50+ Wordmark Variations
An intensive 21-day sprint exploring over 50 distinct variations across font styles, weights, treatments, and graphic integrations. Continuous feedback loops between Centered Human and UA’s product creation team drove refinement toward a singular direction.
Selection
Script Wordmark Chosen
The finalized script wordmark offered a rare balance: rooted in UA’s history, modern in execution, and undeniably lifestyle in positioning. A mark capable of carrying the brand from locker room to city street.
Graphic Ethos
Once the script wordmark was finalized, the focus shifted to practical application. The logo was meticulously applied in various sizes across a wide spectrum of garment types, ranging from headwear and accessories to core apparel like hoodies and t-shirts. Crucially, the team experimented with diverse and premium decoration techniques. This included high-end applications like precision embroidery for texture and depth, as well as luxury treatments such as the application of genuine Swarovski crystals to elevate the lifestyle positioning.
This extensive application process was not merely an aesthetic exercise; it was critical for establishing standardization. The testing helped Centered Human develop precise guidelines detailing the optimal sizing, placement, and decoration specifications for the logo on different materials and garment constructions. These guidelines were essential for creating a uniform and high-quality product execution across Under Armour’s complex, global supply chain matrix, ensuring brand consistency from design concept to consumer shelf.
Market Validation
Seeded at Super Bowl LIX. Validated by culture.
With the logo placement and sizing confirmed, the next crucial step was market validation. Centered Human and Under Armour developed an exclusive capsule collection centered around the new script wordmark. This collection was curated to feature premium, high-fashion pieces, including custom leather varsity jackets, luxury hoodies, tailored sweatpants, and graphic t-shirts.
This initial collection was strategically seeded to influential athletes and celebrities attending Super Bowl LIX in February 2025. The rollout was an unequivocal success: the response captured across both traditional press and various social media platforms was overwhelmingly positive. This initial burst of enthusiastic feedback provided both Under Armour and Centered Human significant confidence that the new wordmark had achieved its goal of appealing to a fashion-forward audience.
SB LIX
February 2025 · Exclusive Seeding Event
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Press + Social
Overwhelmingly Positive Response
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Fall '25
Full Inline Adoption · 113 SKUs
Outperforming the category.
From the first season of full inline adoption, apparel featuring the new script wordmark consistently demonstrated superior sell-through. The results validated every creative decision — from the punk-inspired research phase to the Swarovski premium applications.
5×
Sales vs. other graphic apparel collections
What's Next
Building on the momentum.
Development
Basketball Wordmark
Centered Human is currently exploring and developing new wordmarks targeting the highly competitive and culturally significant basketball product category — UA’s next major frontier for lifestyle brand expansion.
Established
Global Supply Chain Standard
The guidelines developed during this project now serve as the foundational standard for all future wordmark applications across Under Armour’s global production network — a lasting operational legacy of the co-creation partnership.
