How Under Armour Powers Email With SFMC, Movable Ink & UA Rewards
Under Armour uses Salesforce Marketing Cloud as their ESP, Movable Ink for real-time personalization, and Merkle's LoyaltyPlus for UA Rewards — driving an 80% lift in email engagement across a $5.2B brand.
Why Email Is Under Armour's Most Underrated Channel
The ROI data behind why a $5.2B athletic brand invests more in email than you'd expect
Email is the highest-ROI marketing channel in existence — and Under Armour treats it like a performance engine, not a newsletter blast. While their social media presence and athlete sponsorships grab the spotlight, email quietly drives repeat purchases and loyalty across a brand that generated $5.2 billion in FY2025 revenue (verified fact, SEC filing). Here's why:
Email marketing returns $42 for every $1 spent — higher than paid social ($2-5), paid search ($8-10), and organic social ($0). No other channel comes close. For a brand of Under Armour's scale, even incremental improvements in email performance translate to millions in revenue.
Under Armour achieved an 80% lift in overall email engagement — after partnering with Movable Ink for real-time personalization. Product recommendation campaigns saw an even bigger jump: 132% engagement lift, while production time was reduced by 75%.
UA Rewards surpassed 1 million enrollments in its first year — Under Armour's loyalty program, launched August 2023 on Merkle's LoyaltyPlus platform, exceeded internal targets. Loyalty members generate significantly higher email engagement and lifetime value than non-members.
Under Armour's email stack is enterprise-grade — but the patterns are repeatable. Salesforce Marketing Cloud for orchestration, Movable Ink for personalization, Merkle for loyalty. You don't need all three. The strategic patterns — welcome flows, personalized product recommendations, loyalty-triggered sends — work at every scale with any ESP.
We're actively monitoring Under Armour's email program and sharing what we find with LeadMaxxing users. Create a free account to get real-time email intelligence on Under Armour and hundreds of other DTC brands.
Signup Flow Analysis
We signed up and documented every step — popup triggers, form fields, and conversion tactics
Under Armour's email capture leads with a generous 15% discount — higher than the 10% industry standard for DTC. We went through the entire flow and documented what we found. Every data point here is directly verifiable by visiting underarmour.com.
Incentive
Popup Trigger
Opt-in Type
Form Fields
Under Armour's 15% welcome discount is aggressive by industry standards. Most DTC brands offer 10%. The higher incentive likely reflects the competitive pressure from Nike and Adidas in the athletic apparel space. Combined with the separate SMS opt-in (via Salesforce CloudPages), Under Armour keeps email conversion friction near-zero while still capturing cross-channel data.
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ESP & Email Infrastructure
DNS records, sending domains, and authentication — all publicly verifiable
DNS records don't lie. We can confirm Under Armour's email platform directly from their public DNS records — and unlike many enterprise brands, the evidence is unambiguous. For a full breakdown of their tech stack, see our tech stack analysis.
ESP Detection
Under Armour's primary ESP is Salesforce Marketing Cloud (ExactTarget). This is confirmed through multiple DNS signals: their SPF record includes cust-spf.exacttarget.com and _spf.salesforce.com, and a TXT record contains an SFMC domain verification token (SFMC-Rz4UzVkyQhzarq1irCsT7zogHmChzUCcA2lEklBw). They also use SendGrid for transactional email, confirmed via DKIM CNAME records pointing to sendgrid.net.
Primary ESP
Transactional Email
Authentication
DMARC Policy
SPF Record
$ nslookup -type=TXT underarmour.com | grep spf underarmour.com. 300 IN TXT "v=spf1 ip4:104.130.47.0/24 ip4:67.133.225.146 mx include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:mail.zendesk.com include:spf.mailjet.com include:amazonses.com include:_spf.salesforce.com include:cust-spf.exacttarget.com include:_spf-dc8.sapsf.com ~all" ; SPF includes ExactTarget (Salesforce Marketing Cloud) and Salesforce ; Also includes SendGrid IPs, Mailjet, Amazon SES, Zendesk, and Outlook ; Multiple senders = complex multi-provider email infrastructure
DMARC Record
$ nslookup -type=TXT _dmarc.underarmour.com _dmarc.underarmour.com. 300 IN TXT "v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:webmaster@underarmour.com, mailto:NxckeQXK6F@dmarc.inboxmonster.com, mailto:dmarc_agg@dmarc.everest.email; adkim=r; aspf=r; pct=1; ri=86400; sp=none;" ; DMARC policy: none — monitor-only, NOT enforcing ; pct=1 — only 1% of messages are sampled (extremely low) ; Reporting to InboxMonster and Everest (Validity) for deliverability monitoring ; This is a significant gap for a brand this size
Authentication Grade
Under Armour's ESP detection is unusually clear — but their DMARC is a gap. Most enterprise brands mask their ESP behind a security gateway (like Proofpoint). Under Armour's ExactTarget references are visible in plain SPF. However, their DMARC policy of p=none with pct=1 means they're barely monitoring, let alone enforcing. For a $5.2B brand, this is a notable security and deliverability weakness.
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Lifecycle Flows & Personalization
Welcome series, UA Rewards integration, and Movable Ink personalization at scale
Under Armour's email automation is powered by three interconnected systems: SFMC for orchestration, Movable Ink for real-time personalization, and Merkle's LoyaltyPlus for UA Rewards integration. This combination drives the documented 80% engagement lift and allows personalized content at a scale most brands can't match.
Welcome Series (estimated 4-5 emails over 14 days)
The welcome flow begins immediately after signup with the 15% discount delivery:
The welcome series follows a classic value → story → personalize → urgency → transition pattern. Only the first email (immediate welcome + 15% discount) is directly verified. Days 2-14 are estimated based on standard enterprise DTC lifecycle flow architecture and the documented Movable Ink integration. Create a free LeadMaxxing account to get real updates on the email strategy of Under Armour and thousands of other brands we track.
UA Rewards & Loyalty Integration
Launched August 2023 and built on Merkle's LoyaltyPlus platform, UA Rewards is deeply integrated into the email program. Members earn 5 points per $1 spent (10 points during birthday month), with 625 points redeemable for a $5 reward. Benefits include early access to Curry Brand and Project Rock launches, exclusive athlete content, and sweepstakes. The program hit over 1 million enrollments in year one (verified fact, PR Newswire).
Other Expected Flows
Based on the documented Movable Ink and SFMC integration, these flows are almost certainly running:
Cart Abandonment
Price Drop Alerts
Post-Purchase
UA Rewards Triggers
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See how it works →What the Industry Says
External sources that confirm and expand on our analysis
Our findings align with publicly available data from multiple third-party sources:
Movable Ink Case Study
- 80% lift in overall engagement
- 132% lift in product rec campaigns
- 75% reduction in production time
Merkle CRM Partnership
- UA Rewards built on LoyaltyPlus
- 1M+ enrollments in year one
- CRM strategy and loyalty integration
MailCharts Profile
- Email marketing strategy archive
- Competitive benchmarking data
- Send frequency analysis
Key Findings
- → Salesforce Marketing Cloud (ExactTarget) confirmed as primary ESP via SPF record (
cust-spf.exacttarget.com) and TXT domain verification token. SendGrid handles transactional email. - → 15% welcome discount delivered on signup — higher than the typical 10% DTC offer, with a 14-day expiry window and one-time use restriction. Directly verified.
- → Movable Ink partnership delivered an 80% lift in email engagement and 132% lift in product recommendation campaigns, while cutting production time by 75% (Movable Ink case study, verified).
- → DMARC policy set to p=none with only 1% sampling — a notable security gap for a $5.2B brand. Not actively blocking unauthorized senders. Uses InboxMonster and Everest for reporting.
- → UA Rewards loyalty program exceeded 1 million members in year one — built on Merkle's LoyaltyPlus, offering 5 points per $1 and early access to Curry Brand and Project Rock (PR Newswire, verified).
What This Data Means for You
Turning Under Armour's email strategy into your competitive advantage
Under Armour's email program combines enterprise-grade tooling (SFMC + Movable Ink + Merkle) with repeatable strategic patterns. Their advertising strategy drives top-of-funnel traffic, while email converts intent and the UA Rewards loyalty program drives repeat purchases. The weak DMARC configuration is a cautionary tale — even billion-dollar brands leave gaps in their email authentication. The 80% engagement lift from Movable Ink proves that real-time personalization isn't a nice-to-have; it's a multiplier.
LeadMaxxing Automates This Email Playbook
Under Armour spends enterprise budgets on SFMC, Movable Ink, and Merkle. LeadMaxxing gives you AI-powered campaign generation, lifecycle flow building, and competitive intelligence for your brand — starting at $29/month.
See how it works →5 Things You Can Implement Today
Actionable lessons from Under Armour's email strategy playbook
Offer a Higher Welcome Discount Than Your Competitors
Under Armour offers 15% off — not the standard 10%. In competitive categories, the extra 5% can significantly improve signup rates. LeadMaxxing's AI campaign wizard helps you test different incentive levels and find the sweet spot for your brand.
Decouple SMS From Email Signup
Under Armour handles SMS on a separate landing page so it doesn't slow email conversion. LeadMaxxing builds multi-step forms that capture email first, then progressively collect SMS and preferences without friction.
Fix Your DMARC Before You Scale Sends
Even Under Armour has a DMARC gap (p=none, 1% sampling). Before scaling your email program, set DMARC to at least quarantine to protect deliverability. LeadMaxxing flags authentication issues during onboarding.
Add Real-Time Personalization to Your Flows
Under Armour's 80% engagement lift came from Movable Ink's dynamic content. You don't need Movable Ink — LeadMaxxing's AI generates personalized content blocks based on subscriber behavior and purchase history.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Sources & References
movableink.com
prnewswire.com
prnewswire.com
litmus.com
merkle.com
mailcharts.com