Dive Brief:

• Under Armour continued its executive shakeup with the announcement on Thursday of Kip Fulks as chief product officer, Colin Browne as president of global sourcing and Andy Donkin as chief marketing officer.

• Fulks was UA founder/CEO Kevin Plank’s first partner and he’s since held several top positions at the retailer. As Chief Product Officer, Fulks will drive strategy and integration of category management, marketing, product, merchandising, innovation and sourcing.

• Donkin hails from Amazon, where he led global brand and marketing efforts. He will spearhead UA’s global marketing initiatives, starting on Aug. 22. Browne, who is set to start on Sept. 6, has more than a quarter-century of sourcing expertise and has led efforts for multi-billion dollar brands, most recently at VF Corporation. Donkin and Browne will report to Fulks.

Dive Insight:

The competition in athletic wear for serious athletes and athletic amateurs is fierce these days. Adidas, which was toppled to number three by under-dog Under Armour, has shown signs of a comeback, and top-dog Nike is leaving little to chance.

UA's three recent hires are part of a shuffle that has executives coming and going; Leanne Fremar, architect of the widely acclaimed “I Will What I Want” campaign aimed at women, left last month for Starbucks, and Chief Merchandising Officer Henry Stafford and Chief Digital Officer Robin Thurston both announced their departures in May. 

Donkin’s arrival is especially intriguing, considering he was instrumental in the ideation, development and production of major Amazon campaigns like Amazon Prime, Amazon FireTV, Amazon Kindle, Amazon Echo and Amazon retail. That kind of data-rich, innovation-heavy experience is just the thing for UA’s new mobile shopping app, which takes advantage of customers' high use of their mobile phones to vacuum up data. And not just data on past purchases, which have often led retailers to clumsily suggest the same (already bought) item, but more robust, three-dimensional information that allows for recommendations that will resonate.

UA currently receives 50% of its e-commerce traffic from mobile, so it only makes sense that the company builds a specific channel for shopping. Constructing a more personalized experience might also help the retailer avoid the common consumer behavior many retail apps are seeing: a shopper downloads the app, but never uses it.

That, of course, hasn't been an issue for Amazon, which enjoys the support of some of the stickiest customers in the world, thanks to its Prime program, in which Donkin has had a pivotal role.