Dive Brief:

• Under Armour COO and CFO Brad Dickerson will leave the sportswear retailer in February, the company said Tuesday.

• Dickerson is taking a position outside the sportswear retail industry, with a small startup, though the company didn’t say where. He joined Under Armour in 2004 and is credited with helping fuel the company’s significant growth—where sales grew tenfold—in the past decade.

• Under Armour says it’s in search of a new CFO and that Dickerson’s COO duties will be spread to that candidate and to other executives within the company.

Dive Insight:

This is a big loss for Under Armour, considering Brad Dickerson’s significant role in escalating its growth over the past decade. 

The retailer is in a position of strength at this point, however, having overtaken sportswear giant Adidas to take the number two spot behind Nike. And the retailer makes no bones about its ambitions to catch up to that giant, with CEO Kevin Plank telling investors last month that the retailer will be a $7.5 billion company by 2018.

That would mean that its $3.08 billion 2014 revenue would more than double in three years, and get the retailer a bit closer to Nike, which sees $28 billion in annual revenue.