Founded in 1996 by former University of Maryland football player Kevin Plank, Under Armour’s story of innovation began with the Shorty t-shirt. Made from soft, stretchy fabric, it wicked sweat faster than anything else on the market.

Now, 25 years on, Under Armour has grown into a multibillion-dollar brand that continues to create state-of-the-art products engineered to solve problems and make athletes better. The Baltimore-based fitness empire now operates across 41 offices globally, selling its products in over 100 countries worldwide.

Under Armour switched to 1Password in 2020 to secure its 6,000 global employees after finding that their current password manager placed too much administrative burden on the company. “We were looking to buy into a tool that had superior cross-platform support: Windows, Mac, mobile,” says Under Armour’s cybersecurity team.

Today, Under Armour is reaping the benefits, automating time-consuming tasks, and seeing improvement in its team’s security behaviors.

As a small section of the company was already using a competitor, Under Armour understood the power and benefits of implementing a password manager. But, as demand for its current service increased, so did the strain on support teams.

By integrating 1Password with Azure Active Directory to automate provisioning, Under Armour can push management down to the team already responsible for their Directory of Accounts – freeing up vital resources.

New employees can access the tools they need right away while anyone leaving the company is automatically removed from 1Password, streamlining the company’s onboarding and offboarding processes.

Under Armour also delegates specific people to create vaults, assign permissions, and share vaults – allowing them to share the administrative burden across the team.

1Password worked closely with Under Armour to plan and run a phased deployment to its 6,000-strong workforce. First, they ran a pilot with a small team so they could surface frequently asked questions, and prepare support ahead of time. The pilot also gave the team a chance to identify stakeholder roles and responsibilities, so everyone was aligned before the rollout.

“The pilot was invaluable,” they said. “Coming to these realizations helped us prepare for a smooth rollout to the rest of the company.”

Under Armour's dedicated 1Password account manager continues to work alongside the company and provide tailored support.

"They connect us with the 1Password support team and other team members, as necessary, so we’re never bounced around from employee to employee. Having the same team of people helping us to navigate both the company-wide deployment of 1Password and the continuous upkeep of the tool has helped us streamline our work with 1Password.”

Under Armour also takes advantage of free educational resources from 1Password, using 1Password webinars to onboard its IT support team and employees. "They were the best way to kick off our deployment and iron out any initial questions and concerns from the start.”

Improving cybersecurity and data protection awareness in employees is a focus for Under Armour. 1Password not only offers a safe and efficient way to save and share passwords, but provides a focal point for broader discussions around password security.

User engagement sessions, offered with support from 1Password, have increased company-wide awareness of good security practices, and employees are quickly seeing the efficiencies of using a password manager.

Before rolling out 1Password, employees would use their own methods to share passwords. Now, company logins and information are centrally managed and automatically provisioned, protecting all employee accounts – even those outside of IT’s purview.

By introducing 1Password as an integral layer of the company’s Identity and Access Management (IAM) stack, Under Armour’s teams can work faster, innovate, and collaborate more securely.