Under Armour’s CEO Is a First-Time US Voter — Here’s How He’s Encouraging Turnout This Year

Under Armour has launched its first-ever voting initiative — spearheaded by its very own CEO, who is a first-time voter in the United States.

Today, the sportswear giant introduced “Run to Vote,” a program aimed at educating Americans and helping increase voter turnout in the upcoming 2020 elections. By accessing Vote.UA.com or the brand’s app, customers and employees will be able to find tools and resources regarding polling locations, mail-in ballot instructions and more.

In addition, Under Armour plans to give its more than 10,000 U.S. employees three hours of paid time off to vote in person or via mail. The Baltimore-based company is also teaming up with community groups like Black Girls Vote and encouraging people to participate in a running challenge next month of 11.3 miles — a distance that represents Election Day on Nov. 3.

The elections come the same year that Patrik Frisk took the helm at Under Armour. The executive chief, who is originally from Sweden and became a U.S. citizen last year, said that he hopes 90% of his workers will vote in 2020.

“We make it really hard for people to vote in this country,” he wrote in a statement shared on the brand’s website. “Having voted in the primaries recently, I had to spend three nights just getting into material and finding everything online. It was bewildering to be honest. And if you don’t have availability to access information, it would be very hard.”

Frisk added, “I want to just make sure that people, when they have an opportunity to have their opinion heard, take that opportunity and actually exercise it in an informed way. It’s as simple as that. Our purpose is to empower those to strive for more, and that requires more than just building great shirts and shoes.”

An increasing number of brands are also engaging in various efforts to get out the vote: Just today, Foot Locker Inc. announced that it has joined forces with Rock the Vote to install voter registration hubs at more than 2,000 of its namesake stores, as well as Champs Sports, Footaction and Eastbay outposts, starting next week on Sept. 22, or National Voter Registration Day.

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