Case study 05 Sportswear · Training & footwear · Spec work
Six product pages from the brand that started with one sweat-soaked T-shirt. Six films, every one written to a voice-over, and thirty stills across leggings, tops and two pairs of shoes by the end of the afternoon, with no athlete, no facility and no shoot. What Fotyra Studio delivers when the brand's whole idea is pressure.
Under ArmourWill you quit when the edge gets real?
1:00 pm
Under Armour began in 1996 with a problem rather than a logo. Kevin Plank, a special-teams captain at Maryland, was tired of the cotton T-shirt under his pads turning into a wet towel by the second quarter, and sewed a synthetic one that wicked the sweat away. He sold it from his grandmother's basement in Washington, then from the trunk of his car, then to every locker room in the country. HeatGear, ColdGear, hundreds of patents, Stephen Curry, a marathon winner in Boston. The tagline has changed over the years, from protect this house to the only way is through, and the idea underneath has not: the gear makes the athlete better, and the athlete is under pressure.
That is why it is the fifth study, and the widest brief so far. Six product pages instead of four or five, and for the first time three kinds of product at once: a legging, two tops and two pairs of shoes. Each one has to be shown doing its job under load, in a brand register that is defiant rather than pretty, in the black-and-white-and-one-red system the brand has kept for thirty years. So the brief was six URLs, no athlete, no facility, no reference deck, and one afternoon. Every piece had to look like it belonged in the same campaign.
Fotyra always starts in the same order, whatever the brand: the brand, then every product, then, if you want one, a face. Pointed at underarmour.com, the e-commerce engine wrote a Brand DNA in eleven sections: an overview that read a mature global brand mid-turnaround, selling direct, through its own stores and through wholesale; a positioning built on the original compression technology and the claim that the brand makes athletes better; and a visual identity of black and white with a single red, condensed capitals, direct portraiture and athletes in motion. It read the mood as confident, the preferred tone as defiant, with doubt framed as fuel, and the preferred environments as real training spaces and, alongside them, heightened or surreal worlds that externalize an athlete's mindset. Two of the six films below live in exactly that second kind of world.
Then the part a brand's own team rarely writes down. The audience: 16 to 40, high-school and college athletes and the adults who kept training, with women athletes and the outdoor crowd as the growing second audiences. What they worry about: sweat, heat, restriction, the fear that the wrong gear will cost them in the moment that counts. What triggers a purchase: a new season, a tryout, a race, a heatwave, a plateau that wants an upgrade. The words to use, relentless, disciplined, focused performer, and the words to avoid, passive comfort, fashion-first, effortless. Every piece below was made against that list, and the leggings chapter in particular is a study in the first three words.
Next, each of the six product pages into a Product DNA: the HeatGear fabric's claims and the compression fit, the waistband and where the wordmark sits on it, the HB Trainer's outsole and the UFC tab on the tongue, the Arc '96's retro mesh and leather overlays against the Apparition's ventilated upper, the mesh hem and racerback of the tank, the fitted cut of the tee, and the scale of a shoe on a foot and a legging on a moving leg. For apparel and footwear the reading also fixes the rule every frame has to obey: the product is worn, by a body, doing what it is sold for, and it never comes off, floats free or turns into a different product mid-shot. A person could read six product pages this closely. Nobody does it for all six, at this speed, and then holds every detail in mind through a kick.
1:40 pm
The leggings went first because they are the whole company in one product: the sweat-wicking compression fabric from 1996, cut for a woman who trains. The studio proposed two films and fifteen stills for them, more than for any other product in the series, because a legging is sold on fit from every angle and the reading said the audience worries about exactly that. The cinema-wide film opens the set: a neon cardio class on one side, a quiet corner and a loaded bar on the other, and no explanation offered to anyone.
Then the same film recast: a different woman, a different frame, the same refusal, cut vertical for TikTok and Reels. Beside it, three stills in the brand's defiant register: the headline ad for a cold audience, the tunnel, and the strap-pull that shows a compression legging under actual load.
Film · HeatGear Leggings · 16:9 · 0:15
You don't owe the room your rhythm.
The room has a rhythm and she declines it. A neon cardio class on one side, a quiet corner and a loaded bar on the other, and no explanation offered to anyone. A 15-second Under Armour HeatGear film about choosing your own load, paired in the catalogue with its 9:16 twin.
Voice-overYou don't owe the room your rhythm. Choose the weight. Make pressure count in HeatGear.
Film · HeatGear Leggings · 9:16 · 0:15
Same corner, new cast: choose the iron.
The same refusal, a different woman, a different frame. One brief, directed again with a new AI spokesmodel in pink HeatGear and recut 9:16 for TikTok and Reels. Fifteen seconds that exist to be watched beside the 16:9 original, the clearest proof here that a concept survives a change of cast.
Voice-overYou don't owe the room your rhythm. Choose the iron. Make pressure count in HeatGear.
Still · HeatGear Leggings · 9:16
Make the heat yours.
A desert road, a woman looking back over her shoulder, the line and the button already on the image. The HeatGear headline ad for a cold audience: the whole argument, a lightweight breathable baselayer for warm-weather miles, in the brand's own bold sans and one orange accent.
Still · HeatGear Leggings · 9:16
A concrete tunnel, one foot on the wall, no plans to leave.
Leaning into a concrete wall in a fog-lit underpass, one foot up, the stare straight down the lens. The defiant one, made to the mood the Brand DNA calls doubt as fuel, with the leggings catching the only light in the tunnel.
Still · HeatGear Leggings · 9:16
The strap pulls, the fabric holds.
A strap-pull against a plyo box, chalk dust in the air, every seam under tension. The still that shows a compression legging doing its actual job: holding a body under load, in the training-facility light the brand shoots in.
Press the film to watch with sound, or any still to see it full size.
Four stills that answer the question the Brand DNA wrote down, whether the gear will hold: the home session mid-step, the fit at rest in window light, the high kick that tests the full range, and the back view on white with nothing to hide.
Still · HeatGear Leggings · 9:16
The home session, mid-step.
Mid-dance-step between the sofa and the garden door, a resistance band still on the floor, the laugh caught rather than posed. HeatGear as the home-workout uniform, for the shopper who trains where she lives.
Still · HeatGear Leggings · 9:16
No action, no sweat, just the fit.
Standing calm in warm window light against a plaster wall, a steel bottle on the bench. The baselayer story told at rest: consideration-stage creative for the shopper comparing fabrics rather than slogans.
Still · HeatGear Leggings · 9:16
A high kick on a yellow set, water flying.
A high kick against a yellow studio wall, water bursting off the mat, the waistband holding at the top of the movement. The loudest HeatGear still, for a feed that rewards color, and proof the fit survives the full range.
Still · HeatGear Leggings · 9:16
The back view, on white, with nothing to hide.
A plain back view on a white studio floor, hand on hip, chalk on the ground. The rear-view fit shot every legging needs and most brands avoid: seams, waistband and opacity under the flattest light there is.
The site and the banner need it wide, and the brand shoots wide on grey with the logo alone in the corner. So the campaign still: a tree pose, a wink, a puff of chalk, and one pink product in a black-and-white system.
Still · HeatGear Leggings · 16:9
Tree pose, a wink, a puff of chalk.
A tree pose on a grey studio backdrop, a wink and a puff of chalk in the raised hand, the logo alone in the corner. The wide campaign still for the site and the banner: the brand's black-and-white restraint with one pink product in the middle of it.
Two detail shots for retargeting, the waistband wet at arm's length and the seams on the turn, then four squares for the feed and the catalog, and the second wide to close the chapter.
Still · HeatGear Leggings · 9:16
The waistband, wet, at arm's length.
The waistband and seams at arm's length, sweat beading on the fabric, a black bra above. Product detail creative for retargeting: the shopper who has seen the campaign and now wants to see the construction.
Still · HeatGear Leggings · 9:16
Seen from behind, on the turn.
From behind on a dark studio floor, one foot lifting into the turn, white trainers catching the light. A rear-view fit shot for the ads account, with the contoured seams doing the talking.
Press either to see it full size.
Still · HeatGear Leggings · 1:1
A look back over the shoulder, on beige.
A look back over the shoulder on a warm beige ground, the smile unhurried, the waistband logo legible. The square for the feed and the catalog: the product at rest, and the person wearing it pleased about it.
Still · HeatGear Leggings · 1:1
Heel up, seam line clean.
A three-quarter view with the heel rising, the seam line running clean from waist to ankle. A square fit study for the product page, where the shopper wants to see the length and the taper before the mood.
Still · HeatGear Leggings · 1:1
Hands on hips, from behind, on sand.
From behind on a sand-colored ground, hands on hips, the wordmark on the waistband at hip height like a stamp. The quiet square in the set, for a carousel that needs one frame with nothing happening in it.
Still · HeatGear Leggings · 1:1
Electric blue, a spray of water, unbothered.
A spray of water across an electric-blue ground, the leggings dry and the pose unbothered. The bright square for the feed, made to the same one-color-against-the-brand rule as the rest of the set.
Still · HeatGear Leggings · 16:9
The back view, wide, on grey.
A back view on a grey studio backdrop, wide, the logo alone in the corner. The second wide campaign still, shot to the brand's monochrome system so the product is the only color on the page.
2:30 pm
A training shoe is sold on what happens where it meets the ground, so the studio took the ground away. The Brand DNA read the brand's habit of building heightened worlds that externalize an athlete's mindset, and the two landscape films for the HB Trainer do exactly that, on two rungs of the studio's World ladder: The Titan's Wall is a 3D-animated film, the Animated / 3D world with the real shoe kept inside it, which is the film at the top of this page and comes back in full at the end; The Shattered Grid is the Surreal world, photoreal but impossible, a gym floor that cracks and lifts under a set stance while the shoes simply hold.
First the vertical, a creator-style film about the third shuttle run on an old gym floor with nobody watching, and two stills that take the shoe off the floor: braced across a slot canyon, and standing on a mirror so the outsole is seen with the upper.
Film · HB Trainer Sport · 9:16 · 0:15
Tired legs still have one more cut.
The rep that counts is the one after you wanted to stop. First cut heavy, second cleaner, third locked in, on an old gym floor with nobody at all watching. A 15-second vertical Under Armour ad for the HB Trainer Sport that stays in the brand's territory: the work, never the highlight.
Voice-overMy tired legs still have one more cut. The first cut felt heavy and hot. Second cut, cleaner. I'm locked in now. HB Trainer. Link's there.
Still · HB Trainer Sport · 9:16
Bracing inside a sandstone slot, laughing.
Braced across a sandstone slot canyon, one shoe on each wall, laughing. Lifestyle creative for the outdoor audience the Brand DNA lists second: the trainer off the gym floor and onto rock.
Still · HB Trainer Sport · 9:16
Standing on a mirror, the shoe seen twice.
Standing on a mirror in a dark studio, so the outsole is seen with the upper. Product detail creative for the shopper who wants to inspect the sole, without a flat product shot on white.
Press the film to watch with sound, or either still to see it full size.
Still · HB Trainer Sport · 9:16
Breath in the cold, before the first drill.
Breath hanging in the cold on a frosted path, zipped up, feet set. The pre-session still: the moment before the effort, for the runner and the conditioning athlete the reading puts at the center.
Still · HB Trainer Sport · 1:1
The shoe hits the plinth, chalk explodes.
The HB Trainer landing on a white plinth against a red ground, chalk exploding on impact. A product hero in the brand's one accent color, cut for the feed and the catalog: nobody in frame, all the force of the set.
Still · HB Trainer Sport · 1:1
The shoe on dark fabric, mid-flex.
The shoe on rippling dark fabric, mid-flex, the outsole pattern and the UFC tab legible. The moody product still for the homepage and retargeting, where a trainer has to look like an object worth wanting.
And the second surreal landscape, the one that makes the brand's oldest idea literal: you feel the rule, and you break it.
Film · HB Trainer Sport · 16:9 · 0:15
You feel the rule. Break it.
Every gym floor is a set of rules you agreed to without reading them. Here the tiles crack and lift under a set stance, and the shoes simply hold. A surreal 15-second Under Armour film that makes pressure literal, the brand's oldest idea, staged somewhere a camera could never go.
Voice-overYou feel the rule. Break it. Pressure makes you ready. Refuse the surface. Stand on what holds. Under Armour.
3:15 pm
The Meridian line is the brand's argument that training kit should not stop at the gym door, so the two tops were made for the walk out as much as the work. The tank got a film and four stills, the tee two stills, and the chapter opens on the tank's campaign wide, headline and button already on the image in the brand's condensed capitals.
Still · Meridian Mesh Tank · 16:9
Ready looks this calm.
A studio wide with the headline in the brand's condensed capitals: soft support meets a polished racerback fit for training and beyond. The Meridian Mesh tank's campaign still, with the copy and the button already on the image.
Then the film: a gym built for classes, used for something heavier, and a protest that stays completely silent. Beside it, the vertical headline ad on a sea cliff and the square that takes the tank home.
Film · Meridian Mesh Tank · 9:16 · 0:15
Let the room learn what focus sounds like.
A gym built for classes, used for something heavier. She chalks up and loads a barbell in a room designed to keep her polite, and the protest stays completely silent. A 15-second vertical Under Armour spec ad for the women's UA Meridian Mesh set, permission written as refusal.
Voice-overYou came here to work, not to behave. Let the room learn what focus sounds like. Stay ready with Under Armour.
Still · Meridian Mesh Tank · 9:16
Go where it gets real.
A climber on a sea cliff at golden hour, the line above her and the button below: fast-drying fabric helps you stay focused when the climb gets exposed. The vertical headline ad for the tank, for Stories and Reels.
Still · Meridian Mesh Tank · 1:1
Ready, without the rush.
A hallway at home, tote on the bench, the tank under an open shirt, the headline across the top. The square that takes the tank from the gym to the rest of the day, which is the Meridian argument.
Press the film to watch with sound, or either still to see it full size.
The fitted tee got the quieter treatment: a hallway with the coffee and the tote on the bench, and a fist in the air at a court gate with the line that says what it is for, court time to casual plans.
Still · Meridian Perfect Form Tee · 1:1
Arms up, hair tied, the door still open.
Tying her hair in a sunlit hallway, coffee and tote on the bench, the tee fitted and unfussy. The Perfect Form tee at the moment before leaving: product-in-use for the everyday-training audience.
Still · Meridian Perfect Form Tee · 9:16
Say yes to one more stop.
A fist in the air at a chain-link court gate, coffee cups on the ground, the line at the top: a soft performance tee keeps the move from court time to casual plans feeling natural. The Perfect Form headline ad, vertical.
Still · Meridian Mesh Tank · 16:9
Cool mesh. Barely there.
A hard-light studio wide with a long shadow and the headline in white: four-way stretch keeps your movement open and unrestricted. The second Meridian Mesh headline ad, for the site banner and the wide social card.
3:45 pm
The Arc '96 and the Apparition are the sportstyle end of the range, retro runners for the day rather than the session, and the reading put them in the brand's stylized editorial lane, where sport meets fashion and subculture. So the Arc '96 got a headline ad outside a coffee hatch and two heightened squares, and the Apparition one dark-stage still with smoke at the heels.
Still · Arc '96 · 9:16
Take the day with you.
Coffee in hand and a tote on the shoulder outside a hatch window, the Arc '96 doing the errands, the copy at the top. A headline ad that sells the retro runner as an everyday shoe rather than gym kit.
Still · Apparition · 9:16
A look back, smoke at the heels.
A look back over the shoulder on a dark blue stage, breath in the air and smoke at the heels, the pink Apparition the only warm color in the frame. The lone still for the retro runner, made to the brand's monochrome-plus-one rule.
Still · Arc '96 · 1:1
Take the long way.
A runner on a stone aqueduct above the clouds, the city behind her, a shoe inset in the corner and the line across the top. The Arc '96's heightened square, in the surreal register the Brand DNA says the brand uses to externalize a mindset.
Still · Arc '96 · 1:1
No straight lines.
A crouched figure in a blue jacket with ribbons of blue and glass curling past, and the line: retro mesh, leather overlays, and a look that refuses to blend. The stylized square for the sportstyle audience, closer to a sneaker drop than a training ad.
Press either to see it full size.
4:30 pm
Thirty-six pieces of finished creative across six products and three kinds of product, from six product pages and no shoot, in a single afternoon session of a few hours. Every film was written to a voice-over, one of them 3D-animated and one surreal, worlds a camera could not visit, and every still keeps the brand's rule of one color against black and white. A production company would need a training facility, a slot canyon, a sea cliff, a desert road and a studio, six athletes, and a month.
If this were a real engagement, the afternoon would end differently. The brand's team would approve or reject each piece in the Creative Library, cast Nia Okafor or a face of their own across the set, resize the stills for every placement, and have the lot in a shared folder by the evening. That part of the studio is already built; it is what the help center documents, step by step.
And the film that opened the page, in full: every height asks the same question, and the shoe answers it on real stone.
Film · HB Trainer Sport · 16:9 · 0:15
Will you quit when the edge gets real?
A 3D-animated film, made on purpose. The studio's World control is a ladder of five looks, from Real to Illustrated, and this one was set to Animated / 3D: a stylized climber on a stone colossus against a burning sky, the leap across the gap, the crouch on the ledge, rendered like a game cinematic while the shoe itself stays the real product. Then the ladder is climbed back down in the same fifteen seconds, and the answer lands in live action, a real shoe gripping real stone as the sun goes down. The wide film that opens this page, and the clearest statement of the brand's oldest idea: the question the height asks does not change, only whether you quit when the edge gets real.
Voice-overEvery height asks the same question. Will you quit when the edge gets real? Earn your grip. Under Armour.
HeatGear Leggings
The women's compression legging on the fabric the company was founded on.
HB Trainer Sport
A hybrid cross-training shoe for HIIT, plyometrics and the gym floor.
Meridian Mesh Tank
A tight-fit training tank with a mesh hem and a racerback.
Meridian Perfect Form Tee
A fitted performance short sleeve for training and after.
Arc '96
A retro-inspired sportstyle runner with everyday cushioning.
Apparition
A ventilated sportstyle sneaker with a retro running silhouette.
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