Under Armour names Clay Dean the Chief Innovation Officer

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Mar 13, 2017

Under Armour on Monday announced the appointment of Clay Dean as Chief Innovation Officer.
 
As Chief Innovation Officer, Dean will be responsible for driving the company’s global vision and strategy for innovation, and cross-functional collaboration with its internal Design, Marketing, Product, and Category Management teams. He will be based out of the company’s Baltimore headquarters, and he will report to Kevin Haley, President, Category Management and Innovation.

 
Dean joins Under Armour after over 20 years at General Motors. He most recently led the Global Advanced Design organization at General Motors and served as Chief Designer for the Hummer H2, H2 SUT and H3 programs. In addition, Dean collaborated on athletic footwear projects.

Under Armour hires Clay Dean following CEO Kevin Plank’s admission that Under Armour products lack a ‘cool factor’. The company hired designer Tim Coppens in June 2016 to lead its new Under Armour Sportswear label that is intended to penetrate the athleisure market and disrupt the designer collaboration trend.