Is it just me or has everyone basically become a walking billboard for clothing companies? I am not protesting by any means, in retrospect I couldn’t be happier that these companies are making the hunt even easier for me and for you. These hints have been smacking us in the face day in and day out via clothing, perfume, and other merchandise. Finding out where all your friends are buying their clothes takes absolutely no effort. If you’re coy and don’t feel like asking them, all you have to do is look at the logo on their shirt. And to top it off, most of these companies are publicly traded just aching for us to investigate them. Honestly, how much easier can these companies make it for us? How many times do you see the logo for American Eagle (AEO) or Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF) simply by walking around campus or anywhere in your college town?
During my four year tenure at USF (
College football season was starting and hopes were high, at least for its students, for the USF Bulls. What college football season would be complete without college gameday wear? This led me to visit the on campus bookstore, where there is an abundance of school apparel. I was browsing, as I normally do, when I stumbled upon a specialty USF Under Armour shirt, which did not completely rape your skin, it just hung comfortably. I also found that Under Armour also made a specialty USF hoodie. After further investigation, I found that like the gym, the items were endless of Under Amour brand USF items. I decided to take a look online at the Under Armour website and I found that it was the same case for many other schools. It seemed Under Armour had become more of a fashion statement and was not just limited to the gym.
If this was evidence enough to start investigating, I had another run-in with the UA fever and this one was the absolute kicker. While I was shopping for groceries at Publix, a popular supermarket in the south-east, I saw twin six year old kids totally decked out in Under Armour and they were not the last. I thought this was hilarious, but that’s when I knew I had to look into this thing further.
And whatever happened to Under Armour? UA’s IPO (Initial Public Offering) was scheduled to be released in November of 2005 at about $13 per share. If you were lucky enough to grab onto some shares, like in the case of Chipotle, they would have nearly doubled on the first day. If you thought the fun was over, they doubled again in less than a year. Again, if you thought the fun was over at that point, you were dead wrong, because about a year later they almost doubled again! Granted in the next few months after that huge run, Under Armour had a pullback. Though Under Amour had lost some of its gains, you still would have made nearly 150% of returns and at one point over 300%.
The moral to this story is to invest in what you’re already familiar with and understand! If you are a regular customer at a restaurant, you probably know the products better than the employees. Some people might tell you to invest in a carbon fiber or fiber optics company, but I know absolutely nothing about these businesses and I am willing to bet money that the average college student knows absolutely nothing about these businesses either. In contrast, what is there to know about the burrito business? I mean, besides the traumatic bathroom appearance that occurs shortly after consumption. The people who tell you to invest in fiber optic companies are probably just trying to sound smart. They refuse to degrade themselves by investing in quaint little burger or burrito joints. I suppose I never got that memo, because my father always used to tell me, “When it comes to making money there is no pride.”
