[indistinct chattering] [indistinct chattering] the funeral mass for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a has come to an end here at the basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and washington, d. C. Justice scalia will now be laid , thest at a private burial location for that burial has not been announced. The justice is survived by his wife, maureen, 9 children, and many grandchildren. Every weekend on American History tv on cspan3, feature programs that tell the american story. Some of the highlights for this weekend include this afternoon at 2 00 eastern, president Woodrow Wilson nominated a boston lawyer to the u. S. Supreme court great he became the first jewish justice to sit on the nations highest court. Of hismoration nomination, Brandeis University in massachusetts hosted a panel, including ruth bader ginsburg, to discuss his contributions to american democracy. At 6 55, professor joanne discusses the evolution of Political Parties and partnership. Sunday morning at 10 00 on right road to the white a South Carolina republican primary debate featuring Texas Governor george w. Bush, arizona senator john mccain, and alan keyes. Cnn hosted the event in columbia and larry king moderated. He went on to secure the republican nomination. At 6 00, american artifacts set selections of objects left at the Vietnam Memorial wall, including letters, photographs, artwork, and metals. The collections include a couple hundred thousand items, all stored at the National Park Service Resource center in maryland. For the complete American History tv we can schedule, go to www. Cspan. Org. Weekend schedule, go to www. Cspan. Org. The National Governors association is holding its annual winter meeting this weekend in washington, d. C. Coming up, a session focusing on state strategies for Economic Development. It should get started in just a few moments. Live coverage on cspan. Good afternoon, everyone. Its my pleasure to serve as vice chairman of the Economic Development and commerce committee. I now call this meeting to order. Governors, i want to thank you for joining us this afternoon. To my left is a legislative committee. R the eec before we get started, id like to recognize our Committee Chair , Maryland Governor larry hogan, who is unable to be with us today. Before being elected governor, Governor Hogan was a lifelong Small Business owner. Lookinge was really forward to sharing his experiences with us today, and talking about how his administration is working to make maryland a more competitive and more business friendly state. Unfortunately, Governor Hogan is doing one of the toughest jobs we have ever had to do as governors. , two Hertford Countys sheriffs deputies were killed in the line of duty. Our hearts go out to the families of these officers, the Hertford County police department, and our Law Enforcement community nationwide. Please join me in a moment of silence as we honor these two maryland heroes. Thank you. Full agenda,ave a so we will go ahead and get started. Our mostors, one of important responsibilities and certainly one of our largest challenges is to promote Economic Growth and development in our states. These work sessions give us a great opportunity to share best actresses practices. And share our successes with each other. Newre working to attract business, and encourage existing companies to grow and expand. Governor hogan recently shared the maryland has announced its best year in eight years, celebrating growth of some of the states most important brands and employers like under , andr, mccormick, fedex amazon, who have increased their investments and job numbers in their state. Im excited to share what we in West Virginia are doing to strengthen our economy. Through the years we have worked hard to bring jobs to West Virginia for West Virginias. West virginians. Today nationally and internationally recognized toyota,s like macys, and now proctor and gamble all call western virginia home. As those of you around the table know, these kinds of investments dont happen overnight. Hardare a result of the work and positive changes we have made in West Virginia over the years. Thanks to partnerships between our states and technical colleges, career and Technical Education programs, and business and Industry Partners and West Virginia, we now have more job Training Programs in place than ever before. Since 2007, West Virginias community and technical colleges have developed what hundred 33 you programs specifically tailored to support Workforce Development and training. Job procter r gamble has partnered with Blue Ridge Technical Community College to create specialized Training Programs to train workers and will comprise the companys fifthlargest workforce in the country. The certificate and degree programs in place years before the plant was fully operational are preparing our workers for good paying jobs in engineering, computer science, and electronics. And training our students to become skilled operator technicians. In 2012, West Virginia lost a new Workforce Training Program called learn and earn. This Program Helps students receive classroom instruction and hand on experience hands on experience while earning a competitive salary. While learn and earn has only been in place for a few years, we are seeing incredible success. One whichsuch as manufactures autoparts are taking advantage of this program to create skilled training opportunities. Through a partnership with Bridge Valley community and technical college, students can get handson training and earn a oneyear certificate, an associate degree, and a journeymans card. State state of the address this january, i introduced jamie thompson, a learn and earn graduate, who is now a staff employee helping to train 12 new students at the companys manufacturing plants. The plant opened in 2013. Its plant has tripled production and more than doubled its workforce. Today in employs more than 700 West Virginians. These training opportunities are giving hardworking West Virginians opportunities to find , career in high demand fields and helping Companies Operate in their state grow and expand. While major Economic Development announcements have grabbed headlines, we are working to support our states entrepreneurs and strengthen our local economies. Workforce Training Programs are critical to our continued growth, but we cant overlook the training and skills so many West Virginians already have. That is why this year i introduced a piece of legislation called the selfemployment assistance act, to make it easier for West Virginias receiving unemployment to get the help they need to open a business. As our panelists with us today can attest, starting a new can be hard, no matter how great the idea may be or how hard you work to make it a success. This legislation would allow you Business Owners to use the skills they already have two open a new business, reinvest in their company and their employees, while continuing to receive Unemployment Benefits to support their families. This is just a few of the many programs we are supporting in West Virginia, and i look forward to todays roundtable discussion to answer any questions that you may have, and learn more about what other states are doing to strengthen their economies. At this time im pleased to introduce one of our guest panelists today. Jeff is president and ceo of the international Economic Development council. Under jeffs leadership, this organization has grown into a 5 million operation known for its work to diversify the field of Economic Development. Jeff his time at the iedc, served for 15 years as president of the american Economic Development council. After we hear from jeff, we will also hear from the founder and ceo of under armour. I know that Governor Hogan was really looking forward to hosting jeff today and introducing a proud maryland or. Whon is an entrepreneur turned an idea for a better global into a 4 billion brand, with 14,000 employees and counting. Under kevins leadership and vision, under armour has become one of marylands most respected companies, recognized across the world for its innovation and quality. Thata visionary investor is personally betting big on his home state of maryland, particularly Baltimore City. Today he and his team are working to transform baltimore, creating thousands of new jobs, green space and parks, and connecting more of the city to its waterfront. Ultimately, generate a significant economic benefit for the region. Please join me in welcoming our outstanding panel. Thank you very much. It i want to recognize some governors that i know, governor withry, you and i dealt each other when you were mayor of charlotte and its good to see you again. The governor and i had the opportunity to visit a few minutes ago, and we work with his Virgin Islands Economic Development team on a pretty regular basis. Its good to see you. Governor walker, you helped kick off our annual conference in anchorage in october. Think you for doing that, and its great to see you. I want to talk briefly about whats going on in the world of atomic developed you call your department the department of , Economic Development, community and economic whatever theynd are doing, etc. He create, retain connex and jobs and wealth in your communities, chances are your professionals are members of the international Economic Development. We serve a greater Economic Development community. This is the 20th anniversary of our organization. While we are not the old profession, we have been around proclaiming and are the week of may the eighth Economic Development week in the United States. If you get the opportunity, maybe you can help celebrate your Economic Developers that week in your state. There are activities starting to ,ccur all around the country and many of your Economic Developers are the unsung heroes, the unheralded people that are preparing the groundwork to retain those businesses that might be potentially leaving, working with the entrepreneurs that could potentially grow exponentially, a company like kevin blanks. Working on the workforce issues when Companies Need additional workers. While we dont lead workforce amenities, clearly our members are integrating with the to tryce organizations to meet the needs of companies in their communities. I will talk briefly about three issues today. I will talk about whats going on in Foreign Direct Investment Economic Opportunity and equity, and Community Resilience and innovation. Are three of the big issues that many of our Economic Development practitioners are working on. Patient was brutal. But one of the things that has become clear in a postrecession is that we still are an important place to do business in this world. We are the number one location investments. Irect in 2013, we had inflows of nearly 200 billion, and are five 8 million american jobs where those people work for international companies. As i talk to our Economic Developers around the country, a deal flow that is significant, at a lot of it is coming from Foreign Investors on a regular basis. Foreign investors are doing a variety of things. They are bringing jobs here. Also acquiring investment in the United States as well, and that includes companies and real estate. Edos need to do to be successful at that . Are of you as governors leading the nation, hopefully set up by your Economic Development offices, and we are seeing a greater number of delegations going internationally. The United States actually has an active presence, which we do before, in the battle for Foreign Direct Investment. There is a Small Program at the department of commerce called select usa. Before that program existed, we majorhe only industrialized country that did not have a foreign and direct investment activity that our federal level. Fortunately they are helping us make inroads with investors all around the world. Are finding a number of our members are working in partnerships with other countries. Many of you have offices overseas or you have delegates representing you in some fashion or other. Using a variety of tools, Foreign Trade zones, in order to help you be successful in that attempt to recruit investors into your states. I want to raise is a question of Economic Opportunity. Surveying of our Economic Development professionals and the things and talking about our issues that are very keen and high on the issues of our members. One of the things that has happened postrecession is we have not returned Many Americans to the economic positions they were in before the recession. Areas and pockets of our community that are experiencing unusually high unemployment, and many people during theed recession have not gotten back to where they were before. They have a fulltime jobs, they are managing a variety of jobs. We are trying to figure out how do we deal with those disparities. I would like to tell you i have the answers and that i can share those answers with you and that i have this magic elixir. What i can do is tell you that we are spending a great deal of time and we are going to be working throughout this year, trying to figure out what are on thet practices Economic Development front to deal with these questions of equities. Gains look at job postrecession, lowwage occupations have dominated the recovery. We have not won back many of the middle class jobs. It is our hope that hopefully with some competition for employment, maybe some inflation , and a stronger job market, we can start to change that formula over time. To be lookinging over the next several months at who is doing a good job of trying to a gear out how to deal with these disparities in their economy, and are there some Economic Development tools being used differently . For, tying business incentives to fulltime jobs with benefits. , governor tomlin talked about the whole issue of workforce. That has come up as the number one issue that many manufacturers, many people in the Service Industry are having to deal with. They are having a difficult time finding people that are able to work in and take on a job immediately without significant training in order to do that. A dislocation of skills versus where the jobs are , and we are having a difficult time tying people to those jobs. The recession washed out a whole number of people. If you think of the tool and die industry or some of the skills that probably were held by people in their 50s and 60s, when they were washed out of their jobs, they are not coming back. The last thing, and i believe that some of you had an opportunity to meet with craig fugate one of the things iadc has spent a lot of time dealing with is this whole issue of the resilient economies. We did not know a whole lot about that until after katrina 5, and ourleans in 200 organization marbleized about 250 volunteers. Orleans. Not say new louisiana, mississippi, and a small portion of alabama, followed by rita. We just had a major conference wenew orleans in january and were able to celebrate with our friends from mississippi and louisiana. But, we are unprepared. We are unprepared in a variety of ways, and prepared to fix the infrastructure, but also unprepared for what happens when these major employers dont reopen or they dont reopen for 18 months after the disaster has hit. Building some knowledge infrastructure to help communities think about this. We have a website called restor eyoureconomy. Org that has been supported by the Economic Development administration. If you take back to your Economic Development people, if youre worried about places that have high water where the wind blows fast, where the earth cracks every now and then and other things that can potentially happen, you may want to have them take a peek at restoreyoureconomy. Org and it will help them think through some of the issues you may want to be thinking about in the future. Presentation. Governor tomlin, i appreciate being invited. I will be available for any questions. Thank you, jeff. We really appreciate you coming here. You learn something new about your state every day. Thank you very much. Pulling their underwear out of their hands and say, im wearing your stuff. Its terrific. My First Manufacturing the saudi facility was in ohio. Speedo at the time, they pulled out and sent their production to mexico. I was fortunate enough to be able to hire my line supervisor. When i approach them about taking up this job with me, i unzipped their front door because they were living in a tent and convince them i could guarantee them work through christmas. Shop in a little rowhouse in West Virginia where they were living in one bedroom, keeping fabric in another and manufacturing in the basement. It was eight months after these for our trips between mountains fill and baltimore, i realized i needed to move. We brought things that closer to home. Mondo, our first mill election was in rhode island as well. Governor brown, were in the process of building a 100,000 squarefoot facility. It also houses someone else from our industry. It is an electric crowd we will have today. I would like to tell you about our story and then talk about entrepreneurship. Tank is something much broader than a conversation around Silicon Valley. I was an athlete. Growing up i wanted to play bigtime college football. All the time from being a little boy and the image you see in the upper lefthand corner this aself, circa 1984, 12yearold boy. , it wasore under armour a longsleeved cotton shirt in the winter. As im wearing my white and blue maplewood football uniform, that is a black and red flannel shirt underneath. Brents is tobs at give you things you never thought you needed and once you have it, you cant imagine how you ever lived without it. That is the view people have of brands. Nce from grade school into high school and then for myself, it journey intosting another high school and ultimately to a prep school before i went on to the university of maryland. Along these ways i made a number of different relationships, so many of which that where i ended up starting this business is a couple miles from st. Johns. To my prep school, there were 23 players that went on to play Major College football. Four of which were first round nfl draft picks. It was graduating from school i realized i would never play in but i had these amazing relationships. What if i could somehow access these guys and not asking them for a loan, but saying can you try a tshirt. I do not know anything about manufacturing. Some fabric that i found and made my first 500 tshirts. I proceeded to send out free tshirts to everyone i ever played with. Try thishem, please product and if you like it, give this to the guy with a locker next to you. One player liked it, then another player, then the whole team. I realized this was not a product of just for football players. And then the volleyball players. This is in need we had. No one had addressed what athletes where underneath their uniform. I realized we had a pretty great opportunity going forward. I set up shop in my grandmothers roadhouse. I started making product. That first year in business out of grandmas house where i was living upstairs, the image you see is the dining room where i set up my first sales office. From that growth, we began to grow and accelerate. My first year in business, 17,000 in revenues. Our first five years in business gets the first 5 million in revenues. It was 1998 when i decided to take it to baltimore. Theres no one reason to point my finger on, but i thought the city felt the culture of the brand i wanted to build. As it was government, it was also an individual landlord who gave me a chance. If you believe in a young person, give them an opportunity. As we grew and got to that Million Dollar level where i was able to attract my first loan, and that loan was as a result of the Small Business administration. Its important we all recognize the role that the sba can play. At the time, the first loan from the sba was a 200 50,000 loan that you must get a banker to agree to back you. For me, it was a woman who ran at the times the Adams National bank, the oldest womens own bank and the United States located on k street and washington, d. C. It was her believe in me that allowed us to grow. We went public in 2005. This last year we closed the quarter were way more than quadrupled that number just short of 4 billion u. S. Revenue. As impressive as those numbers are, it is something we look back on our tenure as a Public Company where we have averaged. Ince 2005 a 30 topline taker both top and bottom. That, just the last nearly six years, weve had one of only 10 one of only two companies in the s p 500 to make that claim. It is something we are proud of. You look at those elements that allowed us to get started and it was as much about government as it was about people giving us a chance. Weve been able to build a Great Company since then, a great brand. And a brand that is built up of people. Today for myself, a guy whose relationship is one of convenience, his father was an admiral. He used to ride his bike to work every day and one of the most compelling attributes with the fact of where i had to go through my credit to a degree i was not proud of. Ip and great credit. His credit cards were attracted to the company. Loadedvery proud to have up the back of the little Toyota Tacoma truck, mover operations to baltimore, and with that we have been able to grow to the point today that we have just under 14,000 people and drawing every single day, close to 3000 are located in Baltimore City in our headquarters. I will get you more of that. The brand has been about the athlete making the best. One thing we are proud of today is the way we are affiliated with the best. Today under armour is a brand a fraction of the size of the other two major competitors in from cam newton to bryce harper to stephon curry to carry price in the nhl, as well as if you look at this one slide , the number one golfer in the world, the reigning super bowl just a year ago, tom brady and the prima ballerina for the American Valley theater in new york city, and most recently named one of the most influential people in the world, a great woman named missy copeland. The best thing about the slide, you think about under armour. That actually was a one sheet eel. World cup champions from the u. S. Womens soccer team and andy murray, most recent davis cup champion. All these things are important to us and they are part of what brand. To our we are a company that has gone from changing the way athletes dress what is important about changing the way athletes stress, now we believe our obligation is to change the way that athletes live. What that means is our commitment to digital and to tech, and that is a question every grant will have to live with. A commercial we may close to four years ago called future girl, from some point in the future, navy five years from now, maybe 10 or 15 years from now. Imagine a day when you have the same expectation of innovation in your apparel that you do in your phone. You will watch this woman swiped her wrist and change the color of her top, the color of her footwear, watching the microclimate between her apparel and her skin. Because we are not just competing with others in our space. In the apparel and footwear space. Think we truly live, about what we will do as the Competitive Landscape shifts, not when one of our competitors makes a new innovation, but what will we do with apple, samsung, google tries to get in the apparel or footwear space . We have been reinventing this idea of digital. With that, most recently we made several acquisitions over the last three years to transform our company. Just three years ago, december 2013, we acquired the First Company in our digital team. We are not tracking enough of the smartest people in the world, enough engineers. Three years ago we had 7000 or 8000 people in our company, left in 20 of which were engineers. That got me thinking, we are not living the future. What is our Digital Strategy . It wasnt that we were not having the right answers. We were not even asking the right questions. The idea was, how do we build Something Better . The first acquisition was not getting into the hardware space. There will always be a better mask mousetrap. But what if we could really understand the community . The First Company we bought, map my fitness. You take your phone and go for a bike ride, you hit start and it tracks were you are going, to tell the distances between the times he went, calories burned, things like that. From december 2013 through the following year, a guy named Robin Thurston who is now our chief digital officer the community grew to 30 million registered users. That is incredible. What if we have more Companies Like this . We can have the introduction of this sports brand, not waiting for some to walk into a Sporting Goods store, because that model will continue to change. But what if we meet them where they are, our first handshake with them is a digital handshake . So he made two more acquisitions. One, the european version of mapmyfitness. And the last one was called this answer something we needed, which was nutrition. We are working as we merge them into this single universe of a product we have called under armour record. Projectmour record is a imagine if you could measure and track the idea of not only but wearable will do, wearable can tell you how many steps you took or how much you slept, but is not telling you how to be great. Imagine if you had a wearable that could tell you not only your sleep, your exercise. If so, the number of steps you took a given day, how you ate. Want to log everything on my fitness doubt, it would be a next ordinary thing to do. If you want to say, ive had a light day of eating, an average day of eating, or a heavy day of eating. Finally, if you can track yourself and see how you feel. If i dont feel so well, i rate myself a 1. The idea of this Digital Transformation of our brand is very real and alive. Million have over 160 people in our database, over 130,000 downloads occurring every single day. Scale is something we find incredibly compelling. Imagine if you could look at your health and fitness in a way that says, i dont know if anyone in this room can tell us how many days last year they were sick. If you did, you are like me and say, i dont get sick. No, you got sick. You just want to work anyway. You are thinking, why dont we know that . Around saying, are we supposed to wait for one of the Health Insurance companies or cvs to be the brand that defines us . Im here in this space with downhill full feed, give yourself a calendar look at how many days did i write myself a nine or 10. If so, what is the like activity i rated myself nine or 10 and what can i do to replicate it . A brand has job is not a brands job is to tell you the things you never knew you needed , and then you wonder how you ever lived without them. I used to not know when i got sick. You can load up on vitamin c or zinc. Measured within all of this is the goal of growth. At our most recent investment day, the Digital Transformation of our company is important. We promised investors at the time we were around the midthrees, 2. 5 billion in revenue. What that would mean for our company, it will put us in the position of scale and growth in our competitive world. It will also mean it will be bringing the first fortune 500 company back to Baltimore City. When the bills play the ravens, the article written in wall street journal was the only two nfl cities without a fortune 500 company. What this leads to is space and people. Right now we have a space issue. Are a company that does not believe its our job to hold a city or state hostile for mov ing. We certainly need health. One of the things we did, we are and saying how can the state help us. We realize that we have the resources to do something about it. Several years ago i formed a private real estate company. Downtown Baltimore City, up,large highway that roles highway 25. I dont believe that cities need companies, but i believe that companies can help cities. That is the role and opportunity we have. Imagine what we could do for baltimore, a great city that frankly probably has a bit of not the best brand right now. What we can do to help that day. , 225,000 cars a we made 11 different acquisitions over the last three and a half years and we ended up buying over 37 different parcels and assembling roughly this. So now as people look at the city of baltimore, our vision is to build a worldwide campus for our company. It is surrounding next use development. We are excited about what that means for our company as we look to attract the best and brightest, as he looked to make baltimore a center of innovation. You look within a 50 mile radius of our company, the great brands there on the Johns Hopkins ,hysics lab, Lockheed Martin all these great assets we have great brands are like a great stories. Great stories need to be edited. We need to remove some of the things we should not be talking about. For thisur vision company, something we think can be extraordinary. Godgiven and that means we have to do well every single day. We have a job as a company to stay in business with our consumers. That little boy, that little girl who believes there is a superpower in every under armour project product made. We need to do well for our customers, make sure we are doing a good job with our products. We have an obligation to do a job for our teammates. We have a great obligation to do a good job for our shareholders. We also have an obligation to do a great job for our community. That is one of the things we have been involved in, helping every year. Our philanthropy is focused inside Baltimore City limits. Whether its a few fields are computer labs at Dunbar High School or fairfield, a few blocks from our campus, a new direction house that we have put 500 million into as a company, right near the affected neighborhoods where the freddie thingscidents happened, i believe is our corporate obligation as much is our opportunity. This will only happen if we keep growing and doing better. If i have one question today, its what can you do about this. Been im a runner, and thats why when i brought that run app, i was using this guys app. We figured out we should buy the company. I love the feel of a city when i go to it and notice things i believe i can bring back to a place like baltimore. When i came back from one of those runs, i like to go out and do a jog. The one thing i encourage everyone to do, its about entrepreneurship. This wasnt something that was built from Venture Private equity. I would hate for the message of the three most important jobs in america to be the Admission Directors to yield, harvard, and princeton. I would like to think that this can come from anywhere. This is an image that when i go for a run, i put five dollars or 10 in my running shoe. Whenever i see one of these, i always make sure that i stop. You know what that is . Those are my kids in the summer down on the beach. I make sure they know how to do it. There is nothing more powerful when you are teaching our trip or nor ship and having someone in the service of children. The other thing we can do as parents, when they walk back in dad,ay, look what i made dad, you say good, let me try something about taxes. Where did that ice come from . Take some away and get them used to it. [laughter] my kids were prepared as well, so they made one of these, a little changed for for us right here. If i have a challenge to the governors and our audience, it is a miss an america that one of the greatest assets we have is entrepreneurship. I would love to see us celebrate this more in this country. Lets challenge our young people to go out there. Some say, what can you sell . Lets engage in helping them. Small businesses are the key to this country and something we should continue to grow. Im proud of the growth that has been able to happen. Proud to be able to stand in front of my great teammates at under armour. Its not that unique in america and its getting less and less being an exclusive american story. If you listen to our story, hope and believe we are simply just getting started. Thank you very much for your time. [applause] kevin, that certainly was an inspirational story. I would like for the governors to get involved very little bit. Kevin, maybe one thing, as you started this business from the government side, is there anything that you can tell us that we as governors or states could do better to help entrepreneurs and new Business People like when you started under armour . We are a bit polarized right now when you look at politics. It does not seem like theres reasons for that. There should be a clear line where i challenge anyone here who is your local sba administrator in your state . Are you doing enough to challenge them and tell them what they can do . That 250,000 loan helped me. I had a business in college, flower delivery. Flowers were sold my sophomore year. The only reason i remember the number is i meant to sell 1500 dozen. The lessons i learned from that, which are things like make sure everyone who works for you can count to 12, and never deal in live inventory if you can avoid it lots of hard stories there. It created the first 17,000. One of the business is iran in college that allowed me to get going, but it taught me to be how it taught me how to be a good entrepreneur. The visa, mastercard machine running. The 10 people helping me assemble flowers, the 40 drivers. I learned i was good at assembling a team. I challenge this all. The sba is a powerful tool. Im a big advocate. I dont like entrepreneurs raising money, i dont like people using other peoples money. Believe entrepreneurs will work harder for their money than someone elses. Them happy, equity in the upside of what that feels like. Are you really celebrating entrepreneurship . Even at the university of maryland, where we made a large gift to an entrepreneurship there are 17 different entrepreneurship groups around one college campus. We find our way to centralize an anchor that and have the right speaking voice and someone to represent them as well as tell them the tools they have at their disposal. Governor mccrory . That was an inspirational story, kevin. I commend you for your entrepreneurship i was former mayor of charlotte for 14 years, which has a connection to two of the most exciting athletes in sports. I mentored a young man who played ball with stephon curry. The guy i mentored was supposed stephone star, and and his parents were incredible. We are very proud of cam also. We needed steve smith from baltimore. No question. You whontrepreneur like started and realized all of a sudden you could not work out of your basement needed to set up manufacturing to make your duct at large volume manufacturing is important to North Carolina and a lot of other areas, and we lost manufacturing during the 1970s and 1980s. So, to get the United States to regain its footing in manufacturing and we are beginning to do that what recommendation do you have for us . We are doing some innovative things to help the entrepreneur who maybe even gets in a nonsexy manufacturing into nonsexy manufacturing. Now you got into apparel, and thats important to the state of North Carolina. What we can do better as governors to help the manufacturing entrepreneur, which takes capital to start up . Steve smith is an under armour guy as well. He needs to be more competitive. We like that about him. Give him my best. North carolina has a terrific manufacturing background, nc state is one of the best textile schools. As i think about it, look at the history of what has happened. Started ihen i gave you the story of going to new york my first product idea was in 1995 and i finished playing in the spring of 1996. Found some fabric that fit the idea, had seven prototypes made, tried them all my teammates and realize they were better. By the time i went to the inment district in 1995, 1965, close to 100 of products consumed in the United States was manufacturing. By 1985 it was down to 75 . 50 . 95, it was less than manufacturing is effectively not interested. Manufacturer, to i drove to 34th and 7th avenue, parked my car and started Walking Around trying to figure out how i would get my shirt made. The Garment District is not exactly exist today. We had effectively we have effectively given up on her manufacturing past. Our manufacturing past. It has to start from the companies, there has to be a will to do it. I get my competition a hard time because i think innovation in our industry should not be limited to a new knit issue. Why doesn should be, the cell phone in my back pocket today, 20 years ago it would have taken a Greyhound Bus sized mainframe. And it would not have taken a picture or played music pretty yet today it is a slim thing that fits in the back of my project pocket. Why i went through that Digital Transformation there were 60 people on our digital team before we made the first acquisition in 2013. Today we are closing on 600. Issues we have with concussion in football and things, i dont think we have onrt enough people focused these issues. That commitment needs to come from the companies, first and foremost. Why is it today that a short or shoe is still made the same way it was 80 years ago . The exact same way. Today under armour at any given time, we have roughly 250,000 People Manufacturing our goods somewhere around the world. Less than 5 of that production is happening in the United States. As i said when i was in bel air, ohio, we were 100 and the United States. I realized chasing manufacturing from bel air, ohio, to pennsylvania, and then ultimately and saying, we have to go to the Dominican Republic and i put somebody on a plane who says you are going to go to g kong how to figure out to figure out how to make goods in places it was not that the prices were too high, the factories were closing. We just opened a new project where we are focused on bringing footwear manufacturing back to the United States. It is something that does not come without government help at some level. That people really appreciate me in the usa they do, but they will not pay me more for it. And feel good buying a good knowing it was made in the usa, but they will not pay five dollars more because it was made in the usa. Innovation and technology will need to play a role here. It wont be a 1 1. If i said we are going to more than double the size of our company in just the next three years, that means we will create jobs for4 of 1 million some other country or some other place outside of the United States. One thing we have learned, the better the manufacturing, the better we can have it in the United States. It puts us at more of a cost advantage as we are not competing against a labor cost. Youre going to hire skills with have higher to skills with the higher technology. Very good point. Thank you very much. Now, i dont want to follow up directly with the governors question, but one of the things that we talked about today and it is a part of the greater topic, and that is the issue of incentives. I do want to point out what kevin said, and that is that he is not interested in shaking communities where this is happening. I have done a fair amount of research and i think i can prove it. And that is that homegrown entre homegrown Business Owners are not going to shake this out. We dont want to shake down a state or a city to see if they can try and move around. I think it would be a mistake if we didnt congratulate him for the statement that he made. That is the one that you guys will have to worry about. Do . Governor roman romando you thought about tying fulltime jobs with benefits. We have seen that happen. Mr. Finkle this whole game of incentives i would argue is way out of hand. You know, the unfortunate thing, i can say that. None of my members can, individually. If they said it, somebody is going to declare that this is not a good place to do business. But representing them all, i can say that i know that they dont like them. , we donte dont hold look at a lot of accountability around a lot of the incentives. Know, someone says they are going to locate 50 miles outside of the city, and i need this as an incentive. What are you going to do as a governor, what are you going to do . Say no . Watch 500,000 jobs go away and say goodbye to them . To your neighbor is prepared do twice as what you are willing to do maybe. And that is a conversation that i hope the governors have from time to time. It has gotten well out of hand in a number of cases. But you have to have some standards. Standards that you are using for your incentives in some places, and i have seen this more at the city level than at the state level, they will tie them to fulltime jobs. They will tie them to average income jobs, they will tie them to benefits. Having said that, but remember i also talked about equity, and one of the questions i think that we even have to ask ourselves is, have we rolled out creating a low income jobs with benefits ruled out creating lowincome jobs with benefits . That is what we are going to do with the research this year, if you will set that as a standard, will you hurt your other goal of putting fulltime jobs in low income hands . You know, there are a lot of different ways. We have done a large book on Economic Development metrics that has access to our members and we have brought through a number of those issues for a members. . Governor wolf pennsylvania is just right up north of baltimore, so anytime you want to come up north, we would be happy to have you. We are trying to learn what we can do as governors, and i know ,here is some ideology in this but there is a very typical combination of individual traits and things of that you benefited from having a supportive, nurturing community, a broad educational base that all of your employees have that come with the network you used in ohio, the old speedo group that you used to get started. Tennessee state, as you mentioned, in terms of the skills that you mentioned getting. And you drive your imagination i am not sure where that came from. One of the things that we grapple with as governors with limited terms is to try and get results so we can try and get credit for them. So i think one of the reasons that we tend toward the incentives is because they are clear, they are concrete, they produce results, or they dont, and we can be held accountable, and at the end there is a ribbon to be cut. Spa that youe mention, there is a broader set of public goods that are responsible for, what would you say a governor would do that is less flashy in regards to making people like you at having a better chance of success . Thank you very much, governor. I should also mention that i am the youngest of five boys and i took my licks theirre. You always have to give credit there. My mom is one of my installations in one of the people that i have looked up to. You know, it is hard to point at any one thing. One of the things that keeps me running at under armour is, did you ever think, did you ever know, and isnt it great . Is, i take pride in that. I love what we do and i truly believe we can be the number one athletic rant in the world. If not one of the greatest companies the world, i believe that. It also, i take pride that there out there neur an entrepreneur out there. I am one of the students at the school that can say i am not sure i would be able to get into the school. I am proud of the trajectory that the school is on. You create a culture that it is possible. More than half of millennials today believe the American Dream today believe that the American Dream is dead. Where are we . We are in america. I am incredibly proud at the work that is left to be done at under armour and i am proud to be a symbol where kids can say, you know what . I can do that, too. Ordidnt go to school a, b, c, but it is still possible for me. Buzzwordeur is a great that lives today and it is celebrated, but it is often too celebrated in tech terms. I will have to become a tech company and i believe all companies will have to do that at some level, but i mean, when i moved my company to baltimore, we had outgrown our like many cities, we thought we were going to make the Silicon Valley of the east and we were turned down. Company and00,000 there was 15 of us or something and they turned us down and they said that we were not a. Tech company that we couldnt have access not a tech company and that we couldnt have access. A way know, now we have of saying, well ecs now now. Ll you see us to encourage the governors and the chief executives of the states to go and encourage this and people are waiting to do this. It can be as literal to transforming a park to giving a speaking engagement to this group of entrepreneurs. It is locally grown, it should be locally grown. I think you should call on your companies and ask them and i think the majority of them will. Ones that wont, i think they wont. This 1 narrative in our country, this is just a narrative. I love my team. I love my company. They just want to feel that. And i think frankly some Companies Want to feel that too. Politicianbusiness and that really doesnt register with me, so does that mean that somebody would not be probusiness . Providing the taxes of the things that are driving the , i think culture is incredibly important and attitude is incredibly important and being vital is incredibly important. Well, kevin, i really believe your story is a great inspiration and i have seen a number of entrepreneurs like you, and you are certainly one of the most successful, and from my many years of experience, i have put down a list of attributes that make itrepreneurs successful, and think you have them all. The first of them is having a positive attitude, the second one is setting goals, the third one is having hard work, two four letter words that will never get you in trouble, and looking ahead and that is certainly helping baltimore with the athletic fields there. We have a gentleman named john and heohn in my state, started a program in the north iowa Community College and i have seen the transformation that has made. Today, when i was in the governor ship governorship in the 80s, those kids that went through those centers, they have your kind of attitudes. They have that sense of, i want to see what i can do. I want to see a real transformation. John poppa john is over 80 years old. He is a very active guy. He is probably the premier venture capitalist in our state. But we need people like you and him to serve as inspirations for others. Why not me . Why not us . That is the attitude that we have going around. There is an under armour campus in baltimore that we are putting there will or in and be a footwear manufacturing line in our Innovation Center and there will be another room for myself with incubating companies that were taken from a focusthe state to on one bit of energy. It is exciting as to what you are doing and i also liked your comment about meeting with the Business Leaders and the entrepreneurs in your state. That is something i try to do and these are talented people. Knowing that the governor, the mayor, the leaders of the community are supportive of them and of their businesses and recognize that, you know, we are in this together, build this country. Governors, i see that there are three of you who want to talk and we have seven minutes. Governor walker . Walker i feel like i am on shark tank here. [laughter] mr. Walker we can make a deal. I was just really impressed as to what you had to say. This is really impressive to me what you have to say. My favorite slide was Lemonade Stand. Neednow, that message, we to make sure that this is in our educational system. Ial sense of entrepreneur spirit is important to train in school, and it is often left out of the process. Thank you for your priorities. Thank you for what you do. I dont know if you have ever done a ted talk, but you would be phenomenal. 250 thousanddid miles of travel last year all over the world and typically we are our own worst critics in america. When you walk in some place and they see you as an american where they are not crazy about our politics but they love our country, you know, just about anywhere you go, they think about henry ford, they think about walt disney, they think about bob johnson, they think about the great entrepreneurs of our country, and we dont celebrate it enough. And again, that Lemonade Stand is obvious to me. Please, you are not that busy. Pull over your car, give that kid . 50. Teach that kid a lesson. By his lemonade. Lemonade. Thank you for the work with the Economic Development administration. We really appreciate it. Kevin, i wanted to thank you of this very inspirational message thank you for this very inspirational message area i am in this shark tank, but i am the biggest at this table. I believi
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