Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank shares the valuable lesson he learned from retail legend Mickey Drexler by Richard Feloni on Nov 13, 2015, 2:40 PM Advertisement
 Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank and J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler were sitting next to each other on a panel at a retail conference — Plank doesn't remember if it was 2008 or 2009 — when Drexler started mumbling under his breath as another panelist talked about the challenges of the economy. At the CNBC and Inc. Magazine iCONIC conference on Wednesday, Plank explained why this amusingly awkward moment with the retail legend turned into a learning experience. Plank said that Drexler is far from a quiet man, and, "He's going, 'What a loser. Can you believe this loser?' And I'm sitting there like, 'Mickey, shh. Don't say that too loud!'" And after that panel, Plank brought back the phrase "No loser talk" to Under Armour's Baltimore headquarters. The lesson, Plank said, was that there is no purpose to wasting time complaining about something that is "galactically obvious," like a weak economy, when you could instead be finding ways around the problem. Plank told the audience Wednesday that a similar issue right now is the unusually warm fall the US has been experiencing. Cold weather clothing is what drives fourth quarter sales for apparel retailers across the industry, and the weather has kept average sales down. Rather than accept the situation and give into "loser talk," Plank said, Under Armour is instead focusing on pushing products that are multi-seasonal. For example, about five years ago Under Armour realized that relying on their heavyweight clothing line in the fall and winter set them up for failure if it didn't get cold in their largest winter markets, and so they started developing what they called "fifth quarter fleece." They'd heavily promote these items during situations like the current one. Similarly, they began allocating more resources to their footwear development and marketing initatives, since a consumer can buy a pair of sneakers whether it's 100 degrees or 10. Plank's "No loser talk" policy seems to be working. The sports apparel and equipment company has had its 22nd consecutive quarter of 20%-plus topline revenue growth. SEE ALSO: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner says most people never ask themselves a question that's vital to career success DON'T MISS: The 27 jobs that are most damaging to your health
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