Under Armour isn’t just selling cleats anymore — it’s building a content engine. The Baltimore-based athleticwear company has launched Lab96 Studios, an in-house shop built to make films, series, podcasts and long-tail social content that meet fans where they actually watch. “We’ve been sort of handcuffed by, ‘Do a 30 second spot. Do a 15 second spot.’ That no longer exists,” says Tyler Rutstein, SVP of global brand and Americas marketing (and Lab96’s EP). “The starting point was once, ‘We need to create a great 60.’ Now it’s ‘How do we create a great film no matter the length?’”
For the global production community, this is a flashing green light: the brand-as-studio era is no longer a Red Bull outlier — it’s moving mainstream.
What Lab96 Is Actually Building
Under Armour soft-launched the model with “We Are Football” (rapper Gunna, NFL talent, and rising women’s flag football stars), plus a high-school football series with Overtime, a women’s flag docuseries with SMAC Entertainment, and a baseball series with Boardroom. Next up: a state-of-the-art studio and podcast space at UA HQ to centralize campaign shoots, long-form docs, and creator collabs — and to atomize those projects into platform-specific cuts.
Crucially, Lab96 isn’t abandoning paid advertising; it’s reframing it as one spoke in a larger distribution flywheel. A five-minute short can be remixed into an NFL 60, a YouTube mid-roll, a TikTok teaser, and creator-native cuts without losing narrative thread. The goal is to pull Gen Z and Gen Alpha into Under Armour’s world — not interrupt theirs.
Why Brands Are Doing This Now
A wave of brands have already proven the math. Haus Labs’ 2,700-square-foot LA studio is booked 300+ days a year and, per CMO Kelly Coller, saves the company well over $1 million annually by replacing most external vendors. Sephora runs a multi-functional LA studio that helps it publish 40–50 pieces of content a week across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube — an always-on cadence that’s nearly impossible without owning space, crews, and calendars. Laneige couples a modest office studio for day-to-day social with outsourced big swings, ranking among the top beauty brands on YouTube Shorts and TikTok by staying fast where speed matters.
Live commerce is a parallel lane: Beachwaver turned offices into permanent sets and built marathon TikTok streams that convert because the brand can go live instantly — no rental bookings, no load-ins.
The deeper shift: brands aren’t waiting for a media buy to justify a shoot. They’re programming their own channels — and they need the throughput of a real studio to feed them.
The Agency Equation Is Changing, Not Disappearing
This isn’t a zero-sum game. CAA’s head of media and partnerships Libby Bush has built a practice stitching brands directly into film/TV and premium digital — from Bridgerton x Flonase to Severance x State Farm and On Brand with Jimmy Fallon. Her read: when a project can’t get financed, brands should be one of the first calls — not just to get the show made, but to help the audience find it. And the right structure varies: “One size does not fit all in this business.”
Translation for producers: in-house brand studios take on volume, speed and day-to-day social; agencies and outside partners still win on tentpoles, net-new formats, and bespoke integrations where reach, talent packaging, and platform access matter.
The DIY Content Studio — And Its Limits
As strategist Dr. James Richardson argues, modern tools (and AI accelerants like Runway/Veo-style workflows) have crushed barriers to making professional-ish video. That enables a “brand as broadcaster” model where speed and iteration beat polish — exactly how Liquid Death, Dr. Squatch, and Dude Wipes built outsized awareness with semi-pro creative and relentless testing. The caution flag: a true studio is a second business. Cameras, lighting, sets, producers, editors — and the culture to ship hundreds of assets a month — can run six to seven figures to stand up and maintain. Many brands land on a hybrid: small, nimble studios for always-on content; rented stages and creative partners for the big swings.
What This Means for the Production Economy
More buyers: Brand studios commission shorts, docu-series, creator co-pros, behind-the-scenes, sport-science explainers, and live-event packages — work that doesn’t rely on greenlights from networks or streamers.
New financing paths: CAA-style brand partnerships can backfill budgets for unscripted, event, or even scripted projects where marketing impact is measurable and story alignment is credible.
Consistent throughput for vendors: Owned studios still need overflow. Expect steady demand for soundstages, stages-with-cyclo, XR/LED volumes, gear rentals, post, color, sound, and live-stream crews when internal calendars overfill or projects outgrow the in-house footprint.
Faster timelines, different success metrics: Fits-per-minute replaces awards-season pacing. Success looks like total watch time, subscriber growth, social saves/shares, affiliate lift, retail sell-through — not just GRPs.
Creative sovereignty, brand safety: Brands want to be closer to the storytelling to avoid “telephone game” dilution. But the best results still come when the creative is audience-first and the branding is additive, not invasive.
Under Armour’s Place In The Trend
UA’s Lab96 is the clearest signal yet from an athlete-first brand that content is now a core product. The pipeline speaks to a specific editorial stance (football culture, women’s flag, baseball storytelling) and a plan to co-create with independent creators where it makes sense. Long-form YouTube? Yes. Micro-edits for shorts and reels? Also yes. Paid TV when it’s additive? Still yes.
If you’re a producer, director, post house, or stage operator, this is your moment to speak brand:
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Pitch formats, not just spots — doc shorts with season arcs, training-camp diaries with narrative stakes, creator-hosted explainers that ladder into product without screaming “ad.”
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Package distribution thinking with the creative — how the 12-minute cut atomizes into 60s, 15s, and live segments across IG, TikTok, YouTube, and retail media.
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Build creator casting into your bids — brand-safe voices with real reach who elevate story and scale audience.
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Offer modular pricing — day-rate doc crews for speed, LED-volume days for hero moments, remote post pipelines for rolling delivery.
