Under Armour released its second-quarter earnings Tuesday. Revenue totaled $1.4 billion, up 91% year-over-year. North American sales rose 101% year-over-year.

The athletic apparel maker credits strong growth in owned-and-operated stores for the boost.

• Apparel revenue reached $874 million, a 105% increase.
• Footwear revenue hit $343 million, an 85% increase.
• Accessories revenue landed at $112 million, a 99% increase. 

Despite an 18% decline in ecommerce, the company raised its full-year 2021 outlook, expecting revenue to now climb at a “low-20s percentage rate” instead of a “high-teens percentage rate increase.”

Under Armour’s comeback — which includes a minimum wage increase to $15 — follows a significant restructuring plan that was implemented during the pandemic.

• February 2021: Ended its on-field licensing contract with the NFL.
• December 2020: Agreed to a buyout deal with the University of Cincinnati that got the brand out of a 10-year, $50 million contract five years early; terminated its 15-year, $280 million contract with UCLA.
• October 2020: Sold the MyFitnessPal platform for $345 million.

After the Q2 spike, operating income is now expected to reach $215-$225 million in 2021 compared to the prior range of $105-115 million. Under Armour has a market cap of $9.65 billion.

Wolverine Worldwide, a Michigan-based footwear company, has acquired Sweaty Betty, a women’s activewear brand, in an all-cash deal valued at roughly $410 million.

Wolverine has a massive portfolio of footwear brands that includes Saucony, Merrell, Sperry, Hush Puppies, Stride Rite, and others.

L Catterton — the LVMH-backed private equity firm that bought footwear giant Birkenstock in a $4.8 billion deal in May — is selling Sweaty Betty to Wolverine.

Sweaty Betty is available in about 60 brick-and-mortar stores throughout the U.K., at Nordstrom in the U.S. and Canada, and at standalone stores in Hong Kong.

The brand is on pace to generate $250 million in revenue this year with roughly 70% coming from ecommerce. Wolverine’s acquisition marks another inflection point for women’s sports brands.

• New Balance rebranded its subsidiary Brine as a women’s equipment manufacturer in March. 
• Athleta, a Gap-owned women’s activewear brand, sponsors Olympic legends Simone Biles and Allyson Felix. 
• Lululemon reported $1.2 billion in revenue in Q1, an 88% increase year-over-year.

Wolverine posted record revenue of $631.9 million in Q2 2021, an 81% increase year-over-year.

The company expects full-year revenue to reach as high as $2.4 billion, up $150 million from the 2021 outlook it shared in February.

AT&T completed a big component of its wholesale restructuring by finalizing the spinoff of DirecTV, which returned to being a separate company on Monday.

The new entity combines DirecTV, AT&T, and U-verse to offer a wide range of channels including ESPN, Fox Sports, MLB Network, NBA TV, TBS, and TNT. 

The latter two’s NBA broadcasts were key to WarnerMedia’s strong second quarter. AT&T is in the process of spinning off WarnerMedia in a $43 billion merger with Discovery.

• AT&T received $7.1 billion in cash from the DirecTV spinoff, including $1.8 billion from private equity firm TPG. TPG took a 30% stake in the new DirecTV. AT&T owns the other 70%.
• DirecTV borrowed $5.8 billion as part of the transaction. Previous reports said that the company was selling $3.1 billion in junk bonds to facilitate the spinoff.

The move ends a saga that began with AT&T’s $48 billion acquisition of DirecTV in 2015. Since then, the service lost 40.8% of its subscriber base, which dropped from 26 million six years ago to 15.4 million today.

AT&T is already making moves to establish a different role in the content provider space. In July, it inked a deal worth at least $5 billion to be Dish Network’s primary network services provider.