Talk:Kevin Plank

Link problem
Your first link does not work - goes nowhere. KarenAnn 12:58, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Did he develop the fabric?
The article states that Kevin develop the moisture-wicking fabrics. I thought wht he did was to buy some apparel that was used for other purpose, cut them and made them shirts. Can anyone confirm this? 199.67.140.83 (talk) 16:20, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Rewrite
I've rewritten this article for a number of reasons. First, this article was previously full of fancruft, violations of the biography of living persons guidelines, and general lack of knowledge. While it's nice to know every single thing that Plank ever did, it's completely unnecessary for Wikipedia. This article is about Plank himself, not about Under Armour as a whole. For info about Under Armour, see the Under Armour article. BLP articles are supposed to be fully referenced, and there was just a whole lot that wasn't. That's fixed now. —  Hello Annyong  (say whaaat?!) 17:24, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

What is his religion? Is he Jewish?
What is his religion? Is he Jewish? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.99.79.43 (talk) 04:27, 8 March 2017 (UTC)
 * That is a question for the reference desk. See WP:Reference desk Jytdog (talk) 04:57, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

Request to update Early life
Hi there! I've been working for a while on a new draft for this article, to try to provide a more developed version that is consistently-sourced and provides a full overview of Mr. Plank's life and career, based on the many secondary sources about him. To start with, I wanted to offer a fairly simple update to the Early life section.

The current section doesn't have any major issues, however:
 * There are sentences that don't have citations
 * Some details aren't quite accurate to the sourcing (specifically the detail about the Maple Leafs)
 * The order of events regarding his graduation from St. John's College and playing football at Fork Union Military Academy is currently incorrect; he played at Fork Union after his graduation from St. John's
 * There's a little more information that can be added regarding his high school and college football career; this has relevance to his career later on and has been covered by multiple sources, it also helps to clarify his attendance at both St. John's and Fork Union
 * His degree is not currently mentioned in the article
 * I'd suggest mention of his marriage is more appropriate in the Personal life section

As well as the above, Mr. Plank would prefer not to mention the financing of Darren Drozdov's wheelchair; this is a detail that hasn't received a lot of coverage so I'd suggest we simply cut if editors are comfortable with doing so.

The below draft addresses all of the above notes, adding more sourcing for the information regarding Plank's early life and developing the details about his football career. Changes and new details are shown in green:

As I do have a conflict of interest here, since I'm making this suggestion on behalf of Mr. Plank via agency SKDKnickerbocker as part of my work at Beutler Ink, I won't make any edits to the article myself. Instead, I welcome input from uninvolved editors and assistance taking live changes as appropriate. Thanks in advance, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 21:59, 24 April 2018 (UTC)
 * I went ahead with the changes you requested, though I kept the Drozdov bit; I understand why he wouldn't want to add it, but since it's cited, I'm not too keen on removing sourced content. If anyone else wants to do it, feel free. Zappa⚡Mati 17:50, 15 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks so much for reviewing, ZappaOMati. I understand re: the Drozdov mention and will leave that up to other editors, per your note. If you'd be willing to help with some more improvements to this article, I'll have some more requests to share soon. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 14:16, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

Request to add Politics section
Hi there! Following my post above, I'd like to continue making requests here, next seeking to consolidate the detail on Mr. Plank's politics into one section called Politics.

Currently, Plank's political donations, comments on President Donald Trump, and his time on Trump's American Manufacturing Council are dispersed between two sections: Political views and Controversy, and it would be easier for readers to follow all this related material if it was placed into one section. Additionally, I have added new content and context around existing material, and snipped a couple of details that don't belong in the article. Specifically:
 * Summarized detail on Mr. Plank's political contributions since it is cited that he has given to members of both parties
 * Expanded and provided context to athletes responding to Mr. Plank's comments on President Trump, and Mr. Plank's response
 * Slightly reworked Mr. Plank's time on the American Manufacturing Council
 * Added detail on Mr. Plank's opposition to Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Accord and Mr. Plank's pledge to promote workplace diversity and inclusion, all of which is sourced
 * Deleted the sentence, which was added by an IP editor: "Sports industry analyst Stavros Halkias described Plank as "a date-rape-and-boat-shoes kind of guy," though he admitted later he could not substantiate this claim and that this merely a "vibe."" This is a sensational comment that was made on a comedy podcast (I've never listened but its SoundCloud page refers to it as the official comedy podcast of the National Basketball Association). My understanding is that this sort of detail is against BLP guidelines.
 * I'm also suggesting removing the details regarding tax credits that Plank's Sagamore Farm receives; this is currently included under Controversy however, the information was just one example listed in a piece about the horse industry in Maryland and didn't focus in on Mr. Plank specifically. I've searched and haven't found other coverage of this, so don't feel it rises to the level of a controversy that should be covered in this article. The farm itself seems noteworthy for inclusion based on other coverage, and I plan to offer new wording about this later for editors to consider.

The proposed Politics section draft, markup, and references are below.

My suggestion is that this new draft section replace the existing Political views and Controversy sections. Below, I've shown this content and placed the details that I suggest removing in red:

As I do have a conflict of interest here, since I'm making this suggestion on behalf of Mr. Plank via agency SKDKnickerbocker as part of my work at Beutler Ink, I won't make any edits to the article myself. Instead, I welcome input from uninvolved editors and assistance taking live changes as appropriate. ZappaOMati: Are you interested in reviewing this request? Also pinging Rms125a@hotmail.com, who has made edits to this page in recent months to see if they'd be interested to look at this. Thanks in advance, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 13:21, 18 May 2018 (UTC)
 * ✅ Zappa⚡Mati 20:50, 20 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks so much for reviewing, ZappaOMati. I see you added the Politics section under Activism and that change looks good to me. I'll be back here soon with some more proposed updates, specifically some editing and expansion of the Career section; would you be willing to take a look at that if I ping you? 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 16:40, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

Request to update Career section
Hi there! Following my posts above, I'm here with a proposed draft Career section for review. My new draft is a somewhat substantial rewrite of the existing Career section. Although I have retained a lot of the existing detail, I have also tightened some of the content and removed what editors might find to be fluff or detail that's too much about Under Armour and less about Kevin Plank himself.

Here are the main changes in the draft:
 * I'm suggesting dividing the Career section into three subsections: Under Armour, Sagamore Farm, and Plank Industries
 * To give this section more narrative, I've moved some details around to place all related details together
 * The first paragraph now focuses on Mr. Plank's most noteworthy business from his college days, Cupid's Valentine
 * The paragraph about Mr. Plank's initial idea for Under Armour has been tightened, and I deleted non-encyclopedic language such as "sweat-soaked"
 * A few new details I added: the funding Plank used to launch Under Armour; Plank's efforts to name his new business; the first shirt that Plank sold; Plank's first big team sale to Georgia Tech; finishing the company's first year selling $17,000 worth of shirts; Plank asking employees to go without pay to afford a $25,000 ad in ESPN The Magazine
 * The paragraph on Plank and Under Armour acquiring activity- and diet-tracking apps is rewritten to to tighten the language and eliminate what could be POV tone ("Plank led the charge")
 * I added detail about the current size of Under Armour
 * I added Plank's membership on the National Football Foundation's board of trustees
 * I added a section on Mr. Plank's Sagamore Farm and entrance into horse racing
 * I rewrote and expanded content on Plank Industries and its various initiatives in Baltimore
 * Finally, a few details that I removed: Under Armour's first TV commercial, which is currently tagged as needing citation; Plank's Forbes rankings (I intend to propose a separate section for recognition later); Plank's 2011 Under Armour shareholdings (due to lack of appropriate sourcing)

As I do have a conflict of interest here, since I'm making this suggestion on behalf of Mr. Plank via agency SKDKnickerbocker as part of my work at Beutler Ink, I won't make any edits to the article myself. Instead, I welcome input from uninvolved editors and assistance taking live changes as appropriate. ZappaOMati: Are you interested in reviewing this request? Thanks in advance, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 14:10, 25 May 2018 (UTC)
 * There were a few grammar/reference syntax issues with your proposed markup, but I went ahead and applied any fixes. Everything else content-wise looks fine to me. Zappa⚡<b style="color: red;">Mati</b> 04:10, 26 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks so much for the careful review, ZappaOMati, much appreciated. I'll look closely at what you added vs. my draft so I can see what you fixed and aim to avoid those issues in future. Thanks again! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 13:41, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

Request to update Personal life
Hi there! Continuing to follow up my posts above and seek improvements to this article, I'm here with a new proposed draft for the Personal life section for editors to take a look at. This draft is short compared to my previous requests here, but it includes two significant edits:
 * My draft removes the following sentence: "In 2013, Plank purchased a mansion in the Georgetown section of Washington D.C. for $7.85 million". While this sentence is properly sourced, this strikes me as not being appropriate to include in a biographical Wikipedia article. Mr. Plank is not notable for his personal real estate holdings. Besides, there are plenty of Wikipedia articles on notable people that do not include such detail. Of course, I defer to editors ultimately on whether it should be kept since it is well-sourced.
 * My draft includes Mr. Plank's current location of residence and net worth
 * Additionally, I added in a reference that is already used in the article to support the detail regarding Mr. Plank's marriage

As I do have a conflict of interest here, since I'm making this suggestion on behalf of Mr. Plank via agency SKDKnickerbocker as part of my work at Beutler Ink, I won't make any edits to the article myself. Instead, I welcome input from uninvolved editors and assistance taking live changes as appropriate. ZappaOMati: Would you be interested in reviewing this request, too? Thanks in advance, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 17:44, 1 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Done. I figured I'd remove the mansion part; people buy houses all the time, and of course billionaires are going to buy bigger houses. Unless the mansion itself has something "unique" (like an interesting history of past owners/events), I don't really see any reason to keep it. <b style="color: blue;">Zappa</b><b style="color: #FFD700;">⚡</b><b style="color: red;">Mati</b> 04:00, 2 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks so much, ZappaOMati, and sorry for delay as I've been under the weather. My thoughts exactly re: Plank's house. Also, I only have a few more edit requests left, and then this article will be fully updated. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 19:49, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

Request to clean-up and update philanthropic efforts
Hi there! Continuing along, I'm here with a new proposed draft for Mr. Plank's philanthropic efforts for editors to take a look at. I think this material could be nestled into the Activism section, but that heading seems non-standard for Wikipedia, so I'm curious if editors would be in favor of splitting off his philanthropic/charitable efforts and Politics as their own sections or giving a different umbrella heading?

The current section that details Mr. Plank's charitable efforts is confusingly headed Other work, is tagged as needing citations, and it includes detail that is more about Under Armour than Plank himself. My draft below organizes Mr. Plank's philanthropic efforts around three main areas—Baltimore, entrepreneurship, and school giving—and provides citations throughout. I also removed details referenced only to Under Armour's website.

Here are the main changes in the draft:
 * As mentioned above, I reorganized the material to show the areas of focus for Mr. Plank's philanthropy
 * Added citations throughout
 * I removed the following, which is in the live article, as it is about Under Armour and cites a primary source:
 * Plank is a member the Board of Trustees for the National Football Foundation and the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. His involvement in philanthropy has also translated to his business. Under Armour supports the V Foundation for cancer research and has its own Power in Pink campaign, raising funds for breast cancer research and education. In addition, Under Armour supports the Boomer Esiason Foundation, the Rock Foundation, Ronald McDonald House and Conservation Fund. The Company also has a "Give Back" program, encouraging employees to become involved with local charities.
 * I added Mr. Plank's charitable arm funding 40 summer jobs for Cherry Hill, Baltimore, public school students
 * I updated his board memberships
 * I added Mr. Plank's $5 million donation through his Cupid Foundation to help create the UA House at Fayette, an East Baltimore community center run by Living Classrooms
 * I added addition context surrounding Mr. Plank's $25 million donation to the University of Maryland
 * I added Mr. Plank's $16 million pledge to St. John's College High School in Chevy Chase, Maryland
 * I added Mr. Plank's $1 million donation to the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 2016 to help 100 more children go to Catholic school

As I do have a conflict of interest here, since I'm making this suggestion on behalf of Mr. Plank via agency SKDKnickerbocker as part of my work at Beutler Ink, I won't make any edits to the article myself. Instead, I welcome input from uninvolved editors and assistance taking live changes as appropriate. ZappaOMati: Would you be interested in reviewing this request? Thanks in advance, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 20:21, 8 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Sorry for the wait, haven't had the chance to get to this until now. Everything looks fine to me, so I went ahead and got those changes added. <b style="color: blue;">Zappa</b><b style="color: #FFD700;">⚡</b><b style="color: red;">Mati</b> 03:23, 13 June 2018 (UTC)
 * No worries at all, ZappaOMati your review is much appreciated and I don't mind waiting at all, I know you must have other things that you're working on. Thanks so much for reviewing and adding the updated text! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 18:35, 13 June 2018 (UTC)

Request for introduction, infobox, recognition, and final fixes
Hi there! Now that most of my proposed updates for this article have been reviewed, I am making one last edit request with all my remaining suggested edits. ZappaOMati: If you're inclined to review this, too, I imagine this will be easier for you to see everything that's remaining. There's not much more, but do let me know if you'd prefer I split this up into separate requests!

Introduction I prepared a new introduction that is not much different than that of the live article. However, my draft includes a few minor improvements:
 * Wikilinks for "entrepreneur", "businessman", "sports performance apparel" and "footwear"
 * The addition of "philanthropist"
 * Lowercase "c" in chairman per Wikipedia's MoS
 * Change "Baltimore" to "Baltimore, Maryland"
 * My draft does not include Mr. Plank's net worth, as this information is already covered in the infobox and Personal life section. Right now, the article body copy uses a figure from February 2018, and the infobox uses a figure from June 2018 (although it still says as of February). Since this info is routinely updated, perhaps it is best to leave in one place at the top of the article, for ease of maintenance. I suggest the infobox, but understand if editors prefer to keep it in the introduction.

Infobox For the infobox, I've prepared an updated version that adds some wikilinks throughout, updates that the currently listed net worth is from June 2018, and removes the Salary parameter. I had removed the salary because the current figure was outdated. Additionally, the figure given was for total compensation, as opposed to salary and given Mr. Plank's ownership of Under Armour, it seems more relevant to show the net worth and not his salary.

Recognition Mr. Plank has received a range of accolades over his career to date, and I've put together a proposed Recognition section below capturing the more prominent recognition from the last several year. To cover all the bases, the draft includes everything major that I could source, and I leave it up to editors to decide what is included in the article. Some of the below does not have secondary coverage, but is still high profile recognition and I wanted to offer it in case editors felt it important to include. I've kept the presentation of this information to a simple list organized by year. With all that said, I'm aware that this type of information is often considered more promotional and so I'm open to trims and to other ways of presenting the details. If the details can be added, I suggest including at the end of the article, below the Philanthropy section.

Small citation fix In the Under Armour section, can we change the full citation for " <ref name="Graham03"> " to the shortened " ?

Small layout fix Finally, does it make sense to move Personal life to be the last section before References, as per other biographies on Wikipedia?

As I do have a conflict of interest here, since I'm making this suggestion on behalf of Mr. Plank via agency SKDKnickerbocker as part of my work at Beutler Ink, I won't make any edits to the article myself. Instead, I welcome input from uninvolved editors and assistance taking live changes as appropriate. ZappaOMati: Would you be interested in reviewing this request? Thanks in advance, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 15:35, 15 June 2018 (UTC)
 * The Personal life section seems to vary in location for the articles I frequent. Personally, I think it'd be more reasonable to place a prose section like it before a list (Recognition), but I'm fine with it being the last section if anyone else believes otherwise. Since Politics is the only subsection in Activism, I also figured I move it to Personal life since it doesn't fit any of the other sections (similar to what is done at Tom Brady's page). Other than that, everything else looks pretty good to me. <b style="color: blue;">Zappa</b><b style="color: #FFD700;">⚡</b><b style="color: red;">Mati</b> 21:37, 18 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks so much again, ZappaOMati! Good call on moving Politics under Personal life and I think the organization makes sense with the listy Recognition last on the page. Appreciate all your help in reviewing these suggestions and updating the article, everything looks great! I'm double checking with the folks at SKDK whether they have a newer image available of Plank that can be donated to Wikimedia Commons, and if so I may be back in time to offer that, otherwise, I believe my requests here are complete. Thank you for all your help! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 19:47, 19 June 2018 (UTC)

Proposing new image
Hi again! One final request for this article, this time to add a new and clearer image of Kevin Plank. Again, I am here on behalf of Under Armour via SKDKnickerbocker as part of my work at Beutler Ink. On Wikimedia Commons, I've uploaded a file provided by Under Armour: File:Kevin_Plank_headshot_2018.png The Under Armour communications team has sent the permissions release email to Commons. Would editors be ok with adding the image? Would you be happy to add this image or shall I ping again once the permission has been confirmed? Thanks in advance! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 01:24, 20 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Personally, I'd rather wait until the permission is confirmed; I'm confident that it'll be approved eventually, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Ping me again once it's finally official. <b style="color: blue;">Zappa</b><b style="color: #FFD700;">⚡</b><b style="color: red;">Mati</b> 21:21, 21 July 2018 (UTC)
 * That absolutely makes sense to me. I'll ping back here once I see the permissions have been updated. Thanks so much! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 20:37, 26 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Hi there, ZappaOMati, it's been a while! I submitted a new image of Kevin Plank for this article's infobox back in June, and it looks like the permissions have just been updated. Now that it's official, would you be able to add the image? Thanks in advance! 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 14:46, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
 * That took a while. Nevertheless, now that everything is in order, updated! <b style="color: blue;">Zappa</b><b style="color: #FFD700;">⚡</b><b style="color: red;">Mati</b> 17:52, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you SO much, ZappaOMati! Appreciate all your help on this page. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 17:58, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

Help with review of gossip/speculation content
Hi again! I am wondering if editors could take a look at some "gossipy" content that was recently added to this article by an IP editor to see whether it is appropriate. Specifically, the last paragraph of the Politics section is based on speculation that was published in The Wall Street Journal as to whether or not Plank had a relationship with MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle. Looking into subsequent coverage of the issue in other sources, it appears to simply rehash the WSJ reporting, from what I've seen.

My understanding of WP:BLP and WP:BLPGOSSIP is that biographical articles shouldn't include sensational or unsubstantiated speculation about individuals that is not relevant from a disinterested, encyclopedic perspective ("it is not Wikipedia's job to be sensationalist, or to be the primary vehicle for the spread of titillating claims about people's lives"). Right now, the article does not include mention of the statement from the company saying that the two are friends, and instead only presents rumor from unnamed sources.

As I do have a conflict of interest here, since I'm here on behalf of Mr. Plank via agency SKDKnickerbocker as part of my work at Beutler Ink, I'm looking for input from other editors as to whether this information could be removed, or if kept it can be written in a more encyclopedic way. For now, I'll leave this for others to chime in and, due to my COI, I won't make any edits to the article myself. Thanks in advance, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 03:22, 18 April 2019 (UTC)
 * pinging you since you'd reviewed my requests here before and are familiar with the page. What do you think would be most appropriate here? I'm also happy to go to BLPN to ask editors there to take a look if that seems like the best move. 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 21:24, 23 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I'm not a fan of it. For starters, that paragraph is going to need a lot of reworking to even meet encyclopedic standards. Furthermore, the last sentence in it really bothers me since just saying "The full article should be read." suggests there is potential bias behind adding it, plus it's not the proper way to cite a source. I went ahead and removed it as it's basically rumor driven from one article (that's not even correctly cited). <b style="color: blue;">Zappa</b><b style="color: #FFD700;">⚡</b><b style="color: red;">Matic</b> 02:26, 25 April 2019 (UTC)
 * That was my feeling too but obviously I prefer having someone uninvolved take a look, so I very much appreciate you looking at this, ZappaOMatic. Thanks, 16912 Rhiannon (Talk &middot; COI) 19:28, 25 April 2019 (UTC)

Date of Birth
The article has him graduating from high school in 1990 but born in 1994. The date of birth must be wrong. 47.20.212.187 (talk) 01:00, 8 August 2023 (UTC)