Under Armour CEO is calling out Nike and Adidas

Under Armour is creating the world’s largest digital health and fitness community because the more people exercise, the more shirts and shoes they buy, the sports company founder and CEO Kevin Plank told CNBC on Thursday. He also said he wants Nike and Adidas to know what it feels like to be number two and to “get used to that.”

Instead trying to play in the highly competitive wearables market, Plank said in a “Squawk Box” interview that he sees value in building a community that users can tap into with any device. “[It’s] a place where we weren’t tied to a consumer electronic but where we could be the destination regardless of what the best ‘widget’ on the market was,” he continued. “Whatever you had, it would plug in and we would read and synthesize that information as easy as possible.”

Under Armour announced late Wednesday a deal to buy for USD475 million the San Francisco-based fitness app MyFitnessPal, a leading resource for healthy living and nutrition with over 80 million registered users. The company also said it completed in early January its USD85 million acquisition of Denmark-based Endomondo, with about 20 million registered users primarily in Europe.