Before there was Under Armour, before there was Nike, there was Russell Athletic, an iconic sportswear manufacturer that has been putting uniforms on American kids' backs since 1902.
And it wasn't long ago that the enterprise – originally based in Alexandria City, Alabama, but now headquartered in Bowling Green, Kentucky – had the field pretty much to itself.
Just as Under Armour built a business by coming up with an alternative to a sweat-soaked T-shirt, so Russell listened to its customers and built a business based on player comfort as well as utility. In 1930, Benjamin Russell noticed the chafing...