By Sara Germano 

Popular athletic-apparel maker Under Armour Inc. is looking to conquer the running industry, but the race could be more of a marathon than a sprint.

Chief Executive Kevin Plank said Thursday the running category will be the biggest revenue opportunity for Under Armour in the future, as the company said first-quarter profit jumped 73% to $13.5 million and revenue rose 36% to $641.6 million.

Rivals like Nike Inc. and Adidas AG derive most of their income from sales of footwear, which is slightly bigger than the market for sports apparel. Under Armour, however, made its name in athletic apparel, which still accounts for more than 70% of its sales, and is hoping to break in.

Under Armour unveiled its first running shoe in 2008 and makes footwear in the basketball and training categories, in addition to cleats for football, baseball, lacrosse, softball and soccer. Yet it still had just a 2.33% share of the $7 billion running-shoe market last year, slightly better than its overall presence in footwear but well behind market leader Nike, which controls more than half, according to industry analyst Matt Powell of SportsOneSource.

"The most difficult thing about the footwear business is the long lead time, the long time it takes to get people on board," said Mr. Plank, who spent much of the company's earnings call with analysts discussing the importance of building up Under Armour's presence in running.

The company has been ramping up its marketing and product development in the category, introducing the SpeedForm Apollo shoe earlier this year and becoming the official apparel and footwear sponsor of next month's Bay to Breakers 12-kilometer road race in San Francisco. Last year's race drew more than 22,000 finishers, making it one of the largest nonmarathon races in the country, according to data from road-racing tracker Running USA.

Under Armour signed professional runner Nicholas Arciniaga shortly before Monday's Boston Marathon, where the runner finished seventh overall and was the second American behind race winner Meb Keflezighi. Mr. Keflezighi won the race in Skechers, a more recent competitor in the performance running category.

As more companies like Under Armour and Skechers USA Inc. make serious plays in running footwear, they may meet with resistance from some specialty running retailers who work with limited inventory space.

"If we take on a new shoe, something else has to go," said Mark Plaatjes, co-founder of Colorado-based specialty chain Boulder Running Company. "There's only so much space in the store."

Baltimore-based Under Armour also addressed concerns in the wearable tech segment, following its purchase of popular app developer MapMyFitness for $150 million last November to better compete against Nike and others offering fitness-tracking devices and software.

The company on Thursday said that registered users of the app have grown from 20 million to 24 million since last fall, and projects they will approach 30 million by the end of the year. Mr. Plank said that Under Armour targeted the app developer because its product is device-agnostic, particularly when there has yet to be "a single market leader to step forward" in hardware.

Last week, Nike acknowledged that it would be laying off some staff in its digital sport division, which oversees its proprietary Nike+ digital community and development of its FuelBand fitness tracking device. Nike said it will continue to sell and support the device. Earlier this month, the company said its Nike+ community had reached 28 million users.

Write to Sara Germano at sara.germano@wsj.com

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