• by Karl Greenberg , July 21, 2009

Athletic gear company Under Armour has launched a campaign for its new UA Fierce football cleats. The campaign includes a Web video on YouTube and a national TV spot featuring football greats Deion Sanders and Devin Hester.

The national TV spot follows Hester's life on and off the field, showcasing the Windy City in the process. Shot at Chicago's Wrigley Field and Soldier Field, the ad debuted during ESPN's telecast of the 17th annual ESPY awards on Sunday. It will run through the NFL season on ESPN properties.

The minute-long ad is set to "On a Mission" by Def Jam artist Q da Kid, who joins San Francisco 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis for a cameo appearance in the commercial. The ad, which highlights retailer The Sports Authority, also touts Under Armour's High School Combine Series, the company's national program in which high school athletes get mentoring and training from pros. In one segment, Hester and Sanders tutor high school football players.

In the Web video, "Fierce Speed," via New York and L.A. production company Shilo, the shoe coalesces as it flies, comet-like, through space. The spot is part of Under Armour's sponsorship of ESPN's new YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/ESPN. The company is joined by LG Electronics as the first to advertise on the all-things-sports Web channel.

The "UA Fierce" shoe is one of three designs under the "Speed Generation" collection, which also includes the "UA Soflo" and the "UA Nitro" cleats.

"Under Armour was built on the platform of providing advantages for athletes, and, through this commercial, we wanted to show how our new generation of speed cleats can make one of the fastest guys in the NFL one step faster," said Steve Battista, SVP of the Baltimore-based company, in a release.

The company, which launched in the 1990s as an athletic apparel company, first got into footwear in 2006 when it launched football cleats. After that came a line of baseball and softball cleats in the fourth quarter of 2006, and then in 2008, performance-training footwear -- and finally, a line of running shoes early this year.

For the latter, Under Armour launched a marketing campaign in January with TV spots on MTV, ESPN and NFL Network. That campaign features athletes like NFL star Brandon Jacobs, and U.S. National Women's Soccer Olympic Champion Heather Mitts.