Washington Examiner: The chief executives of major United States sporting goods brands Nike and Under Armour will step down.

End of an era?

Under Armour announced Tuesday that CEO Kevin Plank, who founded the company in his grandmother’s basement in Washington, D.C., will be leaving his role as of Jan. 1. Plank will instead serve as the executive chairman and brand chief of the company.

Patrik Frisk, Under Armour’s president and chief operating officer, was tapped to succeed Plank as the corporation’s chief executive. Plank, 47, founded Under Armour in 1996 and moved the company to Baltimore, where it is one of the city’s major employers, with nearly 1,900 workers.

Nike also announced Tuesday its CEO, Mark Parker, is stepping aside effective Jan. 13. Parker, who has served in his role since 2006 and will become Nike’s executive chairman, will be replaced by John Donahoe.

Donahoe is the president and CEO of ServiceNow, a cloud computing company headquartered in California, and serves on Nike’s board of directors.

Nike and Under Armour are among the giants of the sportswear industry but have come under fire in recent years for their workplace cultures.

In July, Plank pushed back against President Trump’s criticism of Baltimore after he called the city “very dangerous and filthy.” He also distanced himself from the president in August 2017 after Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides” of the clash between white supremacists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Following Trump’s remarks, which were widely criticized, Plank stepped down from Trump’s American Manufacturing Council.