Flanked by a top lieutenant and a star athlete, Kevin Plank led a crowd gathered Saturday morning in counting down from 10. As the clock hit zero, Under Armour’s billionaire founder slammed a massive button, sending smoke billowing into the sky and a parade of local kids streaming into the parking lot.

That ceremony formally launched a flashy store at the company’s new Baltimore Peninsula headquarters. It also punctuated a season of change for the storied Baltimore brand.

“This is the kickoff of our, what I’ll say, is our reconstitution of the brand across the Americas,” Kara Trent, Under Armour’s president of the Americas, said in an interview Saturday. “But also with a lot of this influencing then how we think about the brand globally.”

Once positioned in Locust Point overlooking Baltimore’s harbor, Under Armour has relocated its global command center to the Baltimore Peninsula, a move years in the making. Employees have begun working there and the huge store — 23,000 square feet — recently opened, but Saturday marked its grand introduction.

City and state leaders, athletes and hundreds of youths who participate in Under Armour’s Project Rampart, which provides support to local schools, listened to remarks from Trent, WNBA superstar and Under Armour athlete Kelsey Plum and Plank.

In a fiery speech that was half history lesson, half rallying cry, Plank drew upon his own origin story of the brand’s humble beginnings and outlined an ambitious approach for what’s to come.

“You have a brand who is strong today, but, more importantly, has a mindset to become the No. 1 athletic brand in the world. That’s what we’re doing here,” said Plank, the company’s once-and-current head.

At one time seemingly ever growing — Under Armour reported 26 consecutive quarters of 20% or more in net revenue growth until 2016 — the company stagnated and began to slide in 2017. Executive turnover and, most recently, a $434 million payout to settle a class-action lawsuit have plagued the company.

But Plank has outlined a vision of addition by subtraction. The company will offer fewer products and discounts, but “we want to elevate the brand experience,” Plank said during last month’s earnings calls.

Plank, a former University of Maryland football player, founded the company in 1996 and orchestrated its rise. He stepped down in 2019 but earlier this year again became CEO, a return he is “so grateful” for, he said Saturday.

“I’m approaching this brand,” he told the audience, “like a $5 billion startup with 16,000 amazing teammates [employees], with 2,000 stores around the world doing business in 160-plus countries.”

The dazzling store features new items, interactive experiences and an homage to the brand’s innovative history. About 250 mounted helmets of Under Armour’s partner high school football teams float above shoppers, and a few statues will soon populate a prominent window.

One of those will be of Steph Curry, the NBA superstar sponsored by Under Armour, but his statue wasn’t ready as efforts are made to ensure his facial features are accurate, said Josh Denton, senior vice president of the Americas and global direct-to-consumer retail.

Placards explain technology (such as “midsole cushioning” that is designed to ever-so-slightly increase Curry’s quickness), an interactive element allows customers to test their strength and coordination, and dressing rooms highlight Under Armour’s sponsored athletes. Each dressing room is themed after pros Plum, Curry, the Ravens’ Zay Flowers and the Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson.

“I’m not being biased, but I think mine might be the best,” Plum said.

The store’s guiding principles, Trent said while Towson University’s marching band welcomed guests with blaring music, are to make “shopping more simple, yet elevating storytelling and experiences.”

Dubbed a “sport house,” the store will be a lab of sorts for testing products and for designers to see their work on shelves. Under Armour has three tiers of shops, and the Baltimore Peninsula location is the only one in the country currently at the highest tier — the “pinnacle.” Other stores, in major global cities, Trent said, will eventually open pinnacle locations of their own.

“This was kind of our muse, if you will, for the new design of sport house globally,” Denton said.

Plank’s remarks were Baltimore-centric — he said, in the face of the Francis Scott Key Bridge tumbling “into the water like an Erector Set,” there are great things happening in the city — including the store. Under Armour procured an authentic “Baltimore: The Greatest City in America” bench from city government and, after a coat or several of polish, placed it near one of the store’s entrances.

In addition to sports figures such as University of Maryland football coach Michael Locksley and the Ravens’ Marlon Humphrey, several government leaders, including state Comptroller Brooke Lierman, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Councilmember Phylicia Porter, attended Saturday’s festivities.

Porter praised the headquarters for “anchoring the neighborhood,” with the company’s employees now relocated from Tide Point to the Baltimore Peninsula. A spokesperson said Under Armour is evaluating the future of its old headquarters. Two parcels of its land have been listed for sale.

In his remarks, Plank detailed the company’s beginnings, when buying himself a $350 desk counted as a costly expense. After struggling during the company’s early years, in the late 1990s buying that desk offered him a chance to start with a “clean canvas,” he said.

“Today, on many levels, I get to feel like we went and bought a new desk,” he said. “More importantly, we built a new desk.”