Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry stepping away from Under Armour seems to have caused an unusual spike in national media interest. Analysts, broadcasters, and former NBA stars have all weighed in on where the four-time NBA champion should take the Curry Brand next.
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Steph, for his credit, managed to market himself through the Curry Brand, and Under Armour hugely benefited from it. That’s why former NBA star Carmelo Anthony has suggested that Steph should stay independent of big brands and continue expanding the market he built on his own.
On the other hand, the chronically online Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant believes Steph’s talents were wasted at Under Armour to begin with.
On Kay Adams’ podcast, Up & Adams, after being told that Nike might be interested in signing with Curry, Durant said that he hopes it happens.
“No disrespect to Under Armour. [Curry] should have always been a Nike athlete. But he built his brand, and this is an exciting time for him to be able to choose and to have people out there who still want his services at 37. You can just tell his legacy and brand is still intact. He’s a free agent, and it feels like he’s still a rookie,” Durant said.
Now, Durant might say that, and to be fair, he has a point, but Steph wouldn’t be wrong to be a little worried about what he might get with Nike.
The sportswear brand that helped make Michael Jordan a household name had the opportunity to sign Curry long ago. Instead, they made several mistakes in their pitch that were perceived as insulting for the then-would-be superstar.
This occurred in 2013, when the Golden State point guard was coming into his own. But while he had shown glimpses of what was to come, he was without his championships, MVP awards, and everything else that came with them. He hadn’t even made an All-Star appearance yet.
Still, while he might not have been high on that list of players Nike wanted to build their brand for the next decade, what the apparel brand did was rather inexcusable.
Mind you, Curry had been wearing Nike apparel for the four years he had been in the NBA. But that contract was about to come to an end, and he was exploring his options. Under Armour, at the time, offered him a $4 million per year deal with a signature shoe and asked him to be the face of the company.
Nike could have matched it, at the very least, but not only did they decline, they went ahead with an utterly incompetent presentation. One of their executives kept pronouncing Stephen as ‘Steph-on.’ To make matters worse, one of the PowerPoint slides, clearly repurposed, had Kevin Durant’s name on it.
Needless to say, Curry was right to move on and go ahead with Under Armour, where he not only took the relatively new brand to heights unseen before, but also managed to carve out a niche in a market that didn’t expect him to compete for top honors.
Hopefully, now, at 37 and a few more years of NBA left in him, Steph assesses his priorities and picks an option that works for the future.
