Stephen Curry takes to the pitch in Nikes for the first time in 12 years following the breakup with Under Armour
The last time Stephen Curry stepped onto the court in a pair of Nikes, LeBron James was with the Miami Heat, David Stern was the NBA commissioner and Cooper Flagg was six years old.
So NBA fans experienced a long-forgotten spectacle during Friday’s Golden State Warriors game, Curry’s first game since ending his 12-year partnership with Under Armour. Now a sneaker free agent, Curry competed against the San Antonio Spurs in the Nike Kobe 6 “Mambacita.”
Curry and Under Armor announced their separation Thursday, with the former MVP’s Curry Brand parting ways with the company. Under Armor will still release the Curry 13 in February, but Curry is officially independent from a company that has been a visible part of its dominance for the past decade.
Stephen Curry is a free agent (sneaker-wise). (AP Photo/Gerald Leong)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Curry originally signed with Nike after entering the NBA, but his move to Under Armor in 2013 has become a tradition for the sneaker company. At the time, Under Armor was a smaller but growing company, while Nike enjoyed near-complete dominance of the sneaker industry. Curry decided to go with the company prepared to make him the face of the company, and not the one that famously forgot to remove Kevin Durant’s name from a repurposed PowerPoint slide.
Announcement
Then, starting in the 2013-14 season, Curry was an Under Armor athlete and wore shoe after shoe bearing his name. He launched Curry Brand with Under Armor in 2020 and received more than a paycheck in company stock in 2023.
It was theoretically a lifetime contract, but it didn’t even last until the end of Curry’s career.