How Stephen Curry’s sneaker free agency became the biggest story — and fumble — in footwear, perhaps ever

Call Stephen Curry what you want — the greatest shooter basketball has ever seen, a top-10 player in NBA history, or simply “Chef.” But when it comes to his footwear endorsement future, the Golden State Warriors superstar now wants to be known under a certain distinction.

“I’m a free agent,” said Curry during a postgame news conference after a 109-108 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Friday, Nov. 14, in NBA Cup group play. Before the game, Curry warmed up in a pair of “Mambacita” Nike Kobe 6 Protros, marking the first time in more than 12 years that the four-time NBA champion and 11-time All-Star laced up basketball sneakers that weren’t made by Under Armour.

A day earlier, news broke that Curry and Under Armour had parted ways. Their mutual decision ended a partnership that began in 2013, when a then-25-year-old Curry signed a signature shoe and apparel deal with the brand.

For more than a decade, Curry, 37, has been the face of Under Armour Basketball — arguably the face of Under Armour, period. Suddenly, it’s over, with their breakup emerging as both the biggest ongoing story in sneakers and one of the most epic fumbles in footwear. It brings to mind Adidas not sealing the deal on Michael Jordan or Adidas and Reebok losing an 18-year-old LeBron James to Nike. Sneaker historian Nick Engvall has already deemed the moment “The Biggest Failure in a Century of Sneakers.”

Under Armour had no business losing Curry, who will now see what comes next in his sneaker free agency.

On Nov. 13, at 5:32 p.m. ET, sneaker reporter Nick DePaula posted on X: “BREAKING: Stephen Curry is a sneaker free agent,” with two red exclamations and four eyeballs emojis. Exactly two minutes later, ESPN senior NBA insider Shams Charania confirmed DePaula’s post, reporting that the standalone Curry Brand, launched as a subsidiary of Under Armour in 2020, would move forward independently.

Per an official brand statement, Under Armour will still release the point guard’s next and final signature model, the Curry 13, in February 2026, while additional colorways and apparel collections will continue to be available through October 2026.

According to an exclusive report from sneaker news outlet Sole Retriever, Under Armour will allow Curry to take ownership of the trademarks for his signature logos — including his marquee “Splash” graphic, unveiled in 2020 — as part of the official separation agreement.

Sole Retriever also confirmed that athletes signed to the Curry Brand — including Azzi Fudd, MiLaysia Fulwiley, Davion Mitchell, Quincy Olivari, and signature headliner De’Aaron Fox — will, as of now, remain under Under Armour.

“It’s new beginnings,” said Curry after Golden State’s NBA Cup win over the Spurs. “I was blessed to have an unbelievable experience, and take a chance on something that meant a lot to me over the last 13 years. I’m extremely proud of myself, my team and everybody who was able to touch that business for that long.

“We all should be proud for what we were able to accomplish in taking a brand [into] a category that really wasn’t a thing before, to where we did. But, I am excited about the future.”

Though Curry considers himself a “sneaker free agent,” and Under Armour has recognized his independence from the brand, so far the NBA superstar has continued to lace models from his own signature line during games.

After warming up in the “Mambacita” Kobe 6s, the Warriors’ point guard played in the NBA Cup game on Nov. 14 wearing both the Curry 12 and the Curry Series 7, a silhouette unveiled in August as an upgraded option to his primary numbered signature line. Two nights later, he warmed up and played 28 minutes against the New Orleans Pelicans, solely in the Curry Series 7.

“I think the good thing about this situation is I love my own shoes when I’m out there hooping,” Curry said. “That’s why I put those back on and why I designed the kicks I have for as long as I have. But yeah, I’m gonna have some fun with this. In terms of being open to whatever opportunity is the right fit, I’m gonna try everything out.

“I know it’s weird to see me in something outside my own shoes.”

Before last week, it had been 4,567 days — or exactly 12 years and 6 months — since Curry had laced up Nike Basketball sneakers on court. The last time was May 16, 2013, during Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals against the San Antonio Spurs, when Curry rocked a white, yellow and blue player-exclusive (PE) pair of Nike Hyperfuses, on which he inked, “I Can Do All Things…” near the toebox of the left shoe.

Following the recent announcement of Curry’s split with Under Armour, one of the game-worn pairs of his original Nike PEs sold at auction for $138,075, as fans speculate, and even urge for, his return to repping the Swoosh, especially after he began his sneaker free agency in a pair from the late Kobe Bryant’s culturally beloved signature Nike line.

Back in the summer of 2013, after his four-year, rookie endorsement deal with Nike expired, Curry tested the market before landing a multi-year partnership with Under Armour. The deal, originally yielding him a reported $4 million a year, guaranteed Curry a signature line and immediately made him the centerpiece of the brand’s strategy in basketball.

Curry chose Under Armour over a contract extension offer from Nike, reportedly worth $2.5 million annually, yet with no concrete indication of a signature line, as ultimately confirmed by Curry’s father, Dell.

Chronicled in a 2016 espn.com story titled “You Won’t Believe how Nike lost Steph to Under Armour,” negotiations unfolded in an infamous meeting, during which a brand rep mispronounced “Stephen,” and a PowerPoint slide mistakenly featured Kevin Durant’s name instead of Curry’s.

So, while this isn’t the first time in his 17-year NBA career that Curry has become a sneaker free agent, no one in the world could’ve anticipated a brand ever fumbling him again. Especially after Under Armour in 2020 launched the Curry Brand — aka, the equivalent of what the Jordan Brand has been at Nike since the late 1990s — to the company’s transcendent basketball endorser.

Also, in 2023 Curry notably signed a long-term extension with Under Armour, reportedly a lifetime contract worth up to $1 billion. Lifetime partnerships are rare in the footwear industry, with only an elite group of athletes in history having received them. The list includes Jordan (Nike), LeBron James (Nike), Kevin Durant (Nike), Giannis Antetokounmpo (Nike), Cristiano Ronaldo (Nike), David Beckham (Adidas), Lionel Messi (Adidas), Damian Lillard (Adidas) and Dwyane Wade (Li-Ning).

As part of Curry’s long-term extension, Under Armour elevated him to the role of president of the Curry Brand, while also reportedly awarding him 8.8 common stock shares, then valued at $75 million. Two years later, and Curry’s initially anticipated lifetime partnership has fallen apart, as Under Armour’s stock has significantly plummeted amidst a company restructure, with the shares the NBA superstar received upon signing in 2023 now worth about half their original value.

So, why now?

“Just in the best interest of both parties,” Curry said. “The sneaker industry is difficult, and things change over time and to the point of you give your best effort to create something sustainable. A little disappointing how it turned out based on where Curry Brand has been the past five years, and the announcement we had two years ago.”

Back when Curry signed his long-term deal in 2023, Under Armour’s founder and longtime CEO Kevin Plank delivered a statement that now reads eerily fateful.

“I couldn’t imagine Under Armour without Stephen,” Plank said, “or Stephen without Under Armour.”

Plank’s comments in last week’s press release, announcing Under Armour’s official separation agreement with Curry — bizarrely taglined, “Under Armour To Focus on Core Brand Comeback” — hit starkly different.

“For Under Armour, this moment is about discipline and focus on the core UA brand during a critical stage of our turnaround,” Plank said. “And for Stephen, it’s the right moment to let what we created evolve on his terms. We’ll always be grateful for what he brought to the UA team. This move lets two strong teams do what they do best.”

During his first time taking questions after becoming a sneaker free agent, Curry left the potential of his next footwear endorsement open-ended. If you closely examine the phrasing of the NBA star’s comments, you’ll notice he speaks of his company using both the present and future tenses — in essence, not ruling out the possibility of continuing the Curry Brand.

“I think it’s the right thing for everybody,” Curry said. “For me to be able to take the opportunity with Curry Brand and what we’ve done in the community, standing for something. ‘Changing the game for good’ is our tagline, and hopefully having something to show for it down the road. I’m excited about that.”

Curry — whose career NBA earnings have totaled more than $470 million, including a $59.6 million 2025-26 season salary — could, in theory, financially support the entirety, or majority, of his own sneaker operation. If the future Hall of Fame sharpshooter decided to go independent with the Curry Brand, he would join Boston Celtics four-time All-Star and Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, as well as Orlando Magic veteran Jonathan Isaac, as the only players in the NBA to design, produce and market signature basketball sneakers under companies they own, fund and operate themselves.

In 2023, Isaac founded a Christian faith-inspired sportswear company, Unitus, which released his Judah signature line that expanded to a second model at the start of this season. In 2024, Brown launched 741 Performance and a debut signature shoe, the Rover, through messaging that he “turned down $50 million in offers” from major footwear companies to pursue full ownership and creative design control with his own brand.

If Curry were to find a new business partner, like UA, to take his brand under its umbrella, the best fit, from the standpoints of capital and infrastructure, would presumably be a sportswear company based in China. A natural blueprint is the partnership between Li-Ning and retired Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade, who teamed up to launch his own “Way of Wade” brand under the Chinese company after previously headlining signature lines for both Converse and the Jordan Brand.

The business grew so successfully during Wade’s NBA career that, before he retired in 2019, Li-Ning gave him a lifetime deal. Sound familiar? The difference is that the Chinese brand has stayed committed, so that Way of Wade has endured and expanded well beyond its headliner’s playing days.

Yet perhaps the most fitting framework for Curry’s future lies in the ventures of two athletes — tennis’ Roger Federer and golf’s Tiger Woods — comparable in stature and timing in their careers when they decided to move on from their longtime major partner.

In 2018, Federer, then 37, ended his 24-year partnership with Nike and immediately landed a massive 10-year, $300 million endorsement deal with the Japanese sportswear brand Uniqlo. Federer also personally invested $50 million in the Swiss shoe company, On, which, in 2021, released the Roger Pro sneaker, marking the tennis legend’s first performance signature shoe that Nike never officially gave him.

In 2024, Woods also parted ways with Nike after spending 27 years as the brand’s face of golf, earning about $660 million from the Swoosh between his initial endorsement contract and reported extensions. Woods joined TaylorMade, teaming up with the longtime golf equipment company on a multiyear partnership to launch “Sun Day Red,” a premium brand of apparel and footwear that he solely steers and headlines.

Federer and Woods have established that their personal brands can transcend a sportswear giant. Soon, Curry will prove the same.

Regardless of which route he decides to take, Curry will be able to take the trademarks of his signature logos with him.

“Pretty good move for UA that most brands do not even do for stars,” wrote @sneakerlegal, a law firm specializing in sneakers and streetwear, on Instagram.

Also on social media, a few fans have even teased the idea of Curry joining Sun Day Red, given his outspoken desire to turn pro in golf after retiring from the NBA.

But, let’s be real: Basketball fans, sneakerheads and the culture want this story to come full circle with Curry returning to sign with the Swoosh.

“Imagine if Curry was with Nike … he’d have the best-selling shoe,” said David Giongco, a Bay Area native basketball and sneaker personality known as @dghoops on YouTube. “I think he should go with a brand like Nike — one of the best brands in the business — and they should give him everything.”

It surely felt like an intentional choice that Curry decided to start his sneaker free agency in Nikes, honoring Bryant, the most-revered sneaker free agent in NBA history, who essentially created the concept more than 20 years ago.

In July 2002, Bryant paid $8 million out of pocket to void the final year of the rookie endorsement deal he signed with Adidas in 1996, reportedly dissatisfied with the design and performance of his latest signature shoe, the Adidas Kobe Two.

Terms of the separation agreement stipulated that Bryant could not sign with another footwear company for a full NBA season, as well as a clause prohibiting him from wearing the same brand for three games in a row.

So, Bryant played the 2002-03 NBA season as a “sneaker free agent,” rotating between sneakers made by AND1, Converse, Jordan Brand, Nike and Reebok, before officially signing a deal with the Swoosh in June 2003 that turned into his iconic signature Nike line.

“I talk about Kobe a lot and that specific pair. I think it speaks for itself what it means,” said Curry of the “Mambacita” Nike Kobe 6s, released three years ago on what would’ve been the 16th birthday of Bryant’s daughter, Gianna, who died with him and seven others in a 2020 helicopter crash.

“Other than that,” Curry continued, “I just wanted to take advantage of that moment and pay tribute. I think it gave me some good energy tonight.”

Unlike Bryant’s transition from Adidas to Nike over two decades ago, there is no non-compete clause in the separation agreement between Curry and Under Armour, according to a report from Front Office Sports, meaning the Warriors star can sign with any other brand immediately.

FOS also confirmed with Under Armour that Curry is not contractually obligated to wear the Curry 13 when it releases in February — and, most notably, is free to wear any brand of shoe he chooses during arena tunnel entrances, warmups and even games.

Three nights after warming up in the “Mambacita” Nike Kobe 6s, Curry arrived in Orlando, where he paid tribute to a duo of Magic legends, walking the tunnel of the Kia Center in Shaquille O’Neal’s 1996 Reebok Shaqnosis shoe, before warming up in Penny Hardaway’s exclusive “Volt” Nike Air Penny 2s from 2012. 

A few nights later, Curry was inactive against the Miami Heat, but pulled up to the Kaseya Center rocking “Stingray” Way of Wade 1s, the first signature shoe under Wade’s brand with Li-Ning.

For a dozen years, the idea of the best shooter in the NBA lacing up any sneakers other than those made by Under Armour was unimaginable. In 2023, he committed to never wearing or repping another brand again. Now, his sneaker free agency is upon us, and we’re all waiting to see what brand Stephen Curry will choose next.

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