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You’d think a lifetime deal would last, you know… a lifetime. Silly us. After signing a lifetime extension with Under Armour in 2023, it only took two years for Steph Curry and his Curry Brand to go their separate ways from Under Armour. The breakup was reportedly amicable at first as Under Armour’s poor financial health gave way to the brand focusing on its core market, and Curry was still playing in Under Armour sneakers for the first few games post-separation.
But shortly after the news broke, stories began to emerge that showed the real rumblings behind the scenes. One major point of contention was Under Armour failing to sign Azzi Fudd, the NCAA standout from UConn who is now a member of Jordan Brand. Then it surfaced that, even though tension was building for months, the breakup came out of nowhere.
From there, things got ugly. Steph never wore the Curry 13, his final sneaker with the brand, which was dropped with little marketing in February and Under Armour took the Curry Brand Instagram page and migrated all of the followers to their Basketball division’s handle. The two will be completely separated in October, but Curry has had the freedom to sign with or wear any other brand he wishes.
While we’re lucky to not have to deal with the politics behind the scenes, we have been enjoying Curry Watch each night Steph has played, with his footwear choice often associated with the franchise the Warriors were playing against or the city where they were traveling. Steph did take quite a break for most of the second half of the season, missing all games in the months of February and March.
Now that the season has come to a close, we decided to crunch the numbers and see how Steph performed with each brand that he wore on the court during his sneaker free agency. It’s looking more and more like he’s approaching the end of his footwear free agency as Curry just announced a charity auction which features 70 pairs of sneakers he has worn during this period, and Sole Retriever previously reported that Steph narrowed down his landing spot to three choices, ANTA being one of these three. While his on-court stats wearing each brand may impact his decision somewhat, we’re guessing a different set of number$ will ultimately decide where he brings his talents in the future.
In our stats, we only included sneakers Steph wore during minutes played on the court, not the shoes he wore in the tunnel walk or for shootarounds. In many of the games, he would wear a different sneaker for each of these moments, but what matters is the buckets he got (or didn’t) in each brand and specific sneaker.
Ok… this actually shocked us at the Sole Retriever offices too, but turns out Steph played the majority of his games post-breakup from UA in the Curry Series 7. Steph did state last summer that the shoe was hands down “the best basketball shoe I’ve ever worn,” and even without a contractual obligation to lace the kicks up, he wore the shoe five times, three of which came in the days immediately following the announcement of UA and Curry Brand’s separation. The other two instances were in late December, but since then, there have been no UA moments on the court for Curry.
Closely following the Series 7 is the ANTA Kai 3 with four wears, a sneaker that Curry actually debuted on the NBA court due to Kyrie Irving missing the 2025-26 season with a torn ACL. He wore the shoe three times in January, and in his second game back in April, he rocked the brand-new Mastery colorway. He also wore the Nike Sabrina 3 four times, three of which were “By You” customs that contained his number 30. The Way of Wade 12 was also a popular choice for Curry, as he wore the sneaker 4 times and played his second-to-last regular season game in the model. You can check out the full stats below.
Curry may have laced up a variety of models during his free agency, but he clearly favored one brand over another: Nike. 42.4% of his games played post-breakup were in The Swoosh. Models he wore include the previously mentioned Sabrina 3, the Sabrina 2, Book 1, Kobe 4, Kobe 6, and Kobe 9. In second place is ANTA at 18.2%, which includes his four wears of the Kai 3 and the two instances where he wore the KT 11 and SV Eclosion Type2. Li-Ning (9.1%) and Way of Wade (12.1%), the latter of which is technically a subsidiary of the former, account for 21.2%. Our full breakdown is below.
Sneakerhead from South Florida who turned his passion into a career. When not writing for Sole Retriever, I enjoy watching films and discovering music. Follow me on Letterboxd @nickvlah For tips, reviews, or any shoes in a size 13, email nick@soleretriever.com