If sneakers had a Powerball drawing, Under Armour would have been the big winner. When it comes to the signing and overall timing of their deal with two-time Most Valuable Player, Stephen Curry, you could not write a better story on how they’d hoped things would go back in 2013. A year ago today, UA released one of the most significant sneakers of their hoops history.
We took a dive into the resell market for this year’s NBA Finals sneakers but the boom in popularity of the Under Armour Curry line is a phenomenon in itself. On June 13th, 2015, Under Armour released the “MVP” Curry 1. Surprisingly to most, the shoe sold out. It wasn’t the first time a pair of Curry’s shoes sold out but it was definitely the fastest. Maybe it was the perfect storm of promotion, which included Steph wearing the shoes a month prior when it was announced he won MVP and wearing a PE version days before the release. Or maybe the basketball sneaker business was just ready for something new and Curry’s MVP colorway just happened to be released at the right time. It’s impossible to accurately measure all the hype around something that is such a once in a lifetime situation.
Not only did Stephen Curry get his first signature sneaker in 2015, he also became the first player to win Most Valuable Player and win an NBA Championship in his first signature sneaker. Not even Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant or LeBron James can say they accomplished that. It’s kind of an unbelievably perfect scenario for Steph Curry and Under Armour. It’s the type of thing that gets people thinking that just maybe, UA can be competitive in the basketball footwear market.
The Under Armour Curry movement has some interesting beginnings, as documented by ESPN. And before you get ’em all in a bunch. Yes, it’s a movement. Have you ever seen UA get so much attention for footwear prior to the latest Chef Curry 2 hysteria? But the future of the Steph Curry and Under Armour partnership is looking bright with upcoming release of the Back-to-Back Pack, which includes the aforementioned MVP PE colorway. If the resell price of the original Curry Championship Pack is any hint at this year’s release, this release will be a crazy one assuming UA doesn’t flood the market with them.
StockX Trivia: The Under Armour Curry 1 MVP was the first 360 Image uploaded to the site.
