Key Points
- Stephen Curry signed a 10-year endorsement deal with Chinese sportswear company Li-Ning, announced June 1
- The deal globalizes Curry Brand across basketball, lifestyle wear, a golf line and his own roster of athletes
- Li-Ning plans to open Curry Brand stores in the United States and China
- Curry split with Under Armour in November, ending a 12-year partnership
After 12 years as the face of Under Armour basketball, Stephen Curry's next signature shoe will carry a Chinese label.
The deal
Curry announced on June 1 that he has signed a 10-year deal with Li-Ning, ending a months-long sneaker free agency. The agreement globalizes his Curry Brand well beyond a shoe: it spans basketball products, athleisure and lifestyle wear, a full golf line, and the right for Curry to sign his own male and female athletes under the brand. Li-Ning plans to build Curry Brand stores in both the United States and China. Curry chose Li-Ning over other American and foreign pitches, and one factor was testing the shoes of two of the company's signature athletes — his Warriors teammate Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade.
The end of the Under Armour era
Curry parted ways with Under Armour in November, closing a 12-year partnership in which he became one of the brand's defining faces and built Curry Brand under its umbrella. His commercial pull never depended on the logo: he has long sat atop the sport's merchandise charts, the only name ahead of Caitlin Clark in U.S. basketball jersey sales.
Why Li-Ning, why now
This is a brand-ownership play more than a shoe swap. Li-Ning hands Curry a level of control Under Armour's shrinking basketball business could not — his own athletes, his own stores, and categories from golf to lifestyle — plus a foothold in China, the largest growth market in basketball footwear. The template already exists inside the building, where Dwyane Wade is a long-running Li-Ning signature athlete and one of the players whose shoes Curry tested before signing. For an American superstar to anchor the back nine of his career to a Chinese brand is a statement about where the sneaker industry's money and growth now sit — and a bet that Curry's name travels further than any single company's logo.
Sources: ESPN, Yahoo Sports, NBC Bay Area
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