The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 84 — Steph...Jordan???
We got mad basketball stuff to talk about today.
Good morning, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear! Thanks so much for rocking with your boy on this fantastic Monday morning. Hope your week is excellent.
The KYW Forum survey is closed and the Substack thread option won out.
So, with that, this Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET I’ll be dropping our first KYW community thread where we can all chop it up! Its gonna be so dope! Cannot wait!
With that, let’s get right to it.
Chef Curry with the pot
(Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash)
Stephen Curry’s future with Under Armour was on shaky ground just four months ago.
Reports were swirling about the brand trying to renegotiate some of their athletic endorsement contracts as their financials began to tank back in March.
It was speculated that Curry could separate himself from UA given his past displeasure on how the company had handled his brand.
Things might be going in the opposite direction, though. Curry may be in line to begin his own subsidiary brand under the UA umbrella, according to a report from Let's Go Warriors.
In the scenario reported, Curry would be getting his own brand via Under Armour in a similar way Nike has done with Jordan Brand. His SC30 logo would replace the traditional UA logos on both apparel and sneakers.
A new Curry brand at Under Armour would be a huge boost for the Warriors' star individually. He’d be one of a handful who have that status. But that’s exactly why it’s easy to be skeptical about this.
It just doesn’t make much sense at all. For a few reasons.
First, again, not many athletes get this. Michael Jordan obviously has it. Dwyane Wade does, too, but it’s with Li-Ning — hardly a powerhouse. LeBron James signed a lifetime deal at Nike and doesn’t even have this. Maybe UA values him that much, but its hard to see Curry at Jordan level.
Second, the timing just doesn’t feel right. Yes, reupping Curry makes sense. But something like this costs lots of money. And, clearly as we’ve stated before, Under Armour is down bad right now. What sense would it make to jump right out of that massive UCLA deal and right into a massive Steph Curry deal?
Third, basketball sneakers are failing from a business standpoint. It only represents 4% of the athletic footwear market and, earlier this year, sales were down 13% year to year and things have only gotten worse.
It’s hard to figure out the rationale behind a move like this. Maybe it’s a move to keep Curry around. Maybe it’s just an attempt to separate the Curry brand from Under Armour. We can’t really say. I reached out to sources at Under Armour for confirmation on Friday, but have yet to hear back. So we’ll see.
It’d dope to see Steph Curry get this kind of spotlight. Maybe it works! I don’t know. But, right now with what we do know, it just doesn’t seem feasible.
One more chance
(Photo by Ramiro Pianarosa on Unsplash)
Kobe Bryant’s shocking and untimely passing in January led to a bunch of questions about the future of his signature sneaker line. Stock was completely gobbled up by resellers and then, shortly after, completely removed from Nike’s site.
Now, after months of waiting, we finally get another chance to cop some Kobe’s. A trio of Kobe 5 protros are reportedly dropping later this month.
They’re releasing throughout the week of August 24 (aka Mamba Day) starting with “The Big Stage” colorway on August 23. The OG Laker colorway of the 5 drops on the 24th and the EYBL colorway comes on the 29th.
There is one caveat, though. They were all spotted on Eastbay’s sneaker release calendar on Saturday evening before being removed on Sunday morning.
This is the moment Nike has been waiting for. Each of these drops were scheduled to come earlier in the year, but were all postponed with no explanation. It seems they were saving them for August.
Even with them being removed from the calendar, you should still expect the drop to come. Nike doesn’t just let moments like these pass without selling you anything — that’s how their marketing machine works.
And when they do drop, expect it to be competitive in the same way Jordan releases are. That’s where we are with these joints. It’s because we’ve never seen anything like this.
Unfortunately for us, Kobe Bryant is our first posthumous signature athlete. We’ve never had this before.
And, because his death was so sudden and so tragic, no one expected this to happen. And there was no way to prepare for it.
It all sucks. The gross price hikes, the scarcity. All of it. But that’s what we’re dealing with. Prepare accordingly.
Speaking of Under Armour…hey Joel Embiid
Joel Embiid is officially a signature athlete, making him the 17th NBA player to have his own shoe.
He debuted the UA Embiid One in the 76ers game against the Magic on Friday night. Before the game, he showed them off on Instagram. They look solid. The design is extremely safe and extremely big.
What makes this interesting is that Joel Embiid is the first true NBA big man to get a signature shoe in a while. He’s the first since Dwight Howard in the mid-2010’s when he had a signature line with Peak. That didn’t go so well.
Under Armour is a different brand and a bigger name, obviously, but they’re going through their own struggles right now.
I’ll still be glued to seeing how Embiid’s sneakers do. I don’t expect much, but there are a few factors that do excite me here.
First, if he stays healthy he’s going to be an early season MVP candidate for a long time.
Second, he plays in Philadelphia and that’s a solid market located in the North East not too far from New York where lots of sneaker business happens.
Third, he’s just fun as hell. Shaq had that and he sold sneakers. Embiid has that, too. So we’ll see how it works.
It’s hard to say Embiid will be a net positive for UA with the basketball sneaker game being the way it is right now. But if you’re going to invest, it should be in a player like him. We’ll see how it works out.
MOAR SPACE HIPPIES
Fam. The Space Hippies just keep getting better and better. The Space Hippie 04 is coming back with “Lemon Venom” later this month and I CANNOT WAIT to see these in real life.
This colorway is amazing. If somebody wants to cop your boy a size 13, I am not opposed. I’ll even trade my current joints for these — I’m not kidding.
In all seriousness, though, it’s great to see the Space Hippie back for more. Slowly, but surely, it’s becoming more accessible. And, as we’ve discussed before, that’s an important part of accomplishing the mission of the Space Hippie of spreading sustainability in sneakers.
You absolutely love to see it.
What’s droppin’, bruh
Nike ISPA Flow — Thursday, August 13
Adidas Ultraboost 4d — Thursday, August 13
Nike Air Presto “Australia” — Friday, August 14
Adidas ZX 8000 — Friday, August 14
Air Jordan 5 “Bel Air” — Saturday, August 15
That’s a wrap for Monday! Thanks for rocking with your boy! I appreciate your time today and hope you have a fantastic week.
Remember, I’ll see y’all on Wednesday!!! Let’s get it!
As always, peace and love. Be easy. Be well. Be kind.
Signing off.
—Sykes 💯