Details On How Nike Blew Their Chance With Steph Curry

Sportswear brand Under Armour has positioned itself to be the go-to brand of the future. Last season the brand was home to four reigning MVP’s across sports, including Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry.

Recently a story from ESPN detailed how Steph made the choice to leave industry giant, Nike for UA. Coincidently it involves one of my former co-workers from my four-year stint at Nike in brand marketing.

A few years ago, Steph was battling back from ankle injuries and many had questions on what was next in his career. Nobody could have envisioned the level Steph would take it too. however it seems as if maybe Curry wasn’t taken seriously in the pitch to get him to re-up with the swoosh.

The pitch meeting was run by then-sports marketing director Nico Harrison -currently Nike’s VP of North American basketball operations and Kobe’s guy during the Lakers star time with Nike. According to Steph’s father Dell, who was at the pitch meeting, Nico kicked it off my mispronouncing Stephen’s name as “Steph-on.”

I’m sure that’s not the first time that’s happened, but you sort of want the company that you’ve been with since 2011 and are looking towards a future with to know how to at least say your name.

It got worse from there. A PowerPoint slide featured Kevin Durant’s name, presumably left on by accident, presumably residue from repurposed materials. “I stopped paying attention after that,” Dell says. Though Dell resolved to “keep a poker face,” throughout the entirety of the pitch, the decision to leave Nike was in the works.

What I can tell you from experience, there were likely areas of the pitch that were in fact reused from others. That’s pretty standard as there are certain key elements that will be uniform across your sponsors. Especially with a corporation the size of Nike. However, letting that slip through, I wonder if the team that put the presentation together is still with the company.

Thanks to Curry’s sneaker line, Under Armour’s footwear sales in the fourth quarter of 2015 skyrocketed 95% to $167 million, up from $86 million in the prior year. Market Watch reported that during the quarter, the company’s overall revenue rose 31% to $1.17 billion compared with $895 million in 2014, while profits were up 21% to $106 million from $88 million.

Nike also wasn’t interested in giving Steph a summer basketball camp, something that was important to him and had been extended to other young stars signed to the brand like Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis.

Dell also notes that Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Kevin Durant were Nike’s main guys; Steph would’ve been in the second tier of athletes. That means no signature shoe.

Steph also shared an adorable story about how his daughter Riley – just one-years-old at the time- helped him make the decision.

At this point, Riley is little over 1 year old. She is presented with a Nike sneaker, an Adidas sneaker and an Under Armour sneaker. She picks up “shoe one,” a Nike. “Threw it over her shoulder,” Curry says. “She picked up shoe two, threw it over her shoulder. She picked up the third shoe, walked over and handed it to me.” It was the Under Armour Anatomix Spawn. “So I knew right then,” Curry says, smiling.

Nike still had the opportunity to retain Steph despite his feelings but they declined to match a deal worth less than $4 million a year.  Curry’s potential worth to Under Armour is now placed at more than $14 billion.

Sometimes the gambler loses.

 
photo via Footlocker