Stephen Curry shocked his fans with a huge decision. The Golden State star surprised everyone by suddenly parting ways with Under Armor. This partnership has spanned the prime of his career acrossing four championships. It definitely was a bolt out of the blue. Under Armor and its now ex signature athlete announced the decision in a joint statement. But Stephen Curry opened up about it separately later.

The Chef had his own statement to give via Front Office Sports. They reported, “Steph Curry spox tells @FOS breakup with Under Armour was a ‘mutual business decision’ and that Curry ‘owns his logo, IP, marks, etc., and will take them with him.’”

So essentially it’s not the end of the Curry Brand that was inside the Under Armor umbrella. Nor is it going to be a Jordan Brand-like Nike subsidiary.

Curry is within reason to want to separate his brand with its own fanbase from the Under Armor umbrella. UA, like other sneaker titans have been suffering from a commercial decline. While Nike remains on top of the global sneaker market, it has posted decreasing quarterly revenues since last year. UA has struggled even worse.

UA saw a drop in its e-commerce revenue by 25% in the first quarter of 2025. This quarter, it is already facing a 11% decline in direct-to-consumer sales.

The 4x NBA champion’s statement to take the Curry Brand with him would seem like a cold end to this decade-long partnership despite the mutual agreement. But the pattern was visible this summer and the Curry Camp may have been a farewell tour of sorts.

Steph Curry will likely protect his brand from Under Armor’s decline

While Under Armor was hosting Curry Camp in Asia this summer, industry insiders presented a grim picture of the brand’s reality. Once a masterclass in marketing with the NBA’s biggest trendsetting player, UA let the promotion rope go in a competitive market.

In the early days of signing Stephen Curry and the Warriors dynasty, 2016 specifically, UA had posted 26 consecutive quarters of 20%+ growth by making its presence felt signing superstars and outfitting college athletes. Now Lululemon surpassed it as an athletic powerhouse second only to Nike.

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UA had reduced its marketing effort to make up for the reduced margins. As a result, some UA partners and executives pulled away.

As UA falls out of relevance, Steph Curry is taking his brand into his own hands. At least that’s what his statement reads like.

UA is in no shape to ramp up marketing like it used to. But The Chef is still relevant. The Curry Brand’s namesake will likely do a better job at keeping it afloat and meet its fans’ demands, which is good news to fans. It would be an interesting case study on how Under Armor recalibrates without its biggest star.