Imagining A World Where Nike Didn’t Pass Up On Stephen Curry

It seems almost impossible to believe now but Nike passed on Stephen Curry. He was a Nike athlete and they had the chance to keep him and offer him a signature sneaker and they didn’t.

But what if they had?

It is hard to discuss this topic without mentioning Kyrie Irving and the hugely successful Nike Kyrie 1. Let’s say for the sake of conversation that had Nike signed Curry there would have not been a Kyrie 1 – at least not yet. Let’s assume instead that Nike would have put out the Nike Curry 1. How would it of fared?

Well,  we would have to think as the newest signature in the Nike Basketball catalogue it would have the same price as the Kyrie 1, $109.99. That is actually $10 cheaper than the Under Armour Curry 1.

Adding to the price advantage, we would have Nike doing the storytelling. There would have been All-Star and Easter Nike Curry Ones as well as whatever interesting personal stories Nike cooked up with Steph. To be fair, Under Armour has done a decent job at this – but no one does signature storytelling better than Nike (although they definitely phone it in sometimes too… but that’s a conversation for another time).

As far as tech and on court performance are concerned, the experts actually prefer the Under Armour Curry one over the nike Kyrie 1.

The way each brand tells their signature athlete’s story makes sense for them; the Under Armour Curry One is Under Armour’s flagship basketball sneaker whereas the Nike Kyrie 1 is meant to be an affordable option compared to its big brothers like LeBron or Kobe or KD and thus uses minimal tech. While Under Armour created an entirely new tech, their Charged foam, for the signature – Nike gave the Kyrie some (rather stale) Nike Zoom.

Let’s talk marketing. While Steph Curry has certainly done a lot to keep his name and face everywhere thanks to his highlight reel, it could be argued that Under Armour hasn’t had too much to do with that. On the flip side of that, Nike is a world leader in marketing.

What Nike would have done with the season Curry has had could very well have been the kind of marketing that is talked about for decades.

So, wrapping it all up, Kyrie has moved more units than Curry despite Curry’s much stronger season. Don’t get me wrong, Curry has been selling out the Curry Ones too but the word around the industry is that they are being produced in a smaller number. Both seem destined for the Finals this year as well, which will only drive sales of both sneakers.

The thing is Steph Curry has been much more exciting to watch, is the regular season MVP and could very well become the NBA Finals MVP as well. The anticipation for a Nike Curry 1 “Championship Pack” would have been insane.

it’s hard to imagine a world in which a Nike Curry One would not have been the largest selling (units moved) signature sneaker this year.

The post Imagining A World Where Nike Didn’t Pass Up On Stephen Curry appeared first on KicksOnFire.com.