Stephen Curry Set To 'Potentially' Lock In A $1B Lifetime Contract With Under Armour, Report Says

As previously reported by AfroTech, the NBA superstar signed one of the most lucrative deals with the brand back in 2013 — which is reportedly worth $20 million. What’s more, toward the end of 2020 he secured a partnership deal with Under Armour to launch the Curry Brand.

“Through the community work I’ve done with Under Armour for over a decade, I’ve learned that talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not,” Curry said in a press statement, at the time. “All of our work together has been dedicated to creating a more equal playing field that closes the gap between those two areas. Through Curry Brand, along with the work of Ayesha and my foundation Eat.Learn.Play., I now have a long term plan to continue to address the barriers to sport that often hinder and limit a child’s potential for greatness.”

It looks like Curry foreshadowed his journey with Under Armour with his words “long term plan.” Rolling Stone reports that the basketball phenom is well on his way to locking in a lifetime contract with the company that’s “potentially worth $1 billion.”

According to the outlet, Curry nearly called it quits with Under Armour in 2018. Following his leave from Nike in 2013, he was garnering “roughly” $4 million per year with his current sponsor. While the checks were clearing, the sales of his 2016 sneaker were poor. Curry and Under Armour founder Kevin Plank weren’t on the same page about the partnership.

“There wasn’t quite an understanding of what it took to run a business like that properly,” Curry told the outlet. “So, yeah, I got mad.”

Curry threatened to leave if there weren’t any changes made.

The two went on to work out an agreement, which birthed the Curry Brand as its own subsidiary.

Ahead of what might be a $1 billion deal for Curry, in an interview with AfroTech, he spoke on his experience with endorsement deals and what NIL athletes can learn from it.

“I went through that same kind of vibe early in my career where there are so many opportunities to just do deals that look good in the here and now, but you’re leaving a lot on the table for down the road, and you’re not maximizing the leverage that you have,” he told us exclusively. 

Now, in the span of almost five years, Curry has gone from demanding what he wanted from Under Armour to possibly being locked in for life.