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Steph Curry is unquestionably one of the greatest basketball players in the history of the sport, helping sweep the 2017 Trail Blazers into the dustbin of playoffs history.
But he has an Achilles heel, one that played an important part of the legendary 2016 collapse of the Golden State Warriors: his signature sneakers.
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For those living under a rock this time last year, people really hated the "Chef" iteration of Under Armour's Curry Two Lows. The sneaker was viciously roasted on Twitter and other media platforms in the middle of the 2016 NBA Finals, prompting such gems as this:
Portland's own Ron Funches didn't like them, either:
Well, ESPN's Darren Rovell reports that people still don't like Curry's shoes. At least, if sales number are any indicator of public opinion.
Among other of Under Armour's current corporate problems—that the Baltimore-based company is currently facing it's first ever quarterly loss as a publicly traded company, for example—CEO Kevin Plank admitted today that sales of the third iteration of Curry's signature shoe, the Curry Three, did not meet the mark. Plank stated:
Those "softer than expected" results include an increase in footwear sales of only 2 percent. Compare that to their increase in footwear sales of 64 percent from the same time last year. Sounds pretty darn soft, if you ask me.
A number of factors may have contributed to the decline in sales of Curry's shoes. Some analysts speculate that price creep may have contributed to sluggish sales—the Curry One debuted in 2015 at $120, but the current model retails for $140. Under Armour have even dropped the price of the sneaker on their website to $99.99.
Plank and company do appear to be learning from their mistakes. "This has created an inventory imbalance that we are working through," said Plank. "One that, yes, is baked into our full-year outlook which hasn't changed and, most importantly, yielded lessons we're applying ahead with the Curry 4 and beyond."
How they will overcome the nigh-insurmountable obstacle of being made fun of on the internet is anyone's guess.
Despite the drop in sales, Under Armour's stock price rose 7 percent on the back of the fact that earnings were nonetheless better than shareholders and analysts had expected.
Under Armour currently has a major presence in Portland, where most of their design staff is based. They are currently in the process of a major expansion to Portland, where they are building a campus around the Metro Family YMCA building on Southwest Barbur Boulevard.