De’Aaron Fox has his own pair of Currys. The Sacramento Kings point guard is the first signature athlete—other than Steph Curry himself—to have a pair of sneakers with his name on it for Under Armour’s Curry Brand.
His shoe, the Fox 1, will release on Dec. 6 for $120. It’s a low-top shoe with Under Armour’s Flow technology in the midsole and a strap across the foot. It all came about because Fox liked to play in Currys. When he was a sneaker free agent, the Curry 10 was the only shoe he felt prevented his foot from getting injured. Under Armour took notice and signed Fox in 2023.
And don’t think that Fox’s history with Under Armour doesn’t run deep, either. He played in the brand during his AAU days and remembers the shoes in the era of Micro G cushioning.
In a sea of low-top basketball shoes, Fox wanted to create something that stands out. His approach was to make something that looked more like a running shoe.
To get a better scope on how his shoe came about, we got the chance to talk to Fox about the Under Armour Curry Fox 1. The interview is below.
Congrats on your first signature shoe. How did the whole process come about?
So I was a sneaker free agent. This was 2022 and I was wearing a bunch of different stuff: Converse, New Balance. Then I started playing in Stephs, but whenever I was playing in other shoes, I ended up hitting my foot on the floor and ended up getting fluid in my foot. So I ended up having some foot pain at the time and then I played in Currys, the 10s, and I played in them for about two, three weeks and it started going away and I’m like, “Yo, these are one of the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever put on.” And the traction with the Flow was great. And I played him throughout the rest of the season, like still me unsigned, and then Under Armour kind of saw that, took note of it. Steph hit me up. He was asking me how I liked the shoes and it grew organically from there because whenever I decided to wear the shoe, I wasn’t thinking about who was I going to sign with. I was just playing in a shoe that I ended up liking, and it all stemmed from there.
When you got the word that you’re going to get a shoe, what was the process like creating that sneaker?
It was dope, man. So with [Under Armour designer] Ed Wallace, he would ask two, three questions, get two, three answers, and come back with 40, 50 different ideas of what he got from the answers. So being able to see the shoe from scratch, seeing all the designs, and then kind of seeing it come to fruition was definitely great. For me, one thing was I wanted it to be a running shoe and I wanted to have a strap because I really liked the Bloodlines back in the day. Those had a strap, well, the Bloodlines and the Black Ices, but they both had straps. So I was a fan of having a strap.
I know you said you wanted it to look like a running shoe, but before you even got a shoe, did you always have a vision in your mind of what the De’Aaron Fox signature sneaker would look like?
Zero clue. I had no idea what I would’ve ever wanted a shoe to look like, but then going through the process, you kind of start seeing stuff and you’re like, “Oh, I really like that. I can see that being my first shoe.” So it was definitely a great process, but no, I can’t say that I ever thought about what my own shoe would look like before that.
What’s it like working with Steph under his brand?
It’s definitely cool, man. Obviously, I mean, he’s one of the greatest players ever, and I think a big part of it was being able to be that first guy under the Curry brand line is definitely historical. One, from the perception of it being his brand and two, from the perception of he’s still playing and he’s still playing at a high level and being signed under a guy that’s still playing. And I think that that was a big deal. Some people thought it was good, some people thought it was bad, but for me, I felt like there were only positives to it.
I remember seeing just a discussion of people, they didn’t think it was bad, but they just didn’t know what that was going to look like with his name on the shoe and your name on the shoe at the same time.
I mean, it’s the same thing as people were wearing Kobes whenever they were playing against Kobe, but you just weren’t signed to him. So I’m like, a lot of people kind of look at it and I’m like, “I don’t really see the, not necessarily problem, but the confusion.”
There’s always the talk that with MJ, it’s like if something has his name on it, he always has to sign off on the last thing. Is Steph like that too, where he has to sign off on everything and he’s real meticulous, even if it’s not his own thing?
I’m not sure, to be honest, but I would say no because his first time seeing the shoe is when we were actually in China in the shoe. And I had been working out in the shoe all summer. So from that aspect, I would have to say no. But that’s the only thing I pretty much know. But he loved them, he loved the shoe.
Did you get him to play in the shoe?
I don’t know. I think he might play in it this year because it pretty much feels the same as the Curry 1s, and I love the Curry 1s, so they feel very, very similar. That would be dope if he does, for sure. Definitely would be. But he actually wore them. He actually wore them in a workout while we were in China.
Did he give you any feedback on how it fit or, “Hey, good job.”
Yeah, yeah. Well, I only talked to him about the design, like I said, because they do fit very similar to one of his older shoes. And I mean, he loved the design. We were lifting. It’s like 7 a.m.. We were lifting and he would take the shoe and not give it back while he’s lifting. So I think he really liked it, so it was cool.
Was that tough to find a balance on that for you to be like, “Hey, this wants to perform, but I need it to look fly too?”
I think it definitely did because, especially the day and age that we’re in where everybody’s not just wearing basketball shoes like back in the day, people wearing basketball shoes with jeans. So it’s like, “Can you try to bridge that gap? How does that look?” And obviously we want to make a shoe that even an average basketball… if you’re not even an average basketball fan, you go to a store and you see the shoe, you would like it and just buy it. So that’s kind of what we’re trying to get to.
In today’s market, it feels like almost everyone’s shifted to that low-top basketball look. How did you feel you were able to make your shoe stand out when a lot of the shoes maybe look a little similar these days?
And that’s why I was like, “I want it to look like a running shoe a bit,” because I mean, right now, everybody’s wearing running shoes or dad shoes. Those are the biggest markets right now, and the strap was big for me because of what I liked in the past. But those were the two biggest things for me, just knowing that where we are and what kids and even adults are buying it right now. We wanted to get into that realm of things.
Do you remember when the Under Armour basketball shoes first came out and if you had any sort of memories of them, or what your perception was or when you first saw Steph’s shoes?
So I played for an AAU team that was Under Armour—sixth, seventh, eighth grade. So back then, it was like the Black Ices were first before the Bloodlines and then the Funks, the Jukes, and this was when it was Micro G. So I played in a lot of UA shoes when I was younger, for sure.
So did you feel a little nostalgic being assigned to the brand when going back to your AAU days?
Yeah, so whenever we actually had our first meeting, we were just talking and I told them I wore Under Armour before I was in high school because then I played EYBL, but I’m like, “I wore these shoes, these shoes, these shoes.” And they’re like, “Wow, I actually forgot about some of those shoes,” Since the beginning of UA basketball shoes, pretty much I was around, I was playing in them. So it’s definitely dope to have that type of history with a brand.
Is that anything you ever want to tap into maybe as a storyline for one of your shoes in the future?
Maybe. Honestly, I haven’t actually hadn’t thought about anything like that before, but I definitely think that would be cool because they came out last year with the Spawns, so those were Micro G at first and they came out with them, with the Flow, so I would be down to do it. And if they just wanted to retro some of them, I’d wear them even if it didn’t have my name on it.
Did you play in that one Under Armour shoe they had that was super high in the back?
Yeah, I believe those were the Charge BBs. One of my favorite shoes to play in were Kobe 9s with high top. Those reminded me of that. And I had a good amount of colorways in the Charge BBs, yeah, I played in them.
Have you thought of any colorways or anything or any storylines that you want to tell in general on the shoes?
So one of the colors that I have been wearing with the blue and orange and then we have another double, it’s like a green on green colorway that’s coming out are both a tribute to one of my favorite Christmas movies. And then we have a rain rose colorway coming out. So with the FloTro 1s, with Curry FloTro 1s, I had a rain rose colorway that was like a rose gold and then it had purple with the Kings and then it had Rain, my son, it had his name on the inside. So we’re doing the same type of thing with my shoe. And then we have one that’s my daughter, whose name is Poppy, with the poppy flowers and we have poppy flowers all over the shoe. Funny enough, I actually saw a video of it today for the first time and I think it’s going to come out well.
Did you get emotional at all when you saw that, given the connection to your family?
Not necessarily emotional, but I was like, “This is the dream come true,” to be honest.
Have any of your other teammates worn it?
No, not yet. I should get the rookies to wear them or something. Definitely don’t have a shoe deal. Need to get them on it.
And you said you don’t see as many people in the NBA wearing UA yet. Do you kind of feel like you need to be the torchbearer to make sure that people have a good perception of the brand?
I would definitely love to. And like I said, I think that’s how we can kind of help each other’s brands. I want to continue to help grow his brand. Obviously, Steph is Steph, Steph is who he is. But I would love to be able to help him in that department, especially with the younger crowd.
Read the full article here
