Stephen Curry does not mince words when it comes to feedback on sneaker design. Sometimes he doesn’t even use words.
Early in the development of Curry’s latest signature model, Under Armour senior footwear designer Ed Wallace presented him with a page of options showing what the sneaker could look like. Wallace handed Curry the mock-ups and an orange Sharpie. Curry went to work drawing Xs through the ones he didn’t like and using a smiley face to show his approval.
“It was only one smiley face on the page,” Wallace says, “so I knew that I was going down that path.”
The two stay in contact through the design process, trading ideas back and forth. Wallace shoots over progress reports, Curry marks them up with his notes.
“He’ll send me text messages every once in a while with updated pictures of the samples,” Curry says. “Like, ‘This is what we’re working on.’ Just so I’m up to speed.”
Out of conversations like those comes Curry’s latest signature model, the Curry 12. The shoe hasn’t been fully rolled out yet, but it’s been around. Curry wore the sneaker while winning Olympic gold with his heroics in Paris in August, and Under Armour did a limited drop of two USA-colored versions that month. Under Armour also did a small release of the ‘Curry Tour’ colorway.
The Curry 12 will launch first in the ‘Gravity’ colorway, on Oct. 18. Via Under Armour
The Curry 12, retailing for $140, will have its proper launch globally on Friday, Oct. 18, via the light grey “Gravity” colorway, which represents the way Curry attracts attention and defenders on the court. Other upcoming colorways have similarly spacey themes—there is the dark matter “Wardell Mode” one (release date Nov. 8) and the snowy white “Shooting Star” (release date Nov. 22). Also on the way are the fiery red “Supernova” Curry 12 and the alien green “Extraterrestrial” (Under Armour hasn’t confirmed release dates for either).
Regardless of what Curry does in the shoe this coming season, his Curry 12 already has its place in history after his Olympic performance. It’s a shoe he’ll always associate with the long summer of 2024, when the Golden State Warriors missed the playoffs and he spent his downtime doing countless hours of reps at a high school gym in Paolo Alto to stay sharp.
“We missed the playoffs, so we had those two awkward months where we were watching playoff basketball, missing out, getting motivated to get back to my work,” Curry says.
He’d worn the sneakers before then, occasionally breaking them out at practices during the NBA season. Then he pulled up to Las Vegas for USAB practice wearing the patriotic white and blue Curry 12s. Then he donned them during Team USA’s campaign in Paris.
Curry was instrumental in the United States’ win in the Olympic final against France. With time dwindling in the tight game, he sank shots that would feel improbable for anyone else.
Curry wore the Curry 12 during the Olympics in Paris this summer. Via Getty
“In reps, you shoot those shots all the time,” Curry says. “It don’t really matter what the stage is, I’ve got ultimate confidence and faith in myself.”
He plans to put the Curry 12s he wore at the Olympics this summer away as a memento.
“I got my gold medal pair now,” Curry says. “I’m gonna keep that one for myself and have something to look back on as a major, core memory.”
He can conjure memories from the eras of his NBA career and recall the phases in sneaker terms. There was his first meeting with Under Armour, before he signed with the brand in 2013, at a Ritz Carlton in downtown Charlotte, where he became acquainted with the Spawn model he would wear that season. There were the ClutchFits after that, then his first signature shoe in 2015.
Curry says that a turning point in his sneaker history was when Under Armour introduced him to its Flow cushioning, which the brand bills as a super grippy material that replaces a traditional rubber outsole.
“The first time I encountered Flow, it was at a gym in Walnut Creek,” Curry says. “They had all the innovation team come out, this was 2020. They put the Flow on some upper—the original [Curry] 4, but it was the Flow bottom.”
He took to it immediately. Curry says a Flow outsole gives him an edge on traction, which is essential for his style of play. He calls Flow the silent assassin—the shoes don’t squeak in the way rubber basketball shoes do, meaning his foot isn’t sliding as much.
“That little margin of separation, it matters,” Curry says.
The Curry 12 ‘Wardell Mode’ launches Nov. 8. Via Under Armour
The Curry 12 ‘Shooting Star’ launches Nov. 22. Via Under Armour
Flow has been used in Curry’s shoes since his eighth model, which debuted in December 2020. The Curry 12 uses dual-density Flow underfoot, with a softer foam on top of a harder bottom foam.
“In order to get the performance that Stephen needs in terms of that court feel, we generally went a little bit harder with it so he feels the responsiveness from it,” Wallace says.
While Under Armour touts all the techy details on the Curry 12—fragmented Pebax plate in the forefoot, engineered mesh on the upper, a molded foam package in the tongue, less layers for a lighter overall weight—the goal was to simplify the visual appearance of the shoe. Wallace aimed for a strong, bold look that departed from the busier visuals of the Curry 11.
“I wanted to pivot from that and create a cleaner look and aesthetic,” the designer says.
Curry’s is not the only signature shoe under Wallace’s purview. Under Armour gave Curry his own sub brand at the company in 2020, and there’s a sneaker coming for Curry Brand signee and Sacramento Kings guard De’Aaron Fox. Wallace designed the Fox 1.
The designer teased a bit of what to expect at a Curry 12 preview event in New York in September, saying that the Fox asked for a low-top, runner-esque silhouette with a strap. Under Armour kept the shoe under wraps quite literally at that event, teasing media with a shrouded pedestal labeled “Fox 1,” but full photos of the shoe emerged later that month via Slam.
Even before he signed with Under Armour, when he was a sneaker free agent in 2023, Fox wore Curry’s sneakers. Curry would clock Fox’s footwear in pre-game shootarounds and even switched his shoes on one occasion after realizing they were wearing the same pair.
“I’d come out and look down the court and see what color kicks he had on, because sometimes he was wearing stuff even before I would debut them on the court,” Curry says.
The Curry 12 ‘Supernova.’ Via Under Armour
The Curry 12 ‘Extraterrestrial.’ Via Under Armour
By the way, Curry doesn’t believe in not wearing someone’s shoes to play against them.
“To me that was dumb,” Curry says. “Because it’s like, either you’re gonna beat them or not. And the sign of respect is, ‘I’mma beat you in your own shoes.’”
Fox, whose Sacramento Kings bounced the Warriors from the postseason in April, has never been afraid to use Curry’s shoes against him.
The idea for Curry Brand at Under Armour is that it won’t always just be about basketball. Curry wants his label to branch into other sports. And he wants it to be truly global. He won’t name potential signees, but there’s obvious opportunity in golf, given Curry’s obsession with and investment in the sport.
“There’s ample opportunity and territory to take for Curry Brand,” he says.
He’s not putting any limits on the territory part, either.
“We want to be everywhere,” Curry says.
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