👟 Nike vs Stephen Curry: One of the worst business pitch meetings ever ⛹🏻‍♂ (#57)

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The Golden State Warriors select Curry with the 7th pick in the NBA Draft. Curry just wrapped up a 3-year career at Davidson College, where he wore Nike shoes.

He also had a family connection to the company: his Godfather worked at Nike.

Before his rookie season, Curry signed a modest 4-year deal with Nike (no signature shoe).

The decision was par for the course.

By the end of Curry's deal, 3/4 of NBA players were signed to Nike brands and the shoe giant accounted for >95% of consumer basketball sneaker market.

In the last year of his deal (2012-13), Curry was on the verge of stardom.

He set a record for 3s in one year (272). And led the Warriors to the playoffs for the first time since he joined the team.

During a legendary 54pt game vs. the Knicks, he wore a pair of Nike HyperFuse.

Despite the growing success, Curry was not a priority for Nike.

The shoe giant places stars into tiers and "Tier 1" NBA stars look, understandably, like superhuman athletes (Lebron, KD, Kobe).

Curry (6'3, 185lbs) does not "look" like a traditional Tier 1 star (>6'6, >210lbs).

One way Nike expresses commitment to young NBA stars is by giving them Nike-branded basketball camps.

Curry wanted one ever since attending a Chris Paul Camp. But Nike showed lukewarm interest in Curry by giving camps to his peers (Kyrie Irving aka Uncle Drew, Anthony Davis).

The contract renegotiation took place in August 2013.

Nike met with Curry's camp (including dad and former NBA player, Dell) above the Warriors' practice facility in Oakland.

1st red flag: instead of sending a senior exec, Nike was repped by a lower level marketing director.

The next sleight was worse.

A Nike executive guffed one word, but it is the most important word: he called Curry "Steph-ON" (it is "Steph-EN").

Curry's dad said,

"I heard some people pronounce his name wrong before. I wasn’t surprised. I was surprised that I didn’t get a correction"

And here's the kicker: Nike gave a powerpoint presentation that still had Kevin Durant's name on it (people, please proofread your decks).

The meeting was pointless from there.

Curry's dad says he "stopped paying attention" after the Durant snafu but kept a "poker face".

In the end, Nike offered Curry a $2.5m deal.

Even though the meeting was a total dumpster fire, Nike was still in the game.

Why?

Nike had matching rights, which meant it could match any other endorsement offer that Curry received.

And there was another one: Under Armour.

Under Armour — built around football — was expanding into basketball.

It needed Curry and had an in.

Enter Kent Bazemore, who joined the Warriors as an undrafted rookie in the 2012-13 season. Bazemore was an NBA small-fry but he hustled a product deal with Under Armour (UA).

From the Bazemore connection, UA developed a relationship with Curry.

By the time of Nike's meeting, UA prepped an offer for Curry at $4m (with a signature shoe). With matching rights, Nike only had to add $1.5m to its original $2.5m offer.

Nike didn't and the rest is history.

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Curry renewed his deal with Under Armour and received equity in the apparel company.

Since then, he's won 2 MVPs and been in 6 NBA Finals (he won 3 and is playing for the 4th vs. Boston).

Curry has had a top-selling shoe and launched the lifestyle "Curry Brand" in 2020.

In 2016, Bazemore went on the Dan Le Batard Show to explain his recruiting efforts:

Since Curry joined, Under Amour ($8B to $5B) has actually underperformed Nike ($65B to $185B).

And looking back, you can rationalize some of Nike’s recruiting decisions. But that renegotiation pitch meeting was comically bad and likely costed Nike a generational talent.

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