Basketball star Steph Curry of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors has announced Chinese footwear brand Li-Ning as his new shoe partner, finally replacing his previous long-time sponsor, Under Armour.
This deal will span the next 10 years, with Curry immediately becoming the marquee brand ambassador for Li-Ning.
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Curry had been without an official shoe partner since the end of his agreement with Under Armour in November 2025.
Under Armour's deal with Curry had lasted for 13 years before the two parted ways, with the sportswear heavyweight restructuring and pivoting away from its focus on Curry’s identity.
The pair will collaborate on athleisure wear, lifestyle products, accessories, golf products (Curry is an avid golfer) and, of course, basketball shoes.
Through the website of his personal brand [simply Curry Brand], the Warriors star revealed that the pair are already planning to establish Curry-brand physical shops in China and the US.
Curry said: “Curry Brand will now have an expanded runway of resources and a global footprint to bring new best-in-class innovations and amazing products to people around the world. Just as importantly, Curry Brand will be able to impactfully reach the next generation of athletes and provide access and experiences that will continue to change the game for good.”
With this agreement, Curry Brand will maintain the freedom to sign athletes to its portfolio, who may then also collaborate on Li-Ning shoes.
Founded by the Olympic athlete of the same name back in 1990, Li-Ning has evolved into one of Asia’s leading footwear brands.
The GlobalData Apparel Country Snapshot: China report revealed that Li-Ning sits below only Nike and fellow domestic brand ANTA (partnered with Curry's former teammate Klay Thompson) in terms of market share in China across 2024 and 2025, boasting 1.7% market share in the latter year.
That report stated: “Li-Ning occupies the upper-mid to premium pricing tier, targeting fashion-forward young urban consumers. As a family sports retailer, its identity revolves around basketball and lifestyle trainers, which it often releases in limited drops.
Li-Ning offers similar products to Nike but at a lower price point, making the brand more of an option to price-sensitive Chinese consumers.
The brand boasts over 7,600 physical locations across China and Asia at large, and with Curry, the firm could also soon have a genuine chance of gaining brand cache in the US.
While the agreement may come as a shock to consumers used to stars signing for major U sand European brands such as Nike, Adidas, and, to a lesser extent, Under Armour and Puma, Li-Ning has also expanded its presence in the basketball space in recent years and, with the might of the lucrative Chinese market behind it, is seeking to rival the more embedded US institutions for market share across both sides of the Pacific now.
Indeed, Curry is not the only prominent name attached to Li-Ning, which also holds shoe rights for two-time basketball Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade, as well as prominent active players Jimmy Butler (Curry’s teammate on the Warriors, CJ McCollum (Atlanta Hawks), and D’Angelo Russell (Washington Wizards).
Basketball, and the NBA in particular, is massively popular in China, perhaps its most prominent international market, and the league has staged a number of games in the territory.
The most recent of these came in 2025, ahead of the current 2025-26 campaign, when the Phoenix Suns and Brooklyn Nets contested a pair of fixtures across October 10 and 12 in Macau as part of a multi-year agreement with Sands China, the Macau branch of resort giant Las Vegas Sands.
Later in 2026, the league will return to Macau once again, with the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks also playing a pair of games against each other on October 9 and 11.
Curry himself has played in China four times, participating in pre-season games against the LA Lakers in 2013 and the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2017, and besides that has also embarked on a number of personal tours of the country, an endeavor that has firmly established him as one of the most popular athletes in the market.
Although the 38-year-old veteran is approaching the end of his career, he remains one of the league’s top stars, and indeed his scoring exploits helped the team achieve dynastic on-court success, catapulting the Warriors to record valuations.
