Damn Under Armour … back at it again with the gag-inducing designs.
That was my first thought when I saw the Curry 2 Luxe, Under Armour’s first real attempt at a lifestyle shoe design. I’ll admit: at first, it makes sense. The most popular player in the NBA, fresh off another MVP season (yeah, he lost in the finals, but his star is still shining brightly … ask any kid on your block) gets a lifestyle shoe that his fans can rock off the court. Doesn’t sound like a terrible idea, right?
However, there’s one small problem: the shoes are horrendously ugly.
Making lifestyle versions of new performance signature shoes isn’t really dope anymore anyway (the KD 6 Floral was the last decent pair), but these are just flat-out bad. The Curry 2 isn’t a great-looking shoe to begin with (we’ve heard it’s great on the court but these are for the streets, so that’s pretty much irrelevant), and these lifestyle colorways don’t do it any favors. Premium leather with a gum sole? Nope. All-suede upper? Nope. It doesn’t matter how limited these are, they’re not fly at all.
Maybe it’s just Curry himself. He plays with a cocky swagger on the court, but off the court he’s got all the steez of a bootcut jean-wearing 40 year old suburban dad (google “Stephen Curry Express” if you don’t believe us), so his on-court performance just flat-out isn’t translatable to off-court lifestyle products.
Under Armour is a performance brand. They make some of the best performance gear on the market. Athletes from all over the world swear by their product. They’ve got a solid amount of market share. They should continue to compete in the performance realm, because with releases like this they sure aren’t going to be chipping into the lifestyle market. The initial limited run sold out? So what. Short-term hype doesn’t last.
Here’s hoping that UA puts this lifestyle nonsense on the backburner, and continues to work on their performance product. It’s what they do best anyway.
What do you think of the Curry 2 Luxe? Do you think they’re as horrible as we do, or do you actually like them for some reason? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter, check our Facebook page for daily updates, and, as always, be sure to follow us on Instagram for all the fire sneaker pictures you can handle.
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