Warriors G Stephen Curry insisted to his team at Under Armour that he "wanted to debut his Curry 4 shoe" on Thursday night for Game 1 of the NBA Finals, and timelines were "pushed up to make it happen," according to Darren Rovell of ESPN.com. The shoe, which has a knit upper, as well as pieces of leather and suede, was "generally well received on Twitter, surely a welcome change for Under Armour executives and Curry himself." Sources close to Curry said that he "took criticism of his Curry 3 shoe very personally, which led to his intense focus on the Curry 4." UA Global Basketball VP & GM Ryan Drew "wouldn't disclose the exact date" that the Curry 4s will hit this fall, nor would he "say what the price would be" (ESPN.com, 6/2). SI.com's Jeremy Woo notes Curry "appears to have largely avoided the meme critics of the internet with this stealthy debut" (SI.com, 6/2). The East Bay Times' Marcus Thompson II tweeted, "I asked Curry about his high leg kick. He respond with a nod to the Curry 4s he debuted. 'My shoes are light.'" Former NFLer Chad Johnson: "Curry's shoes are dope." 247Sports Dir of Creative Services Ted Hyman: "Gonna say that I think the Steph Curry 4 shoes look good before Twitter tells me how I’m supposed to think" (TWITTER.com, 6/2). Meanwhile, in Portland, Matthew Kish noted Cavaliers F Kevin Love wore his "new Nike logo for the first time Thursday night." The logo includes the Oregonian icon Douglas Fir tree as well as Love's initials (BIZJOURNALS.com, 6/1).
BODY OF WORK: In S.F., Ron Leuty noted sports drink BodyArmor, which sponsors Warriors G Klay Thompson, in April "started a national ad strategy with its first national TV buy." It now is "focusing on individual players as part of its 'Obsession Is Natural' campaign, including commercials on NBC Sports Bay Area, which carries Warriors games during the regular season and has expanded coverage during the NBA Finals." BodyArmor VP/Marketing Michael Fedele said that the company "won't have any commercials during the actual NBA Finals broadcasts on ABC." It did, however, "run commercials in earlier rounds of the playoffs and its current digital campaign zeroes in on sports news websites such as ESPN.com and Bleacher Report." A commercial with Thompson, "who has an equity stake," was "released Tuesday." Earlier in the playoffs, BodyArmor "bought a digital billboard outside Oracle Arena" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 6/1).
