Curry joins Li-Ning—who is waiting for the next Jordan?

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Li-Ning signs Curry.

This is a long-term exclusive partnership in which a Chinese sports brand has secured one of the NBA's top active superstars, making it the most important star asset bet in Li-Ning's basketball history since Dwyane Wade.

In the official announcement, Li-Ning did not refer to Curry as an ordinary "spokesperson," but emphasized his role as a "brand partner." This shows that Li-Ning's collaboration is not only with Stephen Curry himself, who holds global influence, but also with the emerging independent Curry Brand.

According to ESPN, the two sides have signed a ten-year contract, though the amount is undisclosed. The industry generally believes this will be one of the largest basketball shoe contracts in Chinese sports brand history.

Last November, Curry ended his twelve-year partnership with Under Armour. This four-time NBA champion and two-time regular season MVP entered the "sneaker free market," quickly becoming the target of major sports brands.

Nike and Anta were both among the competitors, but Nike had historical issues, while Anta already had resources like Irving and Thompson.

Li-Ning's victory may be attributed to the allocation of resources to Curry Brand and brand operation autonomy.

For Curry, who is already in the latter stage of his career, more than the contract amount, the core consideration behind this decision may be how to give Curry Brand greater room for growth.

According to Li-Ning’s announced plans, they will work with Curry and Curry Brand to promote global expansion.

In terms of products, the two sides will start with basketball and golf, expanding to various sports lifestyle scenarios;

In terms of channels, consumers will be able to purchase Curry Brand and related products through Li-Ning channels in the future. The two sides also plan to expand global online and offline channels, including opening independent Curry Brand stores in China and the U.S.

Standing at the start of Li-Ning's growth breakthrough cycle, this is undoubtedly a bold move.

Curry Brand’s Ambition

For Curry, who already holds four NBA championships, the most important question in the second half of his career may be how to allow his personal brand to continue to deliver value after retirement.

Li-Ning already has a successful precedent in turning a star’s personal IP into a long-term brand asset.

In 2012, Dwyane Wade left Nike’s Jordan Brand to join Li-Ning. That contract included equity rights and made him the Chief Brand Officer of Way of Wade, participating in product design and brand development.

Way of Wade grew from a signature shoe line into one of Li-Ning Basketball’s most iconic high-end personal IPs.

Even after Wade’s retirement, Way of Wade continued with product iterations, limited releases, and collaborations to maintain its influence.

Way of Wade series sale prices are mostly over a thousand yuan and still sit at the top of Li-Ning Basketball.

But Curry Brand is not another Way of Wade starting from scratch.

Before joining Li-Ning, it had already taken the first step from signature shoe to brand within the Under Armour ecosystem.

In 2020, Under Armour and Curry launched the sub-brand Curry Brand, often compared to Nike’s Air Jordan. Its official scope includes basketball and golf, with the potential for expansion into running, women’s products, etc.

But within Under Armour, Curry Brand never truly grew into an independent platform like Jordan Brand.

Until their split in 2025, Under Armour continued to lead supply chain, product development, and channel distribution for Curry Brand, and critics often targeted its lack of integration.

The problem was also that the two sides did not have entirely aligned goals.

From later disagreements, Curry’s team expected an independent, full-category sports and lifestyle brand like Jordan Brand; Under Armour’s positioning for Curry Brand was still more focused on professional basketball gear sub-brand.

As Under Armour shifted back to its strengths in training and football, basketball received relatively limited resource support.

Only towards the end of the partnership did Curry Brand start signing athletes, like De’Aaron Fox and MiLaysia Fulwiley.

But for Curry Brand, to truly move from signature shoe brand to platform brand, displaying space and sporadic signings are far from enough.

Jordan Brand is Jordan Brand because it retained its own signed athletes, product portfolio, channel system, and cultural symbols after Michael Jordan’s career ended.

These are exactly what Li-Ning tries to compensate for in this collaboration,

China and Asia are huge growth markets for Curry Brand. In September 2024, Curry Brand’s first global store opened in Chengdu.

Curry has a deep fan base in China, but previously Curry Brand lacked presence in channels, supply, and local operations.

Li-Ning has over 7,600 stores in Asia, providing Curry Brand with channel foundation and space for localized operations.

More crucially, ESPN reports that Curry will have the authority to sign athletes in the name of Curry Brand independently.

Thus, he can not only endorse his own shoes but use Curry Brand’s budget and resources to sign new stars in basketball, golf, or other sports.

If Curry Brand has its own roster of athletes, it no longer depends entirely on Curry’s ongoing career.

It can lengthen the brand’s life cycle through the next generation of athletes, gradually forming its own competitive assets, community culture, and product matrix, coming closer to Jordan Brand.

In the last twenty years, nearly every superstar has been expected to replicate Jordan Brand.

From Kobe, LeBron to Durant, while they have sizable signature shoe businesses, none have formed an independent brand platform attracting new athletes and consumers after their playing careers.

For Curry Brand, more autonomy is only the first step; whether it can cross this threshold remains to be seen over time.

Li-Ning Needs This Ticket

Greater imagination brings a longer realization cycle.

From Li-Ning’s perspective, the primary value of the Curry partnership is still basketball.

Over the past decade, Way of Wade helped Li-Ning build a high-end basketball shoe reputation, and product lines like “反伍” (Rebel) and professional basketball gave Li-Ning an almost complete product matrix in China’s basketball shoe market.

But after Wade retired, Li-Ning basketball needed a new super symbol.

According to Guosen Securities’ estimate based on Jiuqian data, in recent years, the share of Li-Ning basketball products in overall retail sales has continuously declined, dropping from near 30% to about 17% in 2025.

Comparatively, Li-Ning remains a leader in China’s online basketball shoe market, with a market share second only to Nike, but still declining from its peak.

Curry has a vast fan base, empowered by NBA championships, MVPs, and the era-defining three-point revolution.

Even though he's in the later stage of his career, he will remain one of the most impactful players globally for the next few years.

If Curry Brand's first products stand out in performance, design, and price, Li-Ning can not only fill the top star narrative left by Way of Wade, but also further strengthen its presence in the high-end basketball shoe market.

PuYin International analyst Lin Wenjia stated in a research report that the first quarter of 2026 saw basketball category revenues continue to decline year over year, but the drop narrowed compared to last year.

Lin Wenjia predicts that if Li-Ning quickly launches Curry series basketball shoes after signing Curry, basketball category revenue could surge in the second half of 2026 and reach stable year-over-year growth for the full year.

But long-term, the real incremental value will not be limited to China.

If it were only for the Chinese basketball market, Li-Ning would not need to pay a historic contract price for a Chinese sports brand.

More noteworthy than the basketball category itself is Curry's global influence.

In recent years, Li-Ning’s overseas business maintained high growth, with overseas retail income up 125.4% year over year, but overall volume is still limited, with only 1.4% from overseas revenue.

For Li-Ning, which is advancing globalization, Curry is not only an athlete but also a key ticket to the North American market, his appeal objectively enhances Li-Ning’s negotiating power with mainstream retail channels in North America.

From this perspective, Li-Ning gains not only Curry’s influence, but also a chance to reconnect with overseas channels, retailers, and consumers.

Li-Ning needs to truly solve problems with channels, supply, pricing, inventory, and local marketing.

Whether it's entering mainstream channels like Foot Locker or Dick’s, or first building brand presence through independent stores and online platforms; whether choosing direct investment or leveraging agents, neither will be easy.

The former means higher costs for local teams, channel construction, brand marketing, and inventory management; the latter has less investment pressure but weaker brand control and slower market feedback.

Thus, the Curry partnership is both an opportunity and a test of resources for Li-Ning.

The company has not disclosed Curry’s overall signing costs and contract arrangement, so short-term financial impacts are hard to measure precisely. But the investment will clearly go beyond endorsement fees, extending into product R&D, athlete signings, independent stores, and global promotion.

Currently, Li-Ning continues to ramp up marketing and brand building, including cooperating with the Chinese Olympic Committee and signing multiple domestic and international sports stars.

Meanwhile, the company is optimizing channel structure, closing 59 inefficient self-operated stores in 2025 to improve profit margins.

Li-Ning’s main goal for 2026 is high single-digit revenue growth and maintaining a high single-digit net profit margin. This means that, based on 3.2% revenue growth in 2025, the company still expects a new round of growth recovery.

For Curry, this is a key window for shaping his commercial landscape for the next ten or twenty years before retirement.

For Li-Ning, it's an attempt to exchange heavy investment for a global brand leap.

The success of this partnership will not depend on how many pairs of the first Curry shoes are sold, but whether Curry Brand can truly grow into a brand platform that transcends the single star’s career, and whether Li-Ning can use this opportunity to open new spaces in the global market.

Curry’s joining brings attention to Li-Ning and provides new leverage for entering overseas markets.

But moving from star traffic to global business, from signature shoes to brand platform, is still a long and costly road.

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