From Forrest Gump to Mr. Rogers, the original release of the “Chef Curry” 2s was pure comedy on social media. Stephen Curry & Under Armour decided to have fun with the re-release this time around.
Signature sneaker unveils are often a carefully crafted moment, with the hopes of driving conversation and interest online with potential fans and sneakerheads alike. As Stephen Curry found out in 2016, being on the wrong side of viral is never ideal.
“It was pretty entertaining back then,” Curry, who can now laugh at the ordeal, said.
In between Games 3 and 4 of the 2016 NBA Finals – an all-time matchup between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers – Curry’s second signature model was unveiled in all white, a summer-ready, low-top look.
Let’s just say the 48 hours that followed for the “Chef Curry” 2s became the stuff of legends on Twitter. The jokes were endless, with everyone from Forrest Gump and Mr. Rogers making cameos, to instant classic one-liners taking over the shoe name.
“With how viral all of the memes and stuff were, you gotta have fun with it,” said Curry.
Heading into April Fool’s Day, he of the newly-inked potential lifetime Under Armour contract and his Curry Brand will be re-releasing the infamous “Chef Curry” themed sneakers, with a twist.
The design has thankfully been updated, with the Curry 2 featuring more modernized materials, a much sleeker look, and the brand’s “Flotro” performance lens, now incorporating its high-tech Flow technology for cushioning and grip.
“If you rock it now, it’s an ode to the past, but the performance is even way better,” he said.
The toe features a charred look, a nod to the original getting relentlessly roasted on Twitter.
“I actually have the shoe on right now,” he told Boardroom over the phone. “It’s hilarious, just looking at it. It’s a great opportunity to acknowledge how far we’ve come since the Chef Curry 2 shoe.”
All season long, Curry Brand has looked to storytelling around some of the biggest sneaker moments during the Warriors star’s 10 years with Under Armour. The April Fools’ launch day served as a lane to lean in on one of the admittedly less-loved moments.
“The fact that that was the second Finals, we all know how that played out,” he added. “Bringing the concept back, [we wanted to] add the charred toe and the flames, after I had added the ‘Straight fire’ in my own handwriting in the middle of the Finals.”
Later that fall, at Warriors media day, Curry poked fun again at the Chef Curry phenomenon from earlier in the summer. He pulled up in an all-white Curry 3 Low, an exclusive edition made just for him that was never released.
“If you check the pictures from there, I wore a special edition colorway of the 3s, that was a little subtle jab back,” he said. “The evolution of the line is what we are all about.”
With the new Flotro edition in store this spring, the series has evolved, and in Curry’s eyes, elevated from that brutal stretch of Twitter’s wrath in 2016.
“It’s dope to know that we’re that far removed from it, too,” he said. “It was seven years ago, which is crazy. It was an opportunity we had, from a storytelling perspective, to acknowledge how far we’ve come.”
As much as he may like the new edition more, he still immediately laughs when thinking back to the circus of the original “Chef Curry” sneaker, and of course, has a personal favorite meme.
“The Life Alert lady, that was on the ground next to the bed,” he said, without hesitating. “They photoshopped the shoes on her, and that was phenomenal. The Life Alert 2s!”
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