Funny how Steph Curry is the first NBA athlete you associate with Under Armour, and yet he was not the first one to land a deal. Despite no All-Star appearances, no Championships, or MVP titles to his name, it was Brandon Jennings who impressed the brand first. But here’s something even more surprising: some things were of more importance to Jennnigs than the brand deal.
Before Curry ever signed with Under Armour, Jennings had already broken ground by securing a $2 million deal with the brand. He struck the $2 million Under Armour deal as a teenager in Lottomatica Roma, Italy, before he ever set foot in an NBA arena. As revealed in an interview with DJ VLAD, aside from the brand deal, Jennings also landed a $1.65 million contract for his overseas stint. He recently looked back on this pivotal time in his life during the interview, and his perspective was refreshingly honest.
“I didn’t know money. So it wasn’t nothing. I was just happy that my family was in a better position than we were thinking about a month ago… I was able to take my mom and brother overseas with me the whole year,” Jennings shared. He also reminisced about his very first national ad campaign, also with Under Armour, which aired throughout the historic Coliseum.
Jennings earned more than cash—he logged crucial Euroleague minutes. He even got to face off against players like former Pacers guard Travis Best, Nuggets’ Earl Boykins, and even a young Ricky Rubio, who later played for the Timberwolves. Jennings’ visibility rose enough that he even landed on the cover of SLAM magazine alongside these names. On top of that, he got to explore seven different countries, his brother attended school in Italy, and life seemed to be offering some rich experiences.
Despite the bonuses, Jennings told agent Bill Duffy, “Yo, listen man, I need a trainer. I need to do 2A days, 3A days. Cause I’m not playing. And you know, yeah, I gotta get outta here in 10 months,’” he recalled during the interview. Fortunately, Under Armour would most likely have been fully supportive of this goal, given their previous expectations, so there was no friction there.
To rewind it a bit, long before his Euroleague stint, Jennings had already shaken things up in the basketball world. Instead of heading to college or waiting around for the NBA draft, he took an unconventional route—signing with a European team and inking a shoe deal in the process. At Oak Hill Academy, Brandon Jennings had been a scoring machine, averaging a whopping 35.5 points per game in his senior year. It was that elite performance that earned him the deal to wear Under Armour basketball shoes as he joined Italy’s Pallacanestro Virtus Roma. He was not only the brand’s first basketball endorser but also a trendsetter in every sense.
A picture of Brandon Jennings
His three‑year Virtus Roma deal included annual NBA escape clauses. As Under Armour’s then-senior vice president of brand, Steve Battista, put it in 2008, “The endgame is for Brandon to make it the NBA and be the impact player that everyone is predicting that he’ll be.” That endgame came to life shortly after. Jennings averaged 7.6 points per game during the 2008–09 Euroleague season and finally made the leap to the NBA with the Milwaukee Bucks. The Under Armour, from this point, would take around 4 more years to sign Stephen Curry in 2013.
Stephen Curry and Brandon Jennings have once collaborated for Under Armour
In 2023, Curry and Jennings co‑created a 4‑drop sneaker series under Jennings’ TUFF CROWD and Curry Brand imprints. The sneaker lineup featured wearable silhouettes that came in a mix of red, black, and bone colorways — a palette that balanced boldness with versatility. This wasn’t just a fashion-forward move; it was a powerful statement about unity and creativity between two former competitors.
Reflecting on the collab, Curry once shared, “It is such a full circle moment to be able to collab on what he’s been doing with Tuff Crowd and trying to infiltrate the market with amazing product and gear and storytelling. Now he’s putting his fingerprint on the Curry brand, which is dope. We gotta lotta cool stuff coming.”
The line included the Curry 11 TUFF CROWD, Spawn FloTro, Curry Flow Cozy, and Alpha 2.0 Slide—each rendered in black, bone, and red colorways with signature TUFF CROWD embroidery and a barbed‑wire Curry Splash logo. Beyond footwear, the drop included loungewear, sliders, tote bags, hats, beanies, and socks, all infused with TUFF CROWD’s signature dark hues and Curry Brand branding. The Curry Flow Cozy, Curry Brand’s first foray into lifestyle silhouettes, combined street‑ready comfort with performance details—an unprecedented move for the label
Beyond footwear, the line signaled unity—two Under Armour trailblazers bridging eras.
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