The Curry Brand has officially launched under the banner of Under Armour. And boy, they’re already making a splash (pun intended) pushing forward the boundaries of performance basketball kicks.
We spent a full week test driving the Curry 8 in the ‘Golden Flow’ colorway in indoor and outdoor court environments.
Check out how the Curry 8 stacks up!
FIT: 4/5
Majority of the uppers is made-up of a one-piece breathable engineered knit. It’s further reinforced by a synthetic piece of leather found on both the lateral and medial side of the kicks. Initially the fit felt long and narrow, specially around the toe box. But after a few minutes of wear, the fabric seems to have stretched over and conformed to the shape of our foot. A TPU heel counter, speed laces and a collar foam seems to be the main lockdown component. Knit uppers though, tend to stretch with overtime usage. At this point we’re not quite sure how long they will hold. During the test though, we felt no foot slippages or immediate concerns for ankle rolls. We strongly suggest going true to your size or going half to a full size-up if you have wide feet.
CUSHIONING: 5/5
One of the two shining elements of the Curry 8 is the UA FLOW Cushioning system. Much like the uppers, the sole set-up of the kicks is a single unisole foam. There are no mid or outsoles to be found here. The FLOW foam has been biometrically designed with the athlete’s foot in mind. And despite the new biometric design approach, we found it to be very stable with an immense court feel at the forefoot. The cushioning and bounce back is next level. Very responsive during landings and heel strikes. We felt little to no foot fatigues or joint pains during our two hour run with the Curry 8.
TRACTION: 5/5
The traction is amazing. The bite and grip of the UA FLOW Cushioning is next level. Since the traction runs all the way up to the mid part of the sole, push-offs and hesitation moves are a dream to pull-off. For all types of surfaces, we never once experienced slipping during stop and go situations. The ‘soft’ but durable traction seems to adapt to any kind of court surfaces. The only caveat we can think of since the traction is foam based, is how long they will last outdoors. We did notice some minor heel drags when we tried them on blacktop surfaces. Only time will tell how durable they really are.
LOOKS: 4/5
If you are into that whole minimalistic vibe, then these are definitely the kicks for you! Under Armour has pretty much done away with all the unnecessary aesthetic gimmicks found in most of today’s ball kicks and just gave us an absolute performance sneaker. When we first took them out of the box, we felt like they resembled modern day lifestyle runners. The kicks is also adorned with choc full of details about Steph Curry‘s life and journey to the NBA. But most noticeable is the new SC30 logo. We found it pretty dope, as it incorporates the ‘3’ hand sign when he makes a three-point shot, the number ’30’ and his initials ‘SC.’
OVERALL: 4.5/5
Coming in at $220 for men’s size, out of the box we found the UA CURRY 8 to be extremely light, not just for a basketball kicks but for a sneaker overall period. They come in at 12.1 oz in a men’s size 9. There were times during play we completely forgot we were wearing a sneaker. The breathable uppers efficiently wicks away the sweat and kept our feet cool all throughout the day. The addition of a foot plate is very much welcomed, as it provided more support and energy return with each of our stride. The cushioning and traction are the two main elements here that deserves heaps of praise. It took Under Armour 3 years to develop the FLOW FOAM and yes they delivered and more. We’re very excited where the legacy Curry Brand is headed and how Under Armour is going to further utilize and develop its FLOW FOAM.
Now available in preschool, grade school and Men’s sizing at Foot Locker Australia.
