Stephen Curry’s dedication to his craft and mastering the three-point shot has revolutionised the sport of basketball as we know it. Much of the inspiration he has needed to get to this point in his career has come from others, both inside and outside of the basketball space.
One of those individuals is pop culture icon, Hollywood actor, and martial artist Bruce Lee who, like Stephen, redefined his respective industry in the martial arts and film space. Stemming from Stephen’s admiration for Bruce Lee, Curry Brand is launching a collection in partnership with the Bruce Lee Family Companies paying homage to Bruce Lee’s life and work.
This collaboration has been in the works for nearly a year and a half and honours the 50th anniversaries of both Bruce Lee’s death and the release of his critically acclaimed film, “Enter the Dragon.”
“Stephen is a master at his craft and embodies our shared values of becoming the best version of oneself through athleticism, focus and determination. We are pleased to share part of Bruce Lee’s history and artwork with Curry Brand as they aim to change the game for good.” said Dennis Chang, Managing Partner of the Bruce Lee Family Companies.
The Bruce Lee-inspired designs come in three iterations, the Curry 11 ‘Fire’, Curry 11 ‘Future Dragon’, and Curry 11 ‘Wind’. The collection will culminate on Stephen’s birthday, March 14, with an exclusive drop – details to follow in early 2024.
When designing the colorways, Stephen and the Curry Brand team embraced colours associated with the four elements of matter – wind, water, earth and fire. In the design process, the Curry Brand team went far beyond just celebrating Bruce Lee’s movies to find parallels between Stephen and Bruce Lee’s lives and careers.
The design team was influenced by Bruce Lee’s famous one-inch punch and the magic of Stephen’s shooting and gameplay. Both are weapons in their own right and symbolise the incredible amount of courage and discipline it takes to not only chase dreams but overcome injury and social adversity and rise to greatness.
The Bruce Lee Family Companies also granted Curry Brand special permission to utilise Bruce Lee’s artwork throughout each design. Many fans do not know that Bruce Lee was an artist, so Stephen and Curry Brand wanted to spotlight his talents outside of martial arts with carefully crafted designs honouring his artwork, much of which was taken directly from Bruce Lee’s doodles on movie scripts.
The design team cleaned the images from the debris of the scripts and preserved the gestures of the sketches and even the grain of the paper. These sketches can be seen on a couple of colorways in addition to the tissue paper that comes with every pair of shoes in the collection.
In addition to the artwork, each of the shoes features hidden easter eggs that honour Bruce Lee and his historic career.
The ‘Fire’ Curry 11 has clear gel reptilian print to represent the dragon, and the ‘Future Dragon’ Curry 11 features a black and metallic silver shattered glass design that nods to one of the most famous scenes in ‘Enter the Dragon,’ where Bruce symbolically shatters the illusions and defeats the enemy.
The lenticular tongue top also features both Bruce Lee and Stephen’s respective logos, uniting the two entities to celebrate their shared values. Stephen and Bruce Lee share many synergies, which is what ultimately led to this collaboration.
Beyond them both being experts in their crafts, both were born in the Year of The Dragon and have strong ties to the Oakland community – the home of the Golden State Warriors for many years and the birthplace of Jeet Kune Do, which was created by Bruce Lee.
Over the years, Stephen has been heavily influenced by Bruce Lee’s fluid movement in combat and his mentality to overcome odds and doubts, and this collection provides the perfect opportunity to honour the impact he has made on Stephen’s game. But this collaboration is not the first time that Stephen and the team have honoured Bruce Lee – the Curry Flow 8 featured the quote, “Flow Like Water,” when Curry Brand first introduced UA Flow technology in 2020, which took inspiration from Bruce Lee’s famed “Be like water” quote.
“We are fortunate to have the opportunity to celebrate Bruce Lee and everything he has done in the martial arts and film space. Stephen has a tremendous amount of respect for Bruce Lee and his impact on pop culture,” said Steven Seagers, Director of Sports Marketing, Curry Brand.
“Once we knew we were going to recognize Bruce Lee with a collaboration, we quickly realised that one shoe would not be enough. Thanks to ample inspiration from Bruce Lee’s teachings, beliefs, and artwork, we developed a one-of-a-kind collection that even includes a special nod to one of his iconic movie scenes, complemented by Curry Brand’s performance-driven technology. We know this will be a collector’s favourite and look forward to fans getting a piece of both Stephen and Bruce Lee’s legacies," said Steven Seagers, Director of Sports Marketing, Curry Brand.
The Curry 11 Bruce Lee collection is currently priced at RM 699 and will be available in all three colorways at Under Armour KLCC, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, Sunway Pyramid, 1 Utama and Queensbay Mall Penang Brand Houses, as well as at Hoops Station nationwide and on Under Armour’s official e-commerce platform!
