Under Armour declines over Steph Curry shoe fears

Under Armour Inc. shares fell more than 5 percent over concerns that the company’s latest Stephen Curry basketball sneaker, part of an ambitious push into footwear, isn’t selling well.

Foot Locker, the world’s biggest sneaker chain, said on Friday that the new generation of the Curry shoe — dubbed 3.0 — hasn’t performed as well as earlier ones.

“The 3.0 is fairly new into the business — it started off a bit slower than the two previous models,” Foot Locker Chief Executive Officer Dick Johnson said on conference call. “But again, it’s early days.”

Under Armour is counting on footwear to help fuel its next wave of growth, and Curry — a National Basketball Association star who plays for the Golden State Warriors — is central to those efforts. But the Baltimore-based company faces mounting competition in the category from Nike Inc. and a reinvigorated Adidas AG.

Shares of Under Armour fell as much as 5.4 percent to $30.55 in New York trading, marking the biggest intraday decline since Oct. 25. The stock was already down 22 percent this year, hurt by concerns about a sales slowdown.

Under Armour delivered a disappointing long-term forecast last month, sayingit expects revenue to increase in the low 20 percent range during 2017 and 2018. That would be the worst performance since 2009, the year the last U.S. recession ended.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Turner in New York at nturner7@bloomberg.net.