Under Armor Scores Big

Chances are, you’ve heard of Steph Curry. He’s one of the greatest basketball players around, a proud husband, father to two girls and a baby boy, and quite active on social media.

A few weeks back, a young female fan named Riley reached out to Steph after having issues finding his new Under Armor Curry 5s in the girls section. The heartfelt letter, in which Riley addressed that she knew Steph was an advocate for girls in sports, went viral. (We know where this is going, right?)

Steph took the opportunity to tweet back a reply to Riley, and promised that he would “fix the issue” and sent her her own pair of shoes. He even shared an opportunity for Riley to join him on International Women’s Day on March 8th.

From everyone’s perspective, this is a win-win-win situation.

Riley gets her shoes, and the opportunity to meet one of her sporting heroes. Plus, she acts as a great role model for young girls: sticking up and voicing your opinion is a great idea!

Steph is able to spread goodwill and seem like a great, charismatic athlete, adding to his appeal and adding to his likability.

Under Armour gets away with this feel-good story, and potentially, more sales, because the viral story clearly talks about one of their products.

To me, this is just about as good as it could get in the world of advertising. Companies try so hard to make us feel good by making campaigns or commercials that touch our hearts. But what’s more real than a true, ‘unscripted’ story? While I’m sure Steph was instructed by Under Armor to reply the way he did, but it truly shows how much of an impact social media interactions, the role of a strong, well-respected celebrity, and a bit of goodwill have. This could have easily been swept under the carpet or not picked up, but luckily for all involved, it was.

If you’re curious, Under Armour DID end up changing their website to better categorize the shoes. It really is such a feel good story that made me tear up a bit (I was the young female athlete growing up and I played non-traditional sports, so equality in fashion or gear was a big issue) Between the media coverage of the followup, this is sure to lead to a lot more foot traffic…and, hey, I’m sure those feet will be wearing some Curry 5s.