Stephen Curry Opens Up on Sneaker Industry and Creative Community

On a chilly San Francisco night in late February, the world's biggest sneaker free agent browsed through a room full of custom basketball shoes. Only Stephen Curry was not interested in his own footwear legacy. Instead, Curry was focused on building a community of creatives and elevating new sneaker designers.

Rakuten, the leading shopping destination for Cash Back and rewards, partnered with CANVVS, a specialized marketplace and community platform dedicated to custom sneakers, to host the "Art Of The Game" Custom Sneaker competition. A contest designed to elevate underrepresented voices and celebrate the creators redefining modern sneaker culture.

Curry poured over each shoe with the same attention to detail that helped him win four NBA Championships with the Golden State Warriors. Alongside fellow judges Taboo, Katty Customs, and Dan Gamache, they selected the winning shoe, the Flotro CurrDoodle, by creator Arthur Nash.

Arthur Nash poses with his custom shoes at the Rakuten x CANVVS "Art Of The Game" Custom Sneaker Competition. — Arthur Nash at the Rakuten x CANVVS "Art Of The Game" Custom Sneaker Competition. | Thos Robinson / Getty Images for Rakuten

Nash received a $10,000 prize, underscoring Rakuten and CANVVS' commitment to championing creativity, culture, and community through sport and design. The winning design is now exclusively available to Rakuten members to shop and earn 10% Cash Back on their purchase.

This initiative builds on Rakuten and Curry's long-term partnership to spotlight and invest in emerging designers, creating tangible opportunities for underrepresented creatives to gain visibility, credibility, and support on a global stage.

Curry could not speak on his sneaker free agency or brand partnerships. However, he spoke with Sports Illustrated's Kicks On SI at length about the state of the footwear industry, his personal preferences, and how social media discourse influences sneakers.

Stephen Curry poses for a picture at a custom sneaker competition. — The Rakuten x CANVVS "Art Of The Game" Custom Sneaker Competition. | Thos Robinson / Getty Images for Rakuten

How much fun was it to give your feedback as a judge?

It was fun. It was a lot harder than I thought, because once you got down to the finalists and you got to hear their stories, seeing a shoe on the wall is one thing; evoking an emotion out of you without anybody walking you through each part of the shoe is great.

But then, once you actually see the designer, the creator, talk about what went into it, the inspiration behind it, made it extremely difficult. And we had a tough decision, even though we really couldn't make a bad or wrong decision, because they were all great, so it was fun.

What kind of judge were you? Nice or mean?

(Laughs) I was definitely on the nice side. I did have a couple of pointed follow-up questions on some of the choices or materials, color blocking, and stuff like that. But the professionals, Mache (Dan Gamache) and Katty, that's what they do on a daily basis. So I let the professionals do most of the digging.

Stephen Curry speaks at a sneaker competition panel. — Dan Gamache, Katty Customs, Arthur Nash, and Stephen Curry. | Thos Robinson / Getty Images for Rakuten

How important is it to give an opportunity like this to a designer?

Yeah, there's only one winner and six finalists, but there were thousands of submissions. But the idea that we had people from not only just in the States, but internationally, taking advantage of the opportunity, the moment, to put their design out there, and this is a new community that they've created now amongst each other.

And it's also a platform with CANVVS and Rakuten in that I feel like is meaningful to do exactly what you said, change the course of somebody's career. But also bring like modern people together that can continue to influence an industry that there's space for creators just like each and every one of them.

Stephen Curry looks at a shoe at the Rakuten x CANVVS "Art Of The Game" Custom Sneaker Competition. — Stephen Curry at the Rakuten x CANVVS "Art Of The Game" Custom Sneaker Competition. | Thos Robinson / Getty Images for Rakuten

How important is storytelling in a colorway to you?

The story is extremely important. I know it can go both ways, where the moment creates a story with a particular shoe that you're wearing, but then also, there's inspiring, impactful, meaningful stories that can inspire the design of a shoe. And it can be done in a lot of different ways.

Like, it could be kind of on the nose with text or pictures or images of something that you're calling out. But it could also be something that's a little bit more disguised or a little bit more vague when it comes to just color choices or the essence of a shoe.

There was a shoe down there called "Bay Area Nights." It was like a San Francisco sunset, but it was the essence of it. It didn't actually say it on there or have a direct callout. So a lot of different ways would go about it, but that was the cool part of it.

I got wrapped up in going down the aisle and looking at each pair of shoes and really trying to find all the Easter eggs in there, too. And understand why they made certain choices to bring those stories to life. So, you can obsess over it because there's so much detail that can go into a pair of Curry 1 Lows.

Stephen Curry holds a custom Under Armour basketball shoe. — Stephen Curry at the Rakuten x CANVVS "Art Of The Game" Custom Sneaker Competition. | Thos Robinson / Getty Images for Rakuten

If you could only wear one color of a shoe for the rest of your NBA career, what color would it be?

Oohh... It would be some shade of blue. Navy is my favorite color, so, yeah.

How do you think sneaker culture compares in 2026 to when you were growing up?

I mean, there are way more signature athletes and signature models out there. There are a couple more up-and-coming brands that are trying to be disruptive. I was a part of one for a long time.

And I think just in general, there's just more creative energy going into not just on court-performance, off-court, lifestyle shoes, and I think it's a more informed consumer and fan now that obsesses over the details, really cares about what goes into a shoe...

Smaller communities around up-and-coming designers. So, it's a lot easier to be independent and create your own lane now. So, I think it's healthy, and it's a good time to be in this industry.

Sneakers on the wall at the Rakuten x CANVVS "Art Of The Game" Custom Sneaker Competition. — The Rakuten x CANVVS "Art Of The Game" Custom Sneaker Competition. | Thos Robinson / Getty Images for Rakuten

How closely do you follow sneaker discourse on social media?

A decent amount, but I don't necessarily obsess over it. I know it's not the best place to get good or true feedback, because there's a little bit of a follower syndrome there. You know, you see a picture of a shoe, or somebody drops something, and whether they have like undying support or whatever the case is, there's a little bit of that when somebody says something about it, everybody follows it.

But I do feel like it's still a great place to create that conversation where you're dropping new heat, or there's a launch of a shoe or whatever the case is, or even concept shoes that you want to get a feel for what a first reaction might be. But, yeah, I'd say I follow enough to be informed, but not enough to where I obsess over it.

Shoes at the Rakuten x CANVVS "Art Of The Game" Custom Sneaker Competition. — The Rakuten x CANVVS "Art Of The Game" Custom Sneaker Competition. | Thos Robinson / Getty Images for Rakuten

Last question: If you were competing in this event, what kind of colorway would you design?

I would have done a design around Oracle Arena. I would have brought in the lattice roof. I would have used colors that were indicative of a little bit of the Warriors and the A's. Kind of a mismatch that spoke to the two teams that represented that place for such a long time.

Maybe even a little Raiders Black in there. And then I would have had some type of gold treatment on it to symbolize the three championships that we won while we were playing over there.