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Dad Shoe Deals created Dad Shoe Debates to help settle the biggest debates about dad shoes. We pose questions like “Was the Steph Curry Dad Shoe Really That Bad?” to readers. We also aim to provide well-thought-out answers after considering both sides.
Up for Debate
- The Under Armour Curry 2 Low “Chef,” sometimes called the Steph Curry dad shoe, was introduced in June 2016.
- Social media users ridiculed the “Chef” sneaker from the start, with many calling it a dad shoe and criticizing its uninspired design.
- On the 10th anniversary of the sneaker’s release, we ask the question, “Was Steph Curry’s dad shoe really that bad?” and set out to answer it honestly.
Setting the Stage for the 2016 Release of the Steph Curry Dad Shoe
Steph Curry was sitting pretty back on June 9, 2016.
His Golden State Warriors — fresh off finishing the regular season 73-9, the best record in NBA history — were up 2-1 against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in their best-of-7 2016 NBA Finals series. The defending NBA champions were on the verge of becoming the first back-to-back title winners since LeBron and the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013.
Individually, Curry was coming off a career year. He shot 50% from the field during the regular season, averaging over 30 points per game and breaking the single-season record for most three-pointers ever made with 402. He also joined the illustrious 50-40-90 club that season. Curry even sank one of the most incredible game-winning shots of all time during a primetime contest against the Oklahoma City Thunder — from the logo and in overtime, no less.
All of this was en route to Curry winning his second straight NBA MVP award and becoming the first and only unanimous MVP ever.
Life wasn’t perfect for Curry on that day. He had only averaged about 16 points through the first three Finals games, and his Warriors had just suffered a disappointing 120-90 loss to the Cavaliers in Game 3. But looking back now, it had to be close.
Despite their Game 3 loss, oddsmakers still had the Warriors as -500 favorites to win their second straight NBA title. That number would grow to -2500 the next day after “Chef” Curry finally started cooking with gas in the series. He scored 38 points in Game 4 to lead Golden State to a commanding 3-1 series lead.
His red-hot rivalry with LeBron was suddenly simmering over — and Curry was showing the world that he could handle the heat that came along with going toe-to-toe with one of the best basketball players to ever lace up a pair of sneakers.
Unfortunately, the emotions that Curry was likely experiencing at that time didn’t last long. They began to fizzle out shortly after Under Armor chose to play with fire and ride Curry’s ever-growing wave of success by introducing a new shoe the brand designed for him.
Analyzing the Introduction of the Under Armour Curry 2 Low “Chef”
Under Armour wasn’t the first sneaker brand to release a new version of one of its superstar’s signature shoes during the NBA Finals. It also wouldn’t be the last.
A big part of the reason why brands like Under Armour pay Curry and other stars tens of millions of dollars annually is so that they can hitch their wagons to these athletes when they’re playing on the biggest stages and get as many eyes on their products as possible.
With this in mind, it wasn’t surprising at all to see Under Armour try to take advantage of the fact that Curry was back in the NBA Finals in 2016 by choosing to roll out a newly designed sneaker for him. It also wasn’t shocking to see that this sneaker would be a low-top version of the successful Under Armour Curry 2, which was launched in October 2024.
Still, few people expected Under Armour to go in the direction it ultimately did. At some point over the weekend of June 4 and 5, Foot Locker unveiled an image of the now-infamous Under Armour Curry 2 Low “Chef” in a since-deleted Facebook post.
The white shoe was surrounded by vegetables, cutting boards, and other culinary accouterments. The photo played up the “Chef Curry” nickname that Drake used on his 2014 hit song, “0 to 100/The Catch-Up.”
Interestingly, the response to this photo was not exactly swift. Based on the dates, it probably first appeared online just before Game 2. But it didn’t start making noise online until June 9, the day following Game 3.
However, once social media and, more specifically, NBA Twitter got hold of the initial images of the Curry 2 Low “Chef,” the shoe quickly took on a life of its own. It was a sign of bad things to come for Curry and the Warriors.
Watching the Social Media Backlash Surrounding the Steph Curry Dad Shoe
Under almost any other circumstances, it’s tough to imagine the Under Armour Curry 2 Low “Chef” generating much buzz anywhere outside of sneaker blogs. It boasted a relatively basic design with straightforward UA and Curry branding. It was done up mostly in white, with small gray and black accents.
The Steph Curry dad shoe might as well have had “nothing to write home about!” written all over it. NBA fans didn’t seem likely to take much interest.
But looking back now, this was a different time on NBA Twitter. Fans were searching for any tiny morsel of NBA Finals-related content they could nibble on in between Warriors/Cavaliers games. So once someone uncovered images of the Curry 2 Low “Chef,” NBA fans wasted no time cooking, roasting, and burning the dad shoe-esque sneaker on social media.
The consensus was that the “Chef” sneaker was a rare miss from Curry. Even worse, some NBA fans were quick to toss it into the dad shoe category. And since popular dad sneakers, such as the Adidas Yeezy Boost 700 “Wave Runner,” hadn’t yet jump-started the dad shoe craze, this was just about the worst place for Curry’s sneaker to land.
The backlash to the Steph Curry dad sneaker looked like this:
Analyzing the Fallout From the Release of the Under Armour Curry 2 Low “Chef”
The Under Armour Curry 2 Low “Chef” is far from the first thing to be “mercilessly mocked” by NBA Twitter. In fact, Steph Curry himself is no stranger to the slanderous treatment often dished out on this side of Twitter. He has caught heat for everything from missing wide-open layups to “pulling a Chris Webber.”
Over the years, Curry has been the butt of so many jokes on Twitter (now known as X) that we have a difficult time keeping up with them all. Even so, this felt different.
After jokes about the “Chef” sneaker began making the rounds on social media, late-night hosts like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel started paying attention. They eventually took their own shots at Curry’s much-maligned dad shoe, shining an even larger spotlight on it:
To Curry’s credit, he took all the criticism in stride. He admitted to seeing some of the off-the-wall jokes that emerged on social media and liking them. “I love the nicknames they came up with,” he said.
He also suggested that, if the Warriors weren’t in Cleveland for Game 4 of the NBA Finals, he would have broken out his “Chef” sneakers and worn them proudly. “If I had them in the road bag, I would have definitely worn them and showed you how fire they are,” Curry said.
Under Armour ended up laughing all the way to the bank. Ad Age reported that the “Chef” sneaker sold “pretty well” when it hit stores shortly after.
Curry, meanwhile, had no choice but to continue trying to make the most of a bad situation. He stepped out in the Curry 2 Low “Chef” shoes for a Warriors’ practice on June 12 once the Warriors got back to the Bay Area. He also said he wasn’t phased by the blowback directed at the sneaker.
Months later, Curry even revealed that he wanted to suit up for a 2016 NBA Finals game in the “Chef” sneakers. That is, until Golden State general manager Bob Myers convinced him not to, citing concerns about his past ankle issues.
But the damage was already done. Strong sales and Curry’s positive attitude weren’t enough to lift the stain that his dad shoe left on his sneaker legacy, seemingly overnight.
Tweets like this doomed it from the beginning:
Taking a Fresh Look at the Steph Curry Dad Shoe, 10 Years Later
Steph Curry is a much different player — and person — today than he was back on June 9, 2016.
Since the release of his Under Armour dad shoe and the Warriors’ subsequent collapse against the Cavaliers — Cleveland won the 2016 NBA Finals in seven games, becoming the first team in Finals history to win a series after going down 3-1 — Curry has won three more NBA titles. He has also passed Ray Allen on the NBA’s all-time three-point leaders list. Plus, he was named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.
Much has also changed for him from a sneaker perspective. He was on just his second Under Armour signature shoe in 2016, and the Steph Curry dad sneaker failed to derail what would be an incredible run with UA.
Curry went on to release 13 UA signature sneakers. He even resurrected the “Chef” sneaker at one point in an attempt to undo one of his few major missteps with the brand:
More recently, Curry cut ties with Under Armour in late 2025. He spent about six months exploring sneaker free agency, then signed a monumental deal with Chinese sportswear brand Li-Ning:
But amazingly, despite all Curry’s accomplishments on and off the court, the Under Armour Curry 2 Low “Chef” still gets brought up — a full decade later!
The ruthless jokes accusing Curry of being a dorky dad, and the never-ending memes that picked up the torch from the fading Crying Jordan meme and ran with it in 2016, have (mostly) died down.
But if you pay close enough attention, you’ll see the Steph Curry dad sneaker periodically mentioned on social media, often for all the wrong reasons:
This alone must highlight just how bad a sneaker the UA Curry 2 Low “Chef” was, right?
Maybe.
Or, maybe it actually proves the “Chef” sneaker was never as bad as everyone made it out to be.
Any time someone brings up the Steph Curry dad shoe, I’m immediately reminded of an article that sneaker expert Russ Bengtson (buy his 2023 book, A History of Basketball in Fifteen Sneakers!) wrote a day after photos of Curry’s universally panned shoe started circulating online. It was called “Steph Curry’s White Sneakers Aren’t Awful.”
I remember initially thinking how funny it was for Russ to compliment something by calling it “not awful.” I also remember Russ mentioning that he already had a pair of the “Chefs” in his post before linking to a photo of him wearing them on Instagram (that is how to flex, kids!).
But mostly, I remember a few lines from the middle of his piece that resonated with me. I thought they effectively encapsulated what seemed to happen after Under Armour first showcased the Curry 2 Low “Chef”.
Russ wrote:
I’m not sure whether everyone so gleefully roasting [the Curry 2 Low “Chef”] hated them. Can you bully a shoe? Is that possible? Because that’s what it felt like. It felt like high school, in the worst possible sense.
The Steph Curry dad shoe may have been boring. It may have been bland. It may have even been a bit beneath a player of Curry’s caliber — a sneaker that was too unassuming for its own good, struggling to match the moxie of a player who was literally on the verge of, you know, making NBA history.
But bad? We’ve certainly seen worse.
Take a look at other Dad Shoe Debates here. We also invite you to check out the latest dad shoe deals on our Dad Shoe Discounts page and to discover more about dad shoes by grabbing a seat for a Dad Shoe 101 class.
The 10 Best Under Armour x Steph Curry Sneakers on Sale Right Now
Steph Curry might not be running with Under Armour anymore. However, that hasn’t stopped UA from continuing to push Curry-related products.
The shoe brand won’t release any more new Curry signature sneakers — the last one, the Under Armour Curry 13, hit stores in February 2026 — but it still has quite a few past Curry sneaker releases available on its website, in its Amazon store, and in other places that sell shoes.
Are you interested in buying the best sneakers from the Under Armour x Steph Curry collection before they’re all gone? Here are 10 currently on sale worth considering:
- Under Armour Curry 3z Suede “Red/White/Black,” $70 (retails for $85)
- Under Armour Curry 12 EXTL “Green/Black/Green,” $99 (retails for $108)
- Under Armour Curry 3Z 24 “White/Black,” $56 (retails for $73)
- Under Armour Unisex Curry 12 Team “White/Red,” $84 (retails for $95)
- Under Armour Curry Slipspeed “White/Black/Red,” $112 (retails for $125)
- Under Armour Curry Fire “Black/Teal,” $70 (retails for $130)
- Under Armour Curry Flow 9 Team “Black/White,” $135 (retails for $160)
- Under Armour Lockdown 7 “Black/Black/Metallic Gold,” $47 (retails for $70)
- Under Armour Curry 1 Lux Low “Pink/Blue,” $60 (retails for $85)
- Under Armour Curry 2 Low Flotro “Black/Teal,” $70 (retails for $130)