Steph Curry has dropped his long term partnership with Under Armour to sign with a Chinese rival. The basketball superstar has inked a deal with Anta, a Beijing based firm that has been aggressively targeting Western athletes. The switch, worth an estimated $1 billion, is a massive blow to American sportswear but it also sends a shiver down the spine of British sport.
It is a symptom of a wider sickness: wage stagnation and the hollowing out of our industrial base. For years middle class families in the North have watched as decently paid manufacturing jobs shift East. Now the same forces are shaking the celebrity endorsement market.
The money on offer from Chinese conglomerates dwarfs what traditional Western brands can pay. This is not just about basketball. It is about the price of bread.
When a global icon like Curry chases the highest bidder it mirrors the plight of the British worker whose wages have flatlined since the financial crisis. The reality is that while the Premier League and the FA have cosied up to petrodollar sponsors, they have ignored the gradual erosion of value in our own economy. The Government’s levelling up agenda promised to spread wealth beyond London.
But if a Chinese sneaker firm can outbid an American giant for a superstar endorsement you have to ask: what is left for the rest of us? The unions have warned for years that relying on cheap foreign labour and offshoring production would leave us exposed. Curry’s move is the sporting equivalent of a factory closure.
It is a sign that in the global race for wages and prestige Britain is falling behind.
