How Stephen Curry's series of ankle injuries changed the basketball shoe market

Stephen Curry. The baby-faced assassin, best three point shooter ever, the pest to guard on defense- we all know who he is. We know that he helped change the game of basketball as we know it, as he helped to popularize the three-point shot, and showed the near-limitless possibilities that it brought. But he also changed the game in a different way: he changed the modern basketball shoe market, due to his ankle injuries early in his career.

Stephen Curry was drafted by the Golden State Warriors with the 7th overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft. Immediately after being drafted, he made an impact on the Warriors. In the first 31 games of his career, here are his stats:

• Points per game: 17.5

• Assists per game: 5.9

• Rebounds per game: 4.5

• Steals per game: 1.9

• Blocks per game: 0.2

• Field goal percentage: 46.2%

• Three-point percentage: 43.7%

• Free throw percentage: 88.5%

• Minutes per game: 36.2

This is all as a rookie. Essentially, he was a freaking baller in the first 31 games of his rookie season. Everything was going in his favor, and it seemed like nothing could stop him. In fact, it felt as if Stephen Curry could stop Stephen Curry.

Oh, how the turns tabled (that's a reference to the office for my uncultured readers out there).

On January 5th, 2010, during a regular season game, Stephen Curry suffered a bad ankle injury. And while he only missed 8 games out of his rookie campaign due to the injury, it set off a chain of ankle sprains that never seemed to go away and concern over his young career. After his initial ankle sprain, he suffered two more, with the second coming on November 8th, 2010, and the third sprain coming on March 11th, 2012. Combined, Curry missed 27 games over this time span, which was 12.37% of all NBA games during that time period. And while this doesn't seem like a lot, for a rookie, it most definitely is. The first couple of years in the NBA are crucial for players, as that is when they develop the most and get adjusted to the game the best. Even if you miss a couple of months, it still can set your development back. Not only that, but Curry's play style back then was (and still is) a shifty one. That play style heavily depended on ankle mobility, and with him suffering repeated sprained ankles, many feared his play style could be ruined, or worse, his career could be screwed over.

Now, as we know today, Curry bounced back from those early strings of ankle sprains, and he's now one of the best to ever play the game. But why did he get hurt? Among other things, like strength in the ankles, there was a primary culprit: his shoes.

When sustaining these injuries, Curry wore low-top shoes. Low-top shoes are more favorable for shifty point guards, like Curry, because they allow for quick cuts and shifty movements that define their game. The problem? They had very little to no ankle support, so the risk of a hurt ankle with these shoes was higher than normal. Right?

Wrong.

Studies have shown that there is very little to no difference in rates of ankle sprains between low-top, mid-top, and high-top basketball shoes. So why am I mentioning the fact that Curry wore low-tops during his original stretch of ankle sprains? Because I wanted to show the thought process on low-top shoes that shaped the basketball shoe market. Because of the rise of Curry as a player, low-tops became, by far, the most dominant style of basketball shoe, with its popularity peaking in 2015. After 2015, however, people went back to the past and connected the dots: Curry wore low-top basketball shoes and he suffered more ankle sprains. Then, after his third sprain on March 11th, 2012, he wore mid and high-top shoes, and he didn't suffer as many ankle sprains. People connected the two, and eventually, low-top shoes fell from their throne and crashed back down to Earth. In fact, as of the writing of this article, here is the breakdown of basketball shoe top type for all sales of basketball shoes in 2022:

• High-tops: 59.5%

• Mid-tops: 32.1%

• Low-tops: 8.4%

Now, were people right in their thinking process? Not really, because even though there seemed to be a connection between low-tops and higher rates of ankle sprains, as I said earlier, there is no connection. But nevertheless, people made up their minds that there was a connection, and as a result, it changed the basketball shoe market and made high-tops the dominant basketball shoe type.

Along with this, something else also changed: traction on basketball shoes. You see, the sprains were actually the result of Curry's shoes having bad traction, which caused him to slip and move his ankle in awkward positions, causing the sprains. As a result of this, Under Armor, the shoe company that sponsored Curry, focused on their upcoming model of Curry shoes to have better traction. While in the process of doing this, they created a shoe that will forever be remembered for its impact on basketball shoes: the Curry Ones. These shoes were the first to use a multi-directional herringbone traction pattern (look up what herringbone traction pattern is if you don't know). This traction pattern, despite being introduced all the way back in 2015, is still the most commonly used traction pattern today. While it's evolved since then, multi-directional herringbone traction is one of the best, if not the best, traction patterns for a basketball shoe because it gives a pretty good grip on all surfaces, whether it be wood, concrete, etc.

Curry definitely did change the game of basketball: popularized the three-point shot, made it possible for a point guard to be the primary scorer, etc. But he also changed the game, in the form of its shoes, through brutal ankle sprains that put his career in jeopardy early on. Curry's injuries made it so that high-top shoes were dominant in basketball, and his injuries also brought traction technology to the advanced level it is today. That's how he changed the basketball shoe market, perhaps forever.