Shoe Wars: Kevin Durant Shoppers More Loyal Than Steph Curry Buyers

It’s been several months since superstar basketball player and former MVP Kevin Durant sent shockwaves through the NBA world by announcing he was leaving the team that drafted him — for whom he had only ever played in free agency — to sign with rival Golden State Warriors.

Durant’s decision to abandon the Oklahoma City Thunder also set up the odd dynamic of establishing two of the NBA’s most popular and marketable players — Durant and two-time reigning NBA MVP Steph Curry — on the same team in the same market at roughly the pinnacle of their respective NBA careers.

It was as though Muhammed Ali decided that, rather than having all those legendary boxing matches against Joe Frazier, the two would team up together instead.

And the move was even more curious from a retailer’s perspective because Durant and Curry were arguably two of the largest stars for competing athletic apparel companies, Nike and Under Armour, respectively, now sharing the same court and uniform and collective goal of bringing another NBA championship to the Bay Area.

Although it might not hold too much significance, it’s still fun to compare the online shopping habits of consumers who buy Nike’s Kevin Durant products over Steph Curry’s Under Armour gear, and vice versa, and that’s what new checkout tracking data from The NPD Group does.

The data suggests that online buyers of Kevin Durant apparel are more loyal to his and Nike’s brands and products based on share of wallet than Steph Curry’s buyers are to his Under Armour gear.

Durant shoppers give 37 percent of their online shoe wallet to Nike, compared with only 1 percent to Under Armour (although Under Armour is more known for its sports apparel than footwear). In fact, Durant buyers make more of their online shoe purchases from the Nike store and Zappos than respective Curry buyers.

Interestingly enough, Curry shoe buyers make 27 percent of their online shoe purchases from the Nike store, and 17 percent from the Under Armour store online, suggesting that even those online shoppers who prefer Steph Curry’s products over Kevin Durant’s still use the Nike store more.

But Curry buyers also give more of their online wallet to the Under Armour store and Finish Line than Durant’s online shoppers.

Steph Curry buyers also seem more diversified in their purchasing habits than Kevin Durant online shoppers. Curry shoppers gave about one-quarter of their online spend to both Under Armour and Nike, while Kevin Durant buyers spent about half of their entire online shoe wallet on Nike products.

Both Steph Curry and Kevin Durant shoppers are more likely to be higher-income shoppers making more than $100,000 a year and most likely in the 35–44 age demographic, although this may be more the case that it’s parents buying these shoes and athletic gear for their children than Durant’s or Curry’s appeal to the Gen-X demographic.

Nike occupies a much larger share of the sports apparel market, although Under Armour has been slowly chipping away at that dynamic for the past several years, thanks to the appeal of athletes like Curry or pro golfer Jordan Spieth who endorse apparel for them.

Although, it should be interesting to see how Durant’s shift to a larger market and higher visibility in the Bay Area will translate to sales of his Nike apparel.

According to data that The NPD Group released in early July when Durant initially signed his contract with Golden State, his products currently account for less than 1 percent of Nike’s overall total sales, so even a change in dynamics and visibility — and maybe even an NBA championship — might not be enough to push Durant into the same stratosphere as Michael Jordan or LeBron James’ products.

“Even a major change in Durant’s sales will have a negligible impact on Nike’s total results,” Matt Powell, an NPD Group vice president who analyzes the sports industry, wrote in a July 8 report. “At [Under Armour], it is not footwear but apparel that is by far the largest part of their total business. Basketball is only a portion of UA’s smaller footwear business. Curry is a larger part of the total UA business than Durant is of Nike, but not a critical part by any means.”