NBA star Steph Curry has responded to a letter he received from a nine-year-old fan from California wanting to know why his Under Armour’s Curry 5 shoes are not made for girls.
Riley Morrison and her father Chris were looking for Curry’s latest shoes on the Under Armour website under the girls section. The search brought up zero results.
- Is Australia Sexist? premieres on December 4 on SBS at 8:40PM
“My dad and I visited the Under Armour website and were disappointed to see that there were no Curry 5’s for sale under the girls section,” she wrote in her letter to the two-time NBA MVP. “However, they did have them for sale under the boys section, even to customize. I know you support girl athletes because you have two daughters and you host an all girls’ basketball camp.”
Curry has responded to the open letter, promising to correct the error. “I want to make sure you can wear my kicks proudly—so I am going to send you a pair of Curry 5’s now, and you’ll be one of the first kids to get the Curry 6,” he wrote, before adding, "We have something special in the works for International Women’s Day on March 8th, and I want you to celebrate with me!”
While Curry swiftly went into damage control, it's not the first time women have lamented the lack of female sport shoes. Earlier this month, players in the Australia women's cricket team spoke out about not having gender-specific footwear, where some batters were adding spikes to their runners and others couldn't find a men's cricket shoe that was small enough for their feet.
"[Bowlers] buy a men's shoe in a smaller size and some of them aren't small enough," the team's physiotherapist Kate Mahoney told the Herald Sun. "Then they wear three pairs of socks to make it fit, so we're getting all of these foot and ankle injuries."
It seems like a no-brainer that sports shoes should be made for both men and women. Not just from a physiological level, but it opens up another market, so it's good financial sense.
Curry kept his word, and now the Curry 5s are listed in the girls’ section of the Under Armour website. It’s a timely reminder that girls love sports too, and want the footwear to go with it. As nine-year old Riley wrote to Curry, “I hope you can work with Under Armour to change this because girls want to rock the Curry 5’s too.”
Norwegian drama 'Home Ground' follows football coach Helena Mikkelsen as she heads up a male professional team. Watch the series on SBS On Demand.
