Under Armour’s Curry 4 ‘Parade’ colorway looks like it might run on batteries

Steph Curry debuted Under Armour’s latest iteration of the Curry 4, dubbed the “Parade,” during Golden State’s championship celebration in Oakland on Thursday.

It wouldn’t exactly be news to say that Under Armour has received almost nothing but laughs with each release of the Steph Curry shoe. The mockery began with the famously bad Curry 2 and hasn’t stopped since.

Which is fair, because those “Air Dads” or “Air Nurses” or whatever you want to call them were so plain and nondescript, they all but begged for some memorable internet roasting. [A nice collection of said roasting can be found right here.]

From there, Under Armour’s creative team faced a lofty challenge in that no matter what they offered up next, it was most certainly going to be destroyed on social media.

And while social media shouldn’t be the measuring stick by any means — the Curry 2 ended up selling well — no one wants their new product relentlessly crapped on.

Which brings us to the latest Curry 4 colorway, dubbed* the “Parade” for obvious reasons that I shouldn’t need to explain.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVYBFIBBxP0/

Let’s start with the positives for a change.

Absolutely love the icy blue outsole, the black knitted upper, and the exorbitant use of gold as a nod to, what else, winning the whole damn thing.

Now, for the problems. One of which continues to drive me insane about any and all Steph Curry sneakers:

That “SC” lockup is way, WAY too BIG.

Under Armour has used this in the past, either in the manner we see here or near the toe box. In both cases, it’s horrendous.

If UA insists on using the “SC” lockup, it needs to move to the tongue for a cleaner, uninterrupted look on the side.

And that’s mostly because the “SC” makes it look like a freakin’ SportsCenter shoe.

The other issue is the gold button on the ankle that looks like an actual button. A non-working, non-pumpable, useless button.

This reeks of a classic, clock-ticking “not sure how to finish this area off here, so let’s just make it a button so we can overnight these things to Steph ASAP.”

As for the early reactions, they’ve been surprisingly positive.

https://twitter.com/A11iD0isW1n_/status/875708593546424320

Take a bow, Twitter. My oh my how you’ve grown.

Nonetheless, if just a couple of key adjustments were made, we suddenly have by far the best Steph Curry sneaker Under Armour has ever produced.

Next: Adidas x Kanye West collaboration: The YEEZY POWERPHASE

It’s not clear when the Curry 4 “Parade” will be available for purchase, but according to Hot New Hip Hop, the shoe is rumored to debut in October.

*See what I did there? I said “dubbed” and they’re the Dubs. Get it? No? FINE.