Most NBA players pick a brand and stay there. A handful don’t. Some are between deals, some are shopping for one, and some just like to try everything. We went through every player’s tracked games from the 2025-26 season and found the ten who switched brands the most, measured by how little of the season their main brand covered. Nike and Jordan count as one brand here, since Jordan is part of Nike.
The biggest story, by a mile, was Stephen Curry. After 12 years with Under Armour, Steph went into the season with no shoe deal for the first time in his career and turned his feet into a weekly audition. Kobe Protros one night, a Sabrina 3 the next, then Li-Ning’s Way of Wade 12 and Anta’s KAI 3. In June the search ended: Curry signed with Li-Ning on a 10-year deal reported at more than $400 million.
He had company. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope came off his 361° deal mid-season and slid straight into Ja Morant’s Nike Ja 3. Patrick Williams wore Air Jordans for ten games, then the New Balance P400 for ten more. And Taurean Prince, who invested in the young brand Crossover Culture, finished the year in Kobes.
Call the switch
Think you know where these players ended up? Each row below is one player’s last 20 tracked games, one tile per game, coloured by brand. We show you every game up to his first switch. Pick the brand you think he moved to and the rest of his run appears, with the story behind it. Ten players, ten calls.
Call the switch
Each tile is one game, oldest first, coloured by brand. We show you every game up to the switch. Pick the brand he moved to, and the rest of his run appears.
What it means
Brand-hopping used to mean a player was out of favour. Now it often means the opposite: a player with leverage, testing the market in public. The Chinese brands are the clearest winners. Anta and Li-Ning show up again and again in these runs, and Curry’s move to Li-Ning is the biggest deal a Chinese brand has ever signed with an NBA star.
Every player here has a page on Baller Shoes DB where you can see the shoes they wear now and the store links to buy them. Follow along through the season and we’ll keep the list current.