By Stu Woo

SINGAPORE -- Stephen Curry and LeBron James are at it again. This time, they are battling not for the NBA title, but for the tens of billions of dollars that Chinese shoppers are dropping on sneakers.

For the first time since the 2019 political showdown that hamstrung the National Basketball Association's aspirations in China, both of the league's biggest stars returned to the basketball-crazy nation to plug their shoe brands.

The stakes are huge: a growing Chinese sportswear market worth $60 billion annually, according to data-analytics company Euromonitor International, with footwear alone accounting for $33 billion.

But American companies have been ceding slices of that pie to up-and-coming Chinese rivals.

The return of basketball royalty to China is intended to reverse that trend.

On tour with Nike on Friday, James met hordes of adoring fans in Chengdu. Promoting Under Armour two weeks earlier, Curry received a red-carpet welcome in Chongqing, punctuated by an aerial show of 5,000 drones depicting the "Night Night" celebration that Curry does after a game-icing shot.

"The love has been real the whole way," Curry said. "I can't even explain it."

For two superstars hungry for another title, a jet-lag-inducing trip across the Pacific ahead of an 82-game season isn't ideal. But for years, it was an annual summer ritual.

James first visited China in 2005 and then returned to the country 13 times over the next 14 years.

Then came 2019. After Daryl Morey, then the general manager of the Houston Rockets, posted an image supporting antigovernment protesters in Hong Kong, Beijing banished the NBA from playing and broadcasting games.

That and the Covid pandemic kept the NBA and its stars away from China for years. Then the NBA said it would finally return to Chinese territory next month, holding two preseason games in Macau.

That made it easier for NBA stars to resume pitching sneakers to the Chinese. "It's the green light that says, OK, we can go back now," said Mark Dreyer, the Beijing-based author of "Sporting Superpower," about China's sports industry.

Curry and James are returning to a new landscape. Foreign sportswear companies are struggling against increasingly sophisticated domestic brands, led by Anta, which sponsors NBA players including Kyrie Irving and Klay Thompson.

Selling mostly in China, Anta increased its total revenue by 14% to $9.9 billion last year. In their latest fiscal years, Nike saw sales in its Greater China market fall 13% to $6.6 billion, while revenue in Under Armour's Asia-Pacific market dropped 14% to $755 million.

Germany's Adidas, which had Los Angeles Clippers guard James Harden tour China last month, bucked the trend. Sales in its Greater China market rose 8% to about $4.1 billion in 2024, after a few challenging years.

"Shaking hands and meeting people face-to-face, it's a strategy that's worked very well for decades," Dreyer said, "which is why LeBron and Steph have made so many trips to China over the years."

Write to Stu Woo at Stu.Woo@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 06, 2025 22:00 ET (02:00 GMT)

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