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A huge problem plaguing Nike just hit Under Armour

When it comes to sales, it looks like basketball apparel and shoes are no longer the MVP.

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Sales of the Curry 3 — the newest shoe in Under Armour's much-lauded collaboration with basketball superstar Steph Curry — are already looking questionable, indicating that some of the trouble Nike is experiencing with basketball shoes has made its way to UA.

Under Armour Curry 3
The Under Armour Curry 3. Facebook/Under Armour

Unlike the Curry 1 and Curry 2, the 3 is off to a slow start, according to Foot Locker CEO Dick Johnson.

"The 3.0 is fairly new into the business — it started off a bit slower than the two previous models," Johnson said in a conference call discussing the latest earnings report.

Though Under Armour has been experiencing stellar growth in its newly expanded shoe collection — up 42% last quarter year over year — it seems that a star athlete sponsorship and good product are not enough to stem the tides of trends turning sharply away from performance basketball footwear.

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Looking at the tea leaves, UA may have expected this. Nike's basketball category — what most consider a core business for the swoosh, it accounts for roughly 5% of Nike's total sales — was down 1% in wholesale sales for fiscal year 2016.

In the current trend now — retro and lifestyle running — performance basketball is being left behind.  

"We're very much in a retro fashion cycle today," NPD Group analyst Matt Powell told Marketplace. "Millennials are really flocking to wearing old-school looks."

While Nike's Jordan brand, which experienced growth, may seem like an exception to this rule, on closer inspection it is anything but. Jordan wholesale sales grew 18% in 2016 when compared to 2015, but nearly half of Jordan sales — both sneakers and apparel — can be attributed to their retro lifestyle-oriented sneakers, according to Powell.

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Adidas, now the number-two sneaker seller in the US, is affected less than Nike and Under Armour by this trend, as basketball accounts for a smaller figure of their overall sneaker sales. But even then, the company admits that "basketball grew at a slower rate," according to the latest earnings report.

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