LINEUP
1. Headlines of the week 🗞️
2. Stephen Curry Leaves Under Armour?!? 🤯

3. Most Valuable Platform: New Feature 👀
4. A&A Exclusive 🤺

5. Company of the Week: Ammortal

NEWS

🚨Headlines of the Week🚨

1. Goldman Sachs to become majority stakeholder of Excel Sports Management

2. VestGen targets sports world with new wealth platform for athletes
3. New Parity data illustrates power of Gen Z spending in women’s sports
4. Charles Leclerc Launches New Apparel Line, CL16
5. From Pro Athlete to Power Broker. Here’s Donnie McGrath’s Playbook for Winning in Business.

MAJOR MOVEMENT

Stephen Curry is Over Under Armour

It’s been one week since Stephen Curry became a free agent. Don’t freak out, Warriors fans — he’s not leaving Golden State.

But last Thursday, the greatest shooter on the planet abruptly ended his 13-year run with Under Armour, a partnership that helped turn the Curry name into a global brand. The move marks a clean break between Curry Brand and its former parent company, giving him full ownership and control moving forward.

It’s hard to overstate how big this is. Under Armour projects its global basketball business post-Curry to generate $100 to $120 million in revenue in fiscal 2026.

And while the company insists the separation won’t hit profitability, it’s impossible to ignore what Curry has meant to them. “I couldn’t imagine Under Armour without Stephen, or Stephen without Under Armour,” founder Kevin Plank told ESPN in 2023. Well… he doesn’t have to imagine it anymore.

When Curry first signed with Under Armour, he wasn’t Steph Curry yet. Nike couldn’t even get his name right back then (we’ll never forget you, Nico Harrison).

But 13 years later, he’s cemented himself as one of the greatest to ever play the game and built a global following that arguably eclipses Under Armour itself. In 2016, Jay Sole, an analyst at global financial services firm Morgan Stanley, estimated that Curry would be worth $14 billion to Under Armour’s bottom line.

Since then, he’s added three more championships, a Finals MVP, and an Olympic gold — all while Under Armour has endured eight straight quarters of sinking sales, leadership turnover, and a stock price that has fallen roughly 40% this year.

Last September, Plank admitted at a Bloomberg event that Under Armour hadn’t done a good enough job telling Curry’s story. Looking back, the signs were there — the ending just arrived sooner than expected

🔥My Hot Take🔥

At this stage in his career, Curry isn’t chasing a Nike deal — he’s trying to build his own Nike.

The easy move would be jumping to Nike, which is almost certainly ready to throw a billion-dollar deal at him. Adding fuel to the fire, Steph rocked Nike’s Kobe 6 Mambacita’s in his matchup against the Spurs last week (see above) after sources told me to keep an eye on what he wore in the tunnel, and a prominent member of Curry Brand’s team posted Devin Booker’s new Nike shoe on their Instagram story with the caption “best storytelling in the game” (if you’re reading this, I hope you appreciate my restraint in asking for updates).

I think it’s highly possible we could see a one-off shoe deal with an industry titan to build mystique around a limited release. But the lingering bad blood from Curry’s last meeting with Nike — coupled with the momentum he’s built through his business collective, Thirty Inc. — makes a long-term partnership unlikely. Not to mention that Steph is likely nearing retirement. Instead, we might be watching the rise of one of the first truly independent, athlete-owned signature shoe lines.

Steph has enough leverage, capital, and vision to run Curry Brand on his own. It’s risky, sure, but confidence has never been his problem.

MOST VALUABLE PLATFORM

Companies, Get Notified When a New Athlete Makes a Profile!

What's up guys, Noah here. A lot of you guys have been seeing athletes have creating profiles on our platform for companies to reach out directly them first.

This week we launched our automatic notification system where companies that work with us get alerted of new athletes looking for opportunities in real time. Have at it, and make sure to hit their inbox within our platform!

We’re instituting a 48 hour response rule on the athlete side. Or I am going to get pissed and turn their public profile off.

A&A EXCLUSIVE

BREAKING NEWS: Live By The Sword…

A Centuries-Old Sport Is Getting Its First Global League — Founded by One of Its Biggest Stars.

You heard it here first! Olympic bronze medalist and two-time world champion Miles Chamley-Watson is launching the World Fencing League, which will debut in April 2026 in Los Angeles. Chamley-Watson isn’t your stereotypical fencer — he’s appeared in Vogue, released a Nike signature sneaker, and partnered with brands like Mercedes and Richard Mille. “The World Fencing League is modernizing the sport for today’s fans and the next generation,” Chamely-Watson says. “We’re redefining how people will see and experience fencing.”

The modernization starts with tech. WFL will use Dentsu Lab Tokyo/Rhizomatiks’ AI-driven blade-tracking system — originally built for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics — to capture every strike, parry, and counterattack in real time. The goal: make fencing easier to follow, even for casual fans.

The league’s debut will be a one-day, fan-first event featuring 12 elite fencers from the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mixed-gender teams will compete in timed bouts with live scoring graphics, motion-capture replays, and prize purses topping $100,000. The event will stream globally, with expansion planned across the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Competitors include Chamley-Watson and Lee Kiefer — the reigning Olympic champion and three-time world champion — who becomes the first female athlete officially signed to the league. WFL also draws on the expertise of Japanese Olympic medalist Yuki Ota, a key figure in the International Fencing Federation and the IOC.

“We’re building something that bridges heritage and innovation, with plans for a full league launch by the end of 2026,” says WFL CEO Zhen Ren Teo. The league has already secured its first round of funding through a private family office with ties to the sport.*

^{*WFL is incubated by Chiron Sports Group — the family office–backed investment firm known for global sports projects involving Drake (Venezia FC), Didier Drogba (E1 Team Drogba Global Africa), and Rob Gronkowski (Legacy25). Under founder and CEO Leo Rifkind, Chiron sees the partnership with Chamley-Watson as a natural fit for its mission to build the future of sport through culture, community, and technology.}

COMPANY OF THE WEEK

Ammortal

Wellness might be the fastest-growing space today, especially in sports. Everyone’s looking for ways to improve their daily routine, boost longevity, and feel better overall. Especially ways you can do so while lying down.

That’s what Ammortal can do for you.

The Ammortal Chamber is essentially the future of human optimization. You recline in a zero-gravity capsule, breathe molecular hydrogen through a nasal cannula, and experience a mix of light, vibration, guided voice instruction, and electromagnetic fields — all inside a fully sensory-designed chamber.

It might sound a little terrifying, but I can personally attest that it's one of the most relaxing experiences you’ll ever have (see the photo below).

If you don’t want to take my word for it, maybe Mike Trout or Matthew Stafford will sway you. Stafford credited the chamber for helping him recover from a recent injury. If you’ve been watching the Rams this year, you’ve seen how rejuvenated he looks firsthand.

Click here to learn more about Ammortal and find a chamber near you — I recommend the Padel United Sports Club in Tenafly, NJ.