Under Armour’s Breakup, Stance’s Sale, TRUBAR’s 2.7× Exit, Plus: How Brands Actually Get Financed

Stephen Curry & Under Armour: The Partnership That Built an Era Is Ending

Under Armour confirmed it will part ways with Stephen Curry, closing one of the most consequential athlete partnerships in modern sports marketing.

Where things stand today:
UA’s basketball division (including the Curry Brand) does only ~$120M annually, about 2% of total company revenue. The company says the split won’t meaningfully affect financial results, a sign of how far the category has cooled.

How Curry landed at UA in the first place (2013):
Nike under-prioritized his renewal meeting, mispronouncing his name, reusing a slide deck that referenced Kevin Durant, leaving a door wide open.
UA stepped in with a bigger offer (~$4M/year), more attention, and a signature line he could own.

What UA got in return:
From 2013–2017, Curry was the brand’s growth engine:

• MVP seasons

• Curry 1 & Curry 2 cultural heat

• UA footwear surpassing $1B for the first time

It was the closest UA ever came to building a Jordan-style franchise.

The 2020 “lifetime-like” deal:
Curry Brand launched with revenue-sharing economics reportedly worth $1B+ across decades but it never hit global scale.

Why split now?
UA is shifting back to training, margin discipline, and simplification.
Curry wants a legacy-defining platform, equity, upside, and control.

What’s next:
Curry becomes a free agent in 2026.
The interesting scenario: a Federer × ON-style partnership with equity, not just endorsement.

Marquee Brands Acquires Stance, A Case Study in the DTC → IP Transition

Marquee Brands (owner of Sur La Table, Ben Sherman, Dakine, Martha Stewart) is acquiring Stance, the premium sock brand that helped define the 2010s consumer aesthetic.

But the real story is structural:
This is what the DTC endgame now looks like.

Stance’s capital arc:
2011–2018 → Raised $115M+ from August Capital, Shasta, Roc Nation, Will Smith, Dwyane Wade, Ronnie Fieg.
Mid-2010s → Drove cultural heat via NBA deals, collaborations, and premium positioning.

Stance was the DTC sock brand.

The world in 2025:
Marquee, WHP, ABG, Bluestar, today’s buyers, aren’t paying venture-era multiples.

Their playbook:

• Buy IP at a discount to peak valuation

• Migrate operations into shared infrastructure

• Monetize through licensing, margin expansion, and global distribution

This is a strong outcome for the brand and founders but a reset for late-stage investors.

Another reminder that the winners in DTC are the brands that become IP, not vertically integrated operators.

TRUBAR Sells for $142M, A Rare Micro-Cap Success Story

Simply Better Brands Corp. (SBBC), a micro-cap rollup, just sold its breakout brand TRUBAR to ETI Gıda (one of Turkey’s largest CPG companies) for $142M.

The path there is instructive.

How SBBC got TRUBAR:
2021 → Acquired in an all-stock deal + debt assumption.
2021–2025 → TRUBAR becomes the only true growth asset in the portfolio.
2025 → SBBC literally renames itself TRUBAR Inc.

The exit metrics:

• TTM revenue: $54.8M

• FY25 forecast: $65–70M

• Exit valuation: 2.7× revenue (a premium in today’s bars/snacking space)

Why ETI paid a real multiple:

• TRUBAR gives them a BFY U.S. platform they don’t have organically

• Costco + nationwide retail distribution already established

• A clean, premium brand with runway

For micro-cap investors, this is the ideal sequence:
Acquire early → build → ride momentum → exit to a strategic at a healthy multiple.

🎙 Podcast Highlight: The Financial Reality Behind Consumer Brands (with Andrew Barone)

Most investors see the glossy top-line story.
Andrew Barone sees the real one.

He’s the person founders call when:

• Retailers stretch terms to 90 days

• Inventory financing gets tight

• Amazon payouts create cash gaps

• Growth outpaces liquidity

• They need capital yesterday

This week on In The Money, Andrew Barone from Rosenthal unpacks the mechanics behind consumer finance, the part of the industry no one posts about on LinkedIn.

We cover:

🔹 How PO financing, factoring, and inventory-backed lending actually work
🔹 Why brands consistently hit liquidity walls at $5M, $10M, and $20M
🔹 The forecasting mistakes lenders see over and over
🔹 How lenders read a P&L differently than founders
🔹 How to build a capital strategy that scales without fragility

If you want an unvarnished look at how brands really get financed, this is required listening.

🎧 Watch on YouTube, listen on Spotify.

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That’s it for this week.
If you liked this issue, forward to a friend who obsesses over brand strategy, capital flows, or exit timing.

In the Money – following the flow of capital in consumer

P.S. We love talking to brands interested in exiting in the next 3-18 months. If you know of any brands interested in exiting, or any firms trying to help port cos manage turnarounds, we'd love to share a POV.

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