Bay Area brand sees astronomical spike in sales after Curry dons hat on sidelines of playoff series

(KRON) — An injured Stephen Curry spent most of the Western Conference semifinals on the sideline in street clothes. While everyone (except Minnesota Timberwolves fans) wished Curry were in uniform, the Warriors superstar’s injury was a blessing in disguise for Jeff Chu.

Chu works as the director of operations for a financial advisory firm. However, as a side hustle, he runs a Bay Area-based hat company, LACES.

During Saturday’s Game 3, Curry wore a LACES hat with “Bay Area” written upside down. The nationally televised game garnered more than an average of 6 million viewers. Millions got to see Curry’s outfit — including his hat.

Insert Curry effect — but this time off the court.

Nearly 10,000 of those hats have been sold since Saturday, according to Chu.

“It was a huge deal at the time because we were nobody and we had a handful of athletes on our platform,” Chu told KRON4. “But seeing Steph wear the hat — not just wear it but wear it courtside of the Western Conference semifinals.

“I had some buddies at the game, and they were like ‘oh my God, I can see (the hat) clear as day.”

LACES didn’t actually send the hat to Curry directly. The hat was sent to Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski before Game 3, and somehow Curry got his hands on the hat.

Chu is thankful for Curry because the growth of LACES has been indescribably expedited.

“I don’t even know how to articulate it, honestly,” Chu said. “The difference is so so dramatically different,” Chu said. “If you’re going down the alphabet, we thought we were at B or C; we just jumped to L.”

Chu is now doing multiple interviews as his brand has received massive attention — thanks to Curry. The LACES website has even experienced issues because of the sudden influx of orders.

LACES has been “steadily growing” in the last 10-12 months, Chu said. The first big break the company had was when 49ers star linebacker Fred Warner wore a LACES hat during the 2024 NFL preseason. Last summer, Chu got in touch with some members within the 49ers organization. The team welcomed Chu to send them LACES hats.

Chu doesn’t know how the LACES hat specifically got to Warner, but he is glad it did.

“And it kind of took off from there,” Chu said of Warner, the 2024 All-Pro linebacker, wearing the hat. The brand got its footing then and has since gotten other pro athletes to don their hats, such as Warriors guard Gary Payton II.

Chu said the design of the hat — an upside-down text of “Bay Area” — is meant to represent the way it is doing NIL. LACES caters to the 98 percent of athletes who are underrepresented, not the superstars you see with major brand deals on national television.

As of Thursday afternoon, the hat that Curry wore can be ordered for an arrival shipment date between July 1-4.

“It’s so hard to put in words; we’re four or five days out from it. We’re just trying to figure out what this new normal is and where we can go from here,” Chu said. “We’re very grateful Steph wore the hat. We’re grateful he elevated awareness of our athletes, and we’re excited for what happens in the future.”