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The future of the Nike Kobe line, one of the longest-running and most important signature sneaker series, is uncertain. The last deal in place between the late Kobe Bryant and Nike expired on April 13, 2021, and his estate has opted not to sign a new contract for now. Nike confirmed to Complex via a statement this week that the deal was over, with Bryant’s wife Vanessa adding a comment of her own on the status of her husband’s endorsement deal via Instagram. There’s the possibility the parties reach an agreement, but a failure to do so would mark the conclusion of Bryant’s long partnership with Nike that began in 2003. Bryant, or rather his estate, is essentially a free agent now.
If the Nike Kobe line becomes history, it will be a rich one. Since their first union, Kobe and Nike have produced industry-shifting sneakers and emotional ad campaigns. Collaborators of the late Lakers icon at Nike often described him as more connected than any other player to the actual development and design of his sneakers. The passion was evident in the final product, which captured the full spectrum of Kobe, from his mighty accomplishments on the basketball court to his passions beyond it. In this stage of uncertainty around what Kobe Bryant’s posthumous sneaker output will look like next, we’ve reflected on the sneaker moments that defined his time with Nike.
Kobe Scores 81 Points in His First Nike Sig Shoe (2006)
The Nike Kobe line has enjoyed a good amount of crossover into casual wear, like all great sneaker lines, but it’s important to remember that it was designed as performance product first. And what cements great performance footwear in public memory is not the hours of testing that go into development, or even the athlete insights that inform the design, but the heroics athletes perform in them in full view of their fans. Kobe was a man capable of seemingly endless heroics. One of the earliest real sneaker moments in his long partnership with Nike came on Jan. 22, 2006, when he torched the Toronto Raptors with 81 points to lead the Lakers to a 122-104 victory. Kobe did so wearing the Zoom Kobe 1, his first signature shoe with Nike that arrived after his regular wear of non-sig models like the Huarache 2K4. The game was as good an advertisement for the shoes as anything an ad agency could have come up with, suggesting that they gave the wearer some superhuman capability. The white, black, and purple pair of Kobe 1s is maybe the most important colorway of his first signature model, and one released to the public for the first time ever in January 2019 as a retro with updated “protro” tech. — Brendan Dunne
Kobe and His Nikes Leap Over an Aston Martin (2008)
“Do not try what I’m about to attempt right now,” Kobe warns at the start of the video, Nike Hyperdunks in hand. From there, he ignores the pleading of teammate Ronny Turiaf, lacing up his shoes while ensuring that he’ll be just fine. A few seconds later, a speeding Aston Martin drives straight toward Kobe, who times a high jump perfectly to miss it, floating over the car and creating one of the first viral marketing videos online. It was a stunt of course—the Lakers star and Nike pitchman did not risk his life for the sake of a commercial—but that did not slow its spread. The brand leaned into the connection, creating a special two-pack of Aston Martin-style shoes (one Kobe 5 and one Hyperdunk) that released in 2010. The shoes linked to the video have long been some of the most coveted Nike Kobes, these days fetching thousands of dollars on the secondary market. That limited edition pack aside, the Aston Martin video certainly helped Nike sell a decent amount of inline Hyperdunks. Just don’t expect them to help you leap over a speeding luxury vehicle. — Brendan Dunne
Kobe Takes Nike Back to the Future (2008)
The most storied sneaker in footwear history for the longest time was the Nike Mag. The sneaker, which debuted in Back to the Future Part II in 1989 on the feet of Michael J. Fox, was simply a movie prop until its releases in 2011 and 2016. But in 2008, for a Nike Mag-themed release of the newly designed Hyperdunk (which Kobe would wear to win gold at the Beijing Olympics) Kobe pulled up to the event in a DeLorean car just like in the film. The release, which took place at Undefeated, became a thing of sneaker lore, only building the hype around the Hyperdunk and Kobe’s organic connection to the footwear world. He popped out of the gullwing doors of the DeLorean with the high-top sneakers on foot. The shoes themselves were super limited and you don’t see many pairs floating around these days, but you’ll still see the classic image of Kobe and the DeLorean every now and then online. — Matt Welty
Kobe Brings Hyperdunks to the World Stage (2008)
During the summer of 2008, all eyes were on the United States Men’s Basketball Team. Four years earlier, a team filled with the NBA’s brightest young stars, the likes of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony fell short of their gold medal goals, taking home the bronze in Athens. In ‘08, the Redeem Team—led by team captain Kobe Bryant—was not going to let that happen again. Of course, Nike knew how many people would be watching, and the influence that Kobe had around the world, especially playing in Beijing. Tactically, the Swoosh laced Kobe up in its brand-new Hyperdunk sneaker, a true lightweight performance model that most notably marked the debut of Flywire in basketball. Kobe wasn’t the only athlete in Hyperdunks during those Olympic Games, in fact every Nike athlete from every country had them on, but he is certainly the face that we all remember when it comes to legitimizing one of the brand’s longest-running basketball lines. With the US protecting a slim two-point lead over Spain in the final eight minutes of the Gold Medal Game, Kobe completely took over, scoring 10 points in the final minutes, and leading the US to gold. He did it all in the Nike Hyperdunk, which went on to become a perennial favorite of Nike’s performance basketball shoes. — Ben Felderstein
Kobe Pushes Nike to Go Low (2008)
Kobe’s love of the beautiful game ended up changing up hoops shoes as we know them. It was his interest in soccer—specifically the way players maneuver in cleats with their ankles exposed—that caused him and designer Eric Avar to experiment with low-top cuts on basketball footwear. Until Avar and Kobe came along with the Nike Kobe 4 in 2008, basketball sneakers were traditionally high or mid-tops due to the belief that those cuts better protected and supported the ankles. While that may be ideal for some players, Kobe helped popularize a different mindset, one that allowed his on-court shoes to be lighter, quicker, and less restrictive. The Kobe 4 would go on to become one of the most revered performance sneakers, and low-top models became commonplace not only in Kobe’s signature line, but in all basketball footwear. Today, nearly half of Nike Basketball’s sneakers are considered low-tops. — Riley Jones
Nike Makes Kobe a Puppet, Literally (2010)
Sports have long been filled with mascots. Often these take the form of animals, Spartans, or mythical creatures. But what about mascots for sneakers? Penny Hardaway had Lil Penny to help push his footwear line, but Kobe Bryant and LeBron James received a somewhat different approach from Nike: They became the mascots and puppets themselves. In a series of ads that ran starting in 2010 with the launch of the Kobe 5, James and Kobe turned into the MVPuppets who would take part in hilarious skits that pitted the two stars against each other. Most notably, the launch commercial had Kobe’s sneaker catch on fire and burn down a sneaker store because it was so “hot.” As a Foot Locker employee at the time myself, I can vouch that this drove in a ton of customers who wanted to see the shoe after the lackluster Kobe 2s and 3s. Although I do remember a lot of people being disappointed with how the sneaker looked in real life vs. the commercial, it converted a lot of people into Kobe Nike faithfuls. — Matt Welty
'Grinch' Nike Kobe 6s Steal Christmas (2010)
Kobe’s colorway legacy is one of Nike’s finest. 3-D. Big Stage. Bruce Lee. Carpe Diem. Chaos. Dark Knight. The numerous player exclusive and Prelude pairs. The Fade to Black (officially called “Black Mamba”) retirement collection. But the Mamba’s most memorable makeup is arguably the Grinch Kobe 6. The recently re-released shoe’s storyline dates back to 2010, when Kobe and the Los Angeles Lakers took the court for a Christmas Day showdown against LeBron James and the Miami Heat. As for the game itself, the Lakers took the L, but no one is still talking about the shoes LeBron wore that day. Released as part of a Nike Basketball Christmas pack alongside a red LeBron 8 V2 and a yellow KD 3, the neon green Grinch Kobe 6 was the clear standout. The apple green upper and crimson red laces popped on the TV screen, flew off of shelves, and remained a grail amongst Kobe heads for over a decade. — Riley Jones
Kobe and Kanye West Explain the Kobe System (2012)
An argument can certainly be made that Kobe’s “Kobe System” Nike commercials are one of the best series of ads that the Swoosh has ever put together. Kobe stars in seven different videos taking you through seven different levels of the Kobe System to try and make you more like the Mamba and reach new levels of success. Of course, the standout from the series is the sixth spot that co-stars the one and only Kanye West, a fellow Nike endorser at the time the commercial aired. In the 32-second ad, West attends the mock symposium asking Kobe “How much more do you want from me?” to which Kobe simply responds, “More.” Inarguably West and Kobe were at the top of their respective crafts at the time (and will always be considered all-time greats as well), so the banter featured in this installment of the series is nothing short of perfect. Not to mention, we are left with one of the most recitable lines in commercials at the very end, when West says, “What the fuck does that mean, Kobe Bryant?” — Ben Felderstein
Nike Kobes Embrace New Sneaker Tech (2013—Present)
Kobe’s Nike line was never known for keeping things conventional. The biggest way it changed things in basketball sneakers was through the shift from high and mid to low-tops, which allowed designers to shed weight from the uppers and make the sleek pairs quicker than their bulky counterparts. The Kobe series was also an early adopter of Flywire, a key feature of the Nike Kobe 4, Kobe 5, Kobe 6, and Kobe 7. By the time the ultra-high-top Kobe 9 hit, Flyknit had taken over, and the line would continue to improve upon the material, even after Kobe’s playing days with shoes like the 360-degree-knitted Kobe AD 360 NXT. Zoom Air and Lunarlon were staple cushioning setups of the Mamba’s signatures, and his shoes would often combine the two in new ways for improved underfoot feel. There was also the Kobe 7 System, which put the choice in the wearer’s hands with interchangeable cushioning and ankle height options. The Kobe line would sometimes debut new Nike innovation that would later find its way to other shoes. — Riley Jones
Kobe Bryant's 60-Point Last Game Sneakers (2016)
Kobe closed out his NBA career in the most fitting way possible, scoring 60 points during his final game on April 13, 2016. It almost felt scripted, although even that is apropos for a man who spent his career hooping in the shadows of Hollywood. Nike made sure it was ready for the moment, building up to it over the course of his retirement tour with a “Black Mamba” collection of Kobe retros that served as a retrospective on his years in the league. The pack, which began with a white Kobe 1 and released successive shoes in darker shades, found its natural end in a Nike Kobe 11 dressed in black and gold that Kobe wore for that last performance. The shoes released on the same day of the game, the date of which is stamped in gold on a strip running down the heel. It was a rare sneaker on multiple levels. ESPN’s Darren Rovell said at the time that only 2,000 pairs were made. Beyond the physical scarcity, few shoes are immediately so important, so clearly the marker of an era and its end. — Brendan Dunne