Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant is a professional basketball player who started his career officially with the Charlotte Hornets but was immediately traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. Amidst the post-NBA Draft hype, Kobe signed a multi-million dollar shoe contract with adidas; a number of adidas Kobe signature shoes were released, with the most notable being the adidas Crazy 8 and the adidas KOBETWO. The KOBETWO was designed like a futuristic space-boot, and reception to the peculiar design was mixed. The adidas Kobe line was met was moderate success, as Kobe himself wasn’t an established superstar until four years into his career, nor was he a widely beloved player (due to his alleged selfish style of play).

Once Kobe’s contract with adidas was finished, Nike struck while the iron was hot and signed Kobe to a 5-year contract. Unfortunately, just after he became an official endorsee of Nike, the athletic outfitting giant, Kobe was at the center of a scandal that shook the world of sports – a scandal that led to multiple endorsers terminating their contracts with Kobe. Nike was one of the few that stayed firm, although Kobe was not used in any marketing efforts for one year. Kobe Bryant was a certified elite player, but several factors made Kobe an “unlikeable” player; the scandal, his part in the Shaq-Kobe break-up, and a lack of team-chemistry – supposedly rooted from Kobe’s actions – that led to an inability to win.

It took some time for the public to open up to Kobe Bryant, and Nike began the slow process of re-inserting Kobe into the market. During his time with Nike, Kobe Bryant wore several Nike models, like the Nike Huarache 2k4 and Huarache 2k5, both of which are regarded as two unofficial Nike Kobe signature shoes. Bryant’s first official shoe was the Nike Air Zoom Kobe which debuted on February 11th, 2006. The shoes were an instant sell-out, experiencing higher-than-retail resale values on eBay and other selling mediums; by the release date, Kobe had moved beyond his personal issues and won some hearts over with his spectacular play, which included an astounding 81-point performance in a regular season game.

The Nike Zoom Kobe II and III followed each year afterwards; the Kobe II is regarded as one of the best Nike Basketball designs of the 21st Century, while the “net” design of the Kobe III saw mixed reviews. It wasn’t until the Nike Hyperdunk and Kobe IV that Kobe was thrust into the advertising spotlight, when he was finally featured in television ads; the success of the Nike Hyperdunk and Kobe IV followed by the dominance of the Zoom Kobe V sealed Kobe’s fate as the face of the NBA and Nike Basketball. While the Nike Kobe line may not reach the status of the Air Jordan line (nothing else will), Kobe, along with his sig shoes with Nike, will go down in the history books as one of the best ever.

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