Fade to Black Mamba: tributo a Kobe Bryant

If there is one thing we often wonder, especially now that the influx of music and sport stars in fashion and design increases, is about how much these stars are involved in the production of that line of T-shirts, that collection of pants, this other sneaker line. In the NBA world this curiosity becomes more often about how and to what the players contribute to their signature. Someone, like Wade, is less versed in matters of the production, someone like Steph Curry has even renounced to his contract with Nike for stylistic differences and some other like LeBron James has always declared to actively participate in (almost) the entire production process of the sneakers dedicated to him.

To the latter category belongs, without doubt, also Kobe Bryant. A few days ago Uproxx reported the statements of Tony Grosso, senior product line manager of NikeID, who remembered, "Kobe Bryant said two things before starting the construction of the Kobe XI: 'I want a customization aimed at performance, first of all, but I want to even the children who will buy it will be able to wear their stories and mine''. Kobe Bryant has always had a very clear idea regarding his line of playing shoes, the Kobes.

A few years ago during an interview with Complex, Kobe Bryant back on the concept of "storytelling" declared himself reluctant even to a back pack just by virtue of the futurity of this concept. It is rather recent the announcement of his intention to continue to produce and draw his line for Nike, along with designer Eric Avar, while keenly awaiting the latest sneaker that Kobe Bryant will wear on the Staples Center parquet, after we saw the last All Star Game one.

The Past and the future, however, appear to go and mix in the next Nike campaign starting next March 1th. The "Fade to Black" will trace all  Nike releases worn by Kobe, starting with the Nike Zoom Huarache 2k4, the first and only model associated with the Philadelphia champion that does not belong to Nike Kobe line. The name of the campaign is due to the color of the sneaker, which will vary from the white of Huarache, the black of the new Kobe 11, in a climax of dark shades, from white / white, the matte silver, passing for anthracite up to the total black. 12 outlets all over, in just over a month all set at $ 200, for an advent calendar that is coupled with the Farewell Tour and that get closer the figure of Kobe to that of his Airness Jordan.

If Kobe "Misery" of 2008 was elected by the same Mamba his favorite of the collection - "I did not want a cheerful shoe, but absolutely sad and vintage like a Picasso painting, and which fully represent our moment after the defeat the Boston Celtics' - what are the most symbolic and iconic models of the collection?

Nike Zoom Huarache 2k4

We had already reported the "theft" of Kobe by Nike, the damage of adidas, the first brand with which the young Kobe had signed after the direct jump from high school to the pros. And even as, the same Nike, had been good (and very brave) to stick it and confirm the sponsorship contract when almost everybody had left Kobe and his media image. The Kobe Nike adventure does not start with a signature, but with the Nike Air Huarache, it becomes almost as consequence one of the repertoire piece, a relic to preserve jealously.

Nike Zoom Kobe 1

If you were to think of a moment, just one, to remember Kobe forever, which would you choose? Probably, the magical night of 81 points, the most incredible individual performance since Wilt Chamberlain times - one that, in words of Federico Buffa, looked more like a demigod. The fortune, or intuition, wanted that the evening of January 22, in Toronto, Kobe Bryant was wearing just his first signature Nike, the Nike Zoom Kobe 1 immediately passed into history as the 81-points-sneaker.

Nike Zoom Kobe 6

We said as the preferred sneaker from the same Kobe were the Misery, but those that more than any other model has won the affection of sneakers-head were the Kobe 6. Expenses for the first time at Christmas 2010 in coloration "Grinch", the Kobe 6 had the highest number of colorways, including those dedicated to Barcelona, ​​or Lakers gradient. The main feature of the sixth Kobes model is inspired by the famous Bryant's nickname, Black Mamba, it is playing then a snake skin effect through the inclusion of various islands of polyurethane.

Nike Kobe 9 Elite Masterpiece

The "Fade to Black" is not the first commemorative collection of the myth of Kobes, underlining the almost epochal impact had the signature of number 24 of the Lakers. In December of 2013 in fact, Nike released the "Prelude Pack", a special collection of sneaker - limited edition - which reproduced releases from 1 to 8 of the personal line of Kobe Bryant. Why? Only a few months later, in February of 2014 it was planned the most important torn past of the last two decades Nike technology: the introduction of the Nike Zoom Kobe 9 Elite, and all the Masterpiece collection has opened the door to new tissues revolution and shifted design line then in football field.