“The Black Mamba” releases the Fifth of his Nike Shoe Series

Written by Hilda Gabriela Wednesday, 20 January 2010 15:19

Kobe Byant --aka: “The Black Mamba”-- is in the eye of the storm again. But this time around, it’s neither for a scandal nor for Laker press. The world champion guard for the LA Lakers presented his latest basketball shoe, the Nike Zoom Kobe V’s, this past Saturday at Nike’s The Montalbán Theatre. The launch was celebrated with a purple carpet appearance by comedian and TV personality George Lopez, who also served as host for the evening. In a talk-show like setting, Kobe sat down with the comedian before an audience of 700 to talk about the design elements of the Nike Zoom Kobe V’s, which he has been wearing at games starting this week.

“Whenever I meet with Nike we always start with a fresh canvas,” stated Kobe. “I always tell NIKE what I’m hoping to improve in my performance and then together we figure out a way to manipulate the shoe to make it work.” With the Lakers currently holding the best standings for both divisions at 32 wins – 9 losses, it’s hard to imagine there’s much room for improvement for the Black Mamba.

According to Bryant, this new design allows the athlete to change direction very quickly, which was something that the four-time NBA champion had trouble with in the past. “Some of the shoes that I’ve worn before weren’t cushioning my foot, which actually caused it to slip inside of the shoe. So we wanted to make this design contour to the foot more, so that it didn’t slide at all.”

 

Another highlight and second on the list of Kobe’s requirement for the new footwear, is its low cut shoe design. Mimicking the design of a soccer shoe, the Nike Zoom Kobe V’s are the lowest basketball shoes ever designed for the game.

According to Kobe, he is already working with Nike to design the 7th Kobe shoe, which he hinted is neither a low nor high top shoe. But will this new design be enough to help Kobe and the Lakers defeat the Cleveland Cavs tonight? Or will there be a repeat of the unexpected Christmas Day upset? We’ll let Nike and The Black Mamba surprise us.

www.nike.com

 

 

 

< Prev		Next >