he Nike Kobe 6 Protro All-Star is rumored to drop on March 15.
Kobe Bryant was in a league of his own. Beyond being one of the youngest players to enter the NBA and attaining a three-peat alongside four NBA Championship titles throughout his career, Bryant left a lasting impression on his teammates, opponents and fans. With the new Nike Kobe 6 Protro All-Star rumored to drop on March 15, we decided to take a look back at Kobe’s sneaker history and relive the milestone moments that coincided with the drop of some of these collabs.
Reminisce iconic NBA moments: A brief history of the NBA All-Star Weekend in sneakers
The Nike Kobe 6 Protro All-Star is rumored to drop on March 15.
While nothing will ever be as iconic as the Air Jordan sneakers, for the modern era and current generation of NBA players and fans, Kobes have become their version of that. In his heyday and even into his retirement, Kobe Bryant oversaw the development of his signature shoe and helped it become one of the most popular in the world.
His untimely and unfortunate passing, though, changed many things about the market surrounding his sneakers, most notable being the end of the Bryant family’s partnership with Nike to produce the sneaker in the spring of 2021, a split that got messy as well. That marked the end of an era for the two sides, but there is still hope that the partnership could be revived.
In a piece on ESPN this week, Brian Windhorst reported that both the Bryant family and Nike were in discussions in hopes of reuniting and that a deal is still possible.
The end of the partnership meant the end of production of Kobes. The most popular shoe in the league even while it was being produced, the halt has led to a wild increase in demand with no supply, as Larry Nance Jr. noted in Windhorst’s piece. The sneaker secondary market has long been one of the more…treacherous places to traverse and attempt to find shoes. Prices already were sky-high for more common sneakers and ones that were in production.
The circumstances surrounding Kobes, both due to his passing and the stop in production, has thus sky-rocketed the price. While it’s made the shoes remarkably difficult to acquire for NBA players, it’s also made it downright impossible for regular folks to buy the shoes, too.
The potential revival of the partnership between the Bryant family and Nike won’t fix the sneaker secondary market by any means, but it would make the shoes more accessible, which is a win for everybody from NBA players to Joe Schmo. Here’s to hoping Nike makes the right call here and restarts production on this generation’s Jordans.
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