Nike held its Q4 earnings call for 2023 yesterday, and among all the numbers, projections and business-speak — the brand surpassed its sales projections but missed its earnings goal for the first time in three years — there was a tasty morsel for hungry sneakerheads to chew on: the Swoosh is set to relaunch Kobe Bryant‘s signature line later this year.
As announced by Nike CEO John Donahoe, the Nike Kobe line will return on August 24, Kobe Day 2023. Since Kobe Bryant’s death in January 2020, the ultra-popular line has had something of a tumultuous run: Bryant’s partnership with Nike expired in 2021 and his estate reportedly had no plans to renew the deal at the time. A handful of releases and leaks (the final pieces of the expired deal) trickled out over 2021, and the leak of one in particular, the Kobe Protro 6 “Mambacita Sweet 16,” revealed in June of that year, raised the ire of Kobe’s wife Vanessa Bryant, who said that it was “NOT approved for sale” and that she wasn’t sure “how someone else has their hands on shoes I designed in honor of my daughter Gigi and we don’t.”
Through all of this, Kobe’s shoes remained so popular with NBA players that there was a “shortage” of the larger sizes they needed by November 2021.Thankfully, in March 2022, all was made well, as Nike announced a new partnership with Kobe’s estate and officially announced the “Mambacita Sweet 16.” News of various forthcoming Nike Kobe releases went from a trickle to a steady stream — pairs rumored to release include the Kobe 6 “Prelude,” the Kobe 6 “Reverse Grinch” and the Kobe 8 “Triple White” — while DeMar DeRozan signed a four-year deal with the Swoosh to remain the face of the Nike Kobe line.
The return of the Kobe line arrives at an opportune time for Nike, which has struggled with a glut of excess inventory at stores and flagging interest around some of its energy products over the last 12 months. At the time of writing, more info on the line’s return has yet to be announced, but look for programming to start rolling out later this summer.
To stay up to date on other high-heat sneaker releases, be sure to check out the latest installment of Hypebeast’s weekly Best Footwear Drops series.
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