Almost all NBA players are supported by one sneaker company or another. But only one hand has shoe lines named after them, fewer have popular lines that sell goods worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and even fewer remain popular upon retirement. In the 1990s, a handful of WNBA celebrities had shoe deals, including Sheryl Swoopes, who was the first female athlete to have a signed basketball shoe.
Nike clearly believed that Bryant’s appeal extended until retirement, signing him to a new five-year deal on the day of his last NBA game: April 13, 2016. Bryant played his last season in the Kobe 11s, the 11th. -the edition of his line of sneakers. . After retirement, Nike launched a new line of sneakers called Kobe AD, or anno Domini, the Latin expression meaning “in the year of the Lord.”
The Nike Nike brand and the continued launch of Air Jordan sneakers remain quite popular, but as everyday fashion shoes; NBA players rarely wear Air Jordans during games these days. Bryant has tried to remove this retirement trend, with Nike launching Bryant “protro” shoes: updated Bryant retro shoes with modern professional performance features.
While they were popular with basketball players, Bryant’s sneakers were not always the most popular on the field, worn with jeans or sweaters.
Before Bryant’s death, the market for his shoes was quite a niche, said Chad Jones, co-founder of Another Lane, a market for sneaker collectors. “In terms of performance, many performance athletes have loved Kobe shoes, but fashion wise people are really the predictor of how well they will sell to the masses,” Jones said.
Nike did not sign Bryant on what is actually a lifetime contract, as it did with Jordan and James, raising questions about the continued value it saw on its behalf. The Kobe shoes worn by NBA players were often limited editions or unique colors that ordinary consumers could not buy, partly explaining why their popularity on the field does not necessarily translate into popularity on the street.