Kobe Bryant might have retired from basketball a year ago, but his signature line of sneakers from Nike remain some of the company’s most popular. On Monday, Nike unveiled the five colorways coming for the latest edition of the Kobe A.D., which is a midtop sneaker, a departure from the lowtop Kobe sneakers that he put out for much of the latter part of his playing career.
The five colorways are all monochromatic, with the entire sneaker being either all-purple, yellow, red, grey, or blue. There’s a reason for that, which naturally comes from the mind of Kobe and his key tenants of the Mamba Mentality. As Bryant explains in the video below, each Kobe A.D. is representative of one of the five important mental qualities a great player needs — Fearless, Detached, Optimism, Passion, and Honesty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEF9qnfq30E
The “Detached” one is the most Kobe thing possible, but it’s actually my second favorite colorway of all of these, behind the light blue of the “Honesty” look. The red of “Passion,” yellow of “Optimism,” and purple of “Fearless” are all a bit bright for my personal taste, but each has a story behind them.
As for the design itself, Nike said that the feedback they had received on the Kobe sneakers of the past had asked for more cushioning, hence the new midtop design and Lunarlon foam combined with Zoom Air on the sole.
The release date for the new line of Kobe A.D. sneakers is August 24 (8/24) in celebration of the two numbers Bryant wore during his career as a Laker. You can check out the first images of all five colorways below.
Kobe A.D. Fearless
Kobe A.D. Optimism
Kobe A.D. Honesty
Kobe A.D. Passion
Kobe A.D. Detached
