There were plenty of hyped sneaker drops to talk about last year. The Chunky Dunky, the Off-White Jordan 5’s, the Yeezy Quantums.
None of them could compare to Kobe Bryant’s Kobe Protro 5 that returned to Nike’s catalog for the first time since 2010. It was arguably the most important sneaker of the year.
This shoe is legendary. It’s what Bryant wore during the 2010 Finals when he beat the Boston Celtics to capture his fifth and final championship with the Los Angeles Lakers.
He wore the original white and gold “big stage” colorway during game 7. The very next season he opened the year wearing the “5 rings” purple and gold colorway for the team’s ring ceremony.
So, naturally, this silhouette has a lot of meaning to Bryant fans and Lakers fans. After his tragic death last year, it took on even more.
Over the years, even before his passing, we saw Bryant turn into a mentor of sorts for so many players around the NBA. So many of the league’s up-and-coming stars grew up idolizing the Lakers’ legend. After last January, it was even more apparent how much he meant to them when tributes poured in from across the league.
In the immediate aftermath of his passing, Trae Young wore Bryant’s number 8 for a game and took an 8-second violation. Other teams around the league took 24-second violations as a nod to Bryant wearing number 24.
For the rest of the season, though, the players used his sneakers as a way to pay homage in that same way. Many players around the league were wearing the Kobe 5. It was the sneaker of the NBA Bubble, according to the Undefeated’s Aaron Dodson.
“Throughout the four-month restarted NBA season, 102 players across the league (67% wears Nike) laced up 280 pairs of Bryant’s Nike sneakers. The Kobe 5, in particular, emerged as the most-worn sneaker inside the bubble, with 70 players lacing up different pairs of Kobe 5s in 55 colorways.”
It didn’t stop just there. A number of players around the league including Anthony Davis, P.J. Tucker, DeMar DeRozan and Devin Booker got their own player exclusive colorways of the Kobe 5 last season.
The Kobe 5 became a way for NBA players to honor the legend. The unfortunate part is that most fans didn’t get that same opportunity.
Before Bryant’s passing it wasn’t hard to find his sneakers anywhere. After, though, all of that disappeared. Shoes sold out everywhere after the news broke. Ghoulish resellers capitalizing on his death bumped prices up on his sneakers to three and four times the retail value.
All of a sudden, fans who just wanted a pair of kicks to remember Bryant had to pay an arm and a leg for them. They weren’t available unless you had an extra $500 on tap at minimum.
That’s why when Nike released five different colorways of the Kobe 5 during Mamba Week from August 23 (his birthday) to August 29, the silhouette easily became one of the most coveted of the year.
Unfortunately for fans, though, they were extremely limited. The week ended in disaster. Most people had no shot at getting them, and they were furious.
It was clearly a sign that this wasn’t about sneakers anymore. This Kobe 5 is a tribute, a memory, a moment in time. Unfortunately, a lot of people are still searching for it — not just the 5, but any Kobe shoe.
The good news is that there are more already on the way.