Kobe Bryant played his final NBA game on April 13, 2016. He had a decent night. Nike celebrated the end of his storied career with a special promotion on NIKEiD, a limited time when you could order Kobe 11s with calls out to moments in his career. I ordered a pair. They arrived today.
Will I ever wear them? Maybe. They’re the only Kobe 11s I own. On the other hand, they’re a cool piece of memorabilia from the Mamba’s final season. As such, it would be cool to get them signed someday.
The design process kind of drove itself. Once I decided on the purple uppers and the gold Swooshes, the rest kind of just happened—the matching purple lining, the blue translucent sole that lets the purple and gold bleed through, making them look like royal slippers. Gold logos on the purple tongues, Chinese lettering on the one heel that means...I already forgot what it means.
The only actual ID element appears on the inner tongues, “1996” on the left, “2016” on the right. Guessing I wasn’t the only person to go that route. Although I kind of regret not doing “MAMBA” and “OUT.”
