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Nike Zoom Kobe 1 Retro Coming 2018

Five time champion Kobe Bryant continues his success with the basketball market.  The Kobe A.D. Mid is the latest sneaker from the Mamba, but it’s no longer part of his numbered signature series.  The lineage ended with Kobe dropping a 60 point performance against the Utah Jazz in 2016 in the “Fade to Black” Kobe 11.  Since then, the Kobe A.D. has done an okay job keeping the line afloat amongst the growing popularity of the KD, Kyrie, and newcomer Paul George sneakers.

For years, Kobe enthusiast have been asking Nike Basketball to retro his older models and our sources indicate that it will happen sometime in 2018 with the Zoom Kobe 1.  Rumors about this has been circling for a couple years now dating back to Bryant’s Farewell Tour in 2015-2016.  It was said to release earlier this year on the anniversary of the 81-point game, but since we can’t have nice things, it never came to be.

We have no word yet on what colorways will return, but expect Nike Basketball to go all-in with this retro with quickstrike drops and limited releases.  Given that Nike hasn’t been rolling sales wise, they are going back to their limited ways to create the buzz and hype for the brand.  The Nike Zoom Kobe 1 would be welcomed with open arms by fans of new and old.  We’re sure not all colorways will be limited because, well, Nike can’t be that greedy right?  The Kobe 1 was his first signature sneaker so this will be special for his brand when it drops.

Here is an excerpt from 2014’s Kobe 9 press event, as Kobe Bryant speaks about his signature line being retro’d in the future via Complex and @Kustoo.

The Prelude Pack was meant to highlight certain points in your career. Is there any expectation for more down the line?
Not necessarily. We’ve always been reluctant to do a retro series. The reason why it made sense for this was because of the story we are trying to tell. Everything leading up to the Masterpiece shoe. So, the stories are important to go back in history and document some of those moments just because it leads into this new story. We’ve always been reluctant with retro. We are always looking forward, innovating.

Similar to the LeBron James retro of his first Zoom Generation sneaker, Nike will bring back original colroways.  Those releases however, were not very nice to those who wanted to obtain the sneaker.  Nike made it super limited and only released them at a few select retailers in the U.S. and a couple international releases.  We hope for them to bring it back, but also make it widely available for the fans to obtain, unlike LeBron’s.

We here at Kicksologists will keep you guys posted as more news becomes available regarding the Retro line for Kobe Bryant.  What model would you want to return?

 

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