NIKE KOBE VI PROTRO - 2021

Picked up a DS pair for the wifey from a local reseller and for a low price of $300 :lol:, just in time for the holidays.

27FF0E1D-2EE2-4CED-A15D-5E6742825EE3.jpeg
 
skaterplayer808 said:
I never actually looked at prices for sizes other than my own, but damn, that seems like a steal of a price. Maybe my wife wants a pair lol
Click to expand...
Decent price for a size 4 in my opinion but definitely more expensive thru stockx/goat/ebay... Also for comparison i can get an allstar or white del sol in my size for the same price :smile:
 
I'm trying to also acquire a pair of 6s as well(not grinches)...an OG pair just cuz I really was hoping for the Kay Yow protros and with them obviously not released... wanted to do a replacement purchase. But these prices man. I'm tryna get them to the 400 price.
 


Why NBA players are hoarding Kobe Bryant's Nike sneaker line

On a quiet evening a few weeks before the start of the regular season, Wilson Taylor was deep inside Paycom Center's laundry room, which doubles as the Oklahoma City Thunder equipment manager's deep storage facility. At a rack pushed up against the wall, he ran his hands over a layer of dust on a cluster of black and gold Nike shoe boxes. Kobe 8 System TB, size 13.5.

He smiled, knowing the score he'd just uncovered. He pulled out his phone, took a picture and texted it to Thunder rookie guard Josh Giddey.

"No way!" Giddey wrote back. "Can I come right now?"

Fifteen minutes later Giddey was in the building, cracking open the five pairs of orange-and-white Thunder-color Kobes that had originally been sent for Derek Fisher, who finished his playing career with the Thunder in the 2013-14 season and had previously been a longtime teammate of Kobe Bryant. Giddey, cradling the boxes like a child on Christmas, looked at Taylor and said: "Can I have them all?"

For years, this might've seemed like an unusual request. In the world of excess and fashion celebrity that is the NBA, shoes are usually ubiquitous. They're always fresh, always everywhere and typically gratis.

Until now.

Last spring, Nike and Vanessa Bryant announced they were parting ways after the shoe giant's deal with the late Kobe Bryant ended. The sides are still talking with the hope they can eventually come to terms, sources told ESPN, but currently the partnership is off. There had already been production delays that prevented players from getting their normal supply during the 2020-21 season, and for now, there are no more Kobes being produced.

Suddenly, the most popular sneaker among NBA players is also the hardest to get.

"If you don't already have them," says Portland Trail Blazers forward Larry Nance, "you're not getting them."

Kobe Bryant's signature Nike sneaker had become unquestionably the most popular shoe for NBA players in recent years. During the 2019-20 season, more than 100 players were wearing the Kobe 4 Protro, a retro re-release of a sneaker Bryant originally wore in 2008. Today's players love the design, the feel and the statement of the Kobes.

"This generation looks at Kobe like our Jordan," says Chicago Bulls guard DeMar DeRozan, known in the league as the dean of the Kobe shoe devotees. "It's a great shoe to wear. Guys really fell in love with it."

In the Orlando bubble in 2020, just months after Bryant's tragic death, nearly one-third of the 330 or so players were wearing a version of Kobe's signature shoe, and that figure was growing. Over the past two years, a number of players who'd previously been with Under Armour and Adidas did not have their sneaker endorsement contracts renewed, a trend that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the new sneaker free agents went looking for Kobes. It all adds up to a large contingent who now have a source problem for their Kobe needs.

There are still supplies on sale at some retailers, but not in great numbers in the sizes NBA players typically need. The scarcity of larger sizes has driven a pricing boom on secondary shoe resale websites like StockX, GOAT and eBay.

NBA players who wear size 14 or larger are looking at spending at least $800 for the most basic models of Kobes, and that's not what they typically wear. But the players are paying, with several telling ESPN they've spent more than five figures buying supplies of Kobes on the secondary market since last spring and summer.

"I'm not going into a store and finding a [size] 17 in a Kobe. No way," says Anthony Davis, who switched to the Kobes when he joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019. "I mean, it's guys' favorite shoes. ... A lot of people are inspired by him and the shoe feels amazing. All of them feel amazing."

Players previously used to wearing whatever colors they wanted -- particularly after the league relaxed its rules around sneakers before the 2018-19 season -- are now scouring the web and trying to hunt forgotten stockpiles to get shoes to wear in games. And they're competing against each other for the available large sizes in the marketplace.

"If you weren't in on them for the last few years," says DeRozan, a longtime Kobe model enthusiast, "you're having a tough time."

Kobes are now considered "deadstock," taking them into a vintage market that ups the ante. NBA players have chased deadstock shoes for years, often to add to their collections to wear or display off the court. Miami Heat forward P.J. Tucker is known for wearing high-end vintage models in games, but he's an outlier.

It's also not unheard of for players to occasionally buy shoes for game usage. Taylor says he sometimes helped players like former Thunder center Steven Adams, who wears size 19 and really liked the way Derrick Rose's older Adidas models fit him, spend a few hundred dollars to chase down extra pairs. More commonly around the league, players wear what they're paid to wear and there's almost never a thought to supply.

The current situation around Kobes is a whole new game, even for players paid to wear Nikes. Giddey, who signed a multi-year deal with Nike before the season, and players like him are spending more than $1,500 on pairs of Kobes right now as they try to stock up for this season and beyond. Their agents are sniffing around for them, calling in favors and hunting the secondary market for their clients but without much success.

"I've had a few guys reach out to me for help," says Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker said. "I'll never run out of Kobes."

Booker and DeRozan have a supply of PEs, shorthand for Player Exclusives, that Nike has set them up with as brand ambassadors for years. But they're in an elite class. The shortage is particularly hitting young players who adore Bryant and his shoe line but haven't had the benefit of being in the league long enough to create a backlog.

"I'm working on it every day," says New Orleans Pelicans rookie Trey Murphy, who wore a pair of Kobes gifted to him by a teammate to start the season. "It's hard out there right now. I'm not DeMar DeRozan."

But even DeRozan can't be DeRozan.

"I used to play in a pair once or twice and then give my shoes away to fans," DeRozan says. "I may not be able to do that as much."

The rumors of the end of the Bryant family agreement with Nike started circulating last season before becoming official in April. Nike reps quietly told team equipment managers to prepare their Kobe guys for an end.

"Some of us got the word and we started hoarding them," says Phoenix Suns forward Jae Crowder. "By the time the news came out, I had banked up enough for about two years."

Stars with major shoe deals like LeBron James, who has given molds of his feet to Nike so custom shoes feel broken in on first wear, break out a new pair each game. Some players will wear them for a couple games. Crowder says his two-year supply was 100 pairs, as he usually goes through about 50 in a year. Davis, on the other hand, uses fewer, as he says he will use around 20-25 pairs of his shallow Kobe supply this season.

Some players without a similarly deep supply have already been forced to switch. Several equipment managers say players have switched to the plentiful Nike Kyrie Irving Low model, which has design similarities to the Kobe model, this season. Others are using Nike's new more generic line, the GT. But many custom shoes have been delayed as Nike and other shoe retailers deal with factory shutdowns in Asia due to COVID-19.

In the meantime, the players who still have Kobes are trying to get the most out of each box.

"The guys I have wearing Kobes are wearing them until they damn near fall apart," one equipment manager says.

When discussing this situation with ESPN, players repeatedly expressed hope that Nike and the Bryant estate can come to a new agreement, a talking point that's been pervasive among sneakerheads this fall. But even if that comes to pass, it would be a long time before Kobes are available again -- to players or anyone else. Product lines typically take Nike 12-16 months to produce, sources say, and that was before the pandemic disrupted global supply chains.

Either way, as this season rolls on and the supplies of the remaining Kobes begin to dwindle with no replacements, the demand of the late Hall of Famer's beloved shoe design will only increase. In a time when some players are dabbling in cryptocurrency investments, there may be a new exchange developing as more players get desperate.

"I've always had so many pairs but I'm looking at them differently now. Guys are asking me [for them] but I can't go through them like I did," DeRozan says. "If it gets bad, I may have to even go to my secret vault."
 
pmatic said:


Why NBA players are hoarding Kobe Bryant's Nike sneaker line

On a quiet evening a few weeks before the start of the regular season, Wilson Taylor was deep inside Paycom Center's laundry room, which doubles as the Oklahoma City Thunder equipment manager's deep storage facility. At a rack pushed up against the wall, he ran his hands over a layer of dust on a cluster of black and gold Nike shoe boxes. Kobe 8 System TB, size 13.5.

He smiled, knowing the score he'd just uncovered. He pulled out his phone, took a picture and texted it to Thunder rookie guard Josh Giddey.

"No way!" Giddey wrote back. "Can I come right now?"

Fifteen minutes later Giddey was in the building, cracking open the five pairs of orange-and-white Thunder-color Kobes that had originally been sent for Derek Fisher, who finished his playing career with the Thunder in the 2013-14 season and had previously been a longtime teammate of Kobe Bryant. Giddey, cradling the boxes like a child on Christmas, looked at Taylor and said: "Can I have them all?"

For years, this might've seemed like an unusual request. In the world of excess and fashion celebrity that is the NBA, shoes are usually ubiquitous. They're always fresh, always everywhere and typically gratis.

Until now.

Last spring, Nike and Vanessa Bryant announced they were parting ways after the shoe giant's deal with the late Kobe Bryant ended. The sides are still talking with the hope they can eventually come to terms, sources told ESPN, but currently the partnership is off. There had already been production delays that prevented players from getting their normal supply during the 2020-21 season, and for now, there are no more Kobes being produced.

Suddenly, the most popular sneaker among NBA players is also the hardest to get.

"If you don't already have them," says Portland Trail Blazers forward Larry Nance, "you're not getting them."

Kobe Bryant's signature Nike sneaker had become unquestionably the most popular shoe for NBA players in recent years. During the 2019-20 season, more than 100 players were wearing the Kobe 4 Protro, a retro re-release of a sneaker Bryant originally wore in 2008. Today's players love the design, the feel and the statement of the Kobes.

"This generation looks at Kobe like our Jordan," says Chicago Bulls guard DeMar DeRozan, known in the league as the dean of the Kobe shoe devotees. "It's a great shoe to wear. Guys really fell in love with it."

In the Orlando bubble in 2020, just months after Bryant's tragic death, nearly one-third of the 330 or so players were wearing a version of Kobe's signature shoe, and that figure was growing. Over the past two years, a number of players who'd previously been with Under Armour and Adidas did not have their sneaker endorsement contracts renewed, a trend that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the new sneaker free agents went looking for Kobes. It all adds up to a large contingent who now have a source problem for their Kobe needs.

There are still supplies on sale at some retailers, but not in great numbers in the sizes NBA players typically need. The scarcity of larger sizes has driven a pricing boom on secondary shoe resale websites like StockX, GOAT and eBay.

NBA players who wear size 14 or larger are looking at spending at least $800 for the most basic models of Kobes, and that's not what they typically wear. But the players are paying, with several telling ESPN they've spent more than five figures buying supplies of Kobes on the secondary market since last spring and summer.

"I'm not going into a store and finding a [size] 17 in a Kobe. No way," says Anthony Davis, who switched to the Kobes when he joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019. "I mean, it's guys' favorite shoes. ... A lot of people are inspired by him and the shoe feels amazing. All of them feel amazing."

Players previously used to wearing whatever colors they wanted -- particularly after the league relaxed its rules around sneakers before the 2018-19 season -- are now scouring the web and trying to hunt forgotten stockpiles to get shoes to wear in games. And they're competing against each other for the available large sizes in the marketplace.

"If you weren't in on them for the last few years," says DeRozan, a longtime Kobe model enthusiast, "you're having a tough time."

Kobes are now considered "deadstock," taking them into a vintage market that ups the ante. NBA players have chased deadstock shoes for years, often to add to their collections to wear or display off the court. Miami Heat forward P.J. Tucker is known for wearing high-end vintage models in games, but he's an outlier.

It's also not unheard of for players to occasionally buy shoes for game usage. Taylor says he sometimes helped players like former Thunder center Steven Adams, who wears size 19 and really liked the way Derrick Rose's older Adidas models fit him, spend a few hundred dollars to chase down extra pairs. More commonly around the league, players wear what they're paid to wear and there's almost never a thought to supply.

The current situation around Kobes is a whole new game, even for players paid to wear Nikes. Giddey, who signed a multi-year deal with Nike before the season, and players like him are spending more than $1,500 on pairs of Kobes right now as they try to stock up for this season and beyond. Their agents are sniffing around for them, calling in favors and hunting the secondary market for their clients but without much success.

"I've had a few guys reach out to me for help," says Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker said. "I'll never run out of Kobes."

Booker and DeRozan have a supply of PEs, shorthand for Player Exclusives, that Nike has set them up with as brand ambassadors for years. But they're in an elite class. The shortage is particularly hitting young players who adore Bryant and his shoe line but haven't had the benefit of being in the league long enough to create a backlog.

"I'm working on it every day," says New Orleans Pelicans rookie Trey Murphy, who wore a pair of Kobes gifted to him by a teammate to start the season. "It's hard out there right now. I'm not DeMar DeRozan."

But even DeRozan can't be DeRozan.

"I used to play in a pair once or twice and then give my shoes away to fans," DeRozan says. "I may not be able to do that as much."

The rumors of the end of the Bryant family agreement with Nike started circulating last season before becoming official in April. Nike reps quietly told team equipment managers to prepare their Kobe guys for an end.

"Some of us got the word and we started hoarding them," says Phoenix Suns forward Jae Crowder. "By the time the news came out, I had banked up enough for about two years."

Stars with major shoe deals like LeBron James, who has given molds of his feet to Nike so custom shoes feel broken in on first wear, break out a new pair each game. Some players will wear them for a couple games. Crowder says his two-year supply was 100 pairs, as he usually goes through about 50 in a year. Davis, on the other hand, uses fewer, as he says he will use around 20-25 pairs of his shallow Kobe supply this season.

Some players without a similarly deep supply have already been forced to switch. Several equipment managers say players have switched to the plentiful Nike Kyrie Irving Low model, which has design similarities to the Kobe model, this season. Others are using Nike's new more generic line, the GT. But many custom shoes have been delayed as Nike and other shoe retailers deal with factory shutdowns in Asia due to COVID-19.

In the meantime, the players who still have Kobes are trying to get the most out of each box.

"The guys I have wearing Kobes are wearing them until they damn near fall apart," one equipment manager says.

When discussing this situation with ESPN, players repeatedly expressed hope that Nike and the Bryant estate can come to a new agreement, a talking point that's been pervasive among sneakerheads this fall. But even if that comes to pass, it would be a long time before Kobes are available again -- to players or anyone else. Product lines typically take Nike 12-16 months to produce, sources say, and that was before the pandemic disrupted global supply chains.

Either way, as this season rolls on and the supplies of the remaining Kobes begin to dwindle with no replacements, the demand of the late Hall of Famer's beloved shoe design will only increase. In a time when some players are dabbling in cryptocurrency investments, there may be a new exchange developing as more players get desperate.

"I've always had so many pairs but I'm looking at them differently now. Guys are asking me [for them] but I can't go through them like I did," DeRozan says. "If it gets bad, I may have to even go to my secret vault."
Click to expand...


All Nike's fault.

They should've gave Vanessa what she wanted.
 
greekgator said:
Yeah and if you look at Nikes other sig lines it makes you wonder if Nike smoking crack rock. Kyrie, KD, PG lines all suck, Giannis is pretty subpar and Lebrons have been hit or miss. Kobes line is worn the most by NBA players.
Click to expand...

it's actually wild to think about. the money is basically guaranteed for nike at this point.

put the shoe on nikeid. everyone eats, no bots, no resellers, and everyone makes whatever design they want.
 
greekgator said:
Yeah and if you look at Nikes other sig lines it makes you wonder if Nike smoking crack rock. Kyrie, KD, PG lines all suck, Giannis is pretty subpar and Lebrons have been hit or miss. Kobes line is worn the most by NBA players.
Click to expand...
Most of those lines have been trash

I think Gianni’s outside the first have been absolutely terrible. KDs sucked since the 8
 
"I've always had so many pairs, but I'm looking at them differently now. Guys are asking me [for them], but I can't go through them like I did," DeRozan says. "If it gets bad, I may have to even go to my secret vault."
Click to expand...

we wanna see what's in that vault deebo :nerd:
 
Kobekobe said:
it's actually wild to think about. the money is basically guaranteed for nike at this point.

put the shoe on nikeid. everyone eats, no bots, no resellers, and everyone makes whatever design they want.
Click to expand...

You're right but Nike doesn't want that.
 
Kobekobe said:
it's actually wild to think about. the money is basically guaranteed for nike at this point.

put the shoe on nikeid. everyone eats, no bots, no resellers, and everyone makes whatever design they want.
Click to expand...
Exactly. People would be buying kobes for decades. Especially if they did NikeID. Nike continually ****s on thier customers.
 
Still cant blame for Nike walking away if Vaness was asking for Lebron money. Demand from players is very different to consumers, regular dudes dont go through 50 pairs a season.
I have 4 pairs of protros... they gon last me a longggg time. Would assume most of us aint playing regularly anymore.
 
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