Kobe Sole Collector

strong 

Sole Collector

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The Zoom Kobe IV is equipped with all the tools for the game’s most thrilling player.

foreword

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Kobe has also set a new standard in terms of becoming an international star. His popularity, particularly in Asia, is something that is greater than anything seen before in an NBA player. In the following pages, you’ll read more about how Kobe offers a truly unique insight into his needs as a player, and thanks to him, the Nike team has been given a helping hand in taking their footwear to the next level. —Zac Dubasik

Retrospective Since signing with Nike in 2003, Kobe has played in, inspired and helped design some of the most high-performance kicks in recent memory. Take a look back through the history of his Nike line.

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a conversation with Kobe Kobe dissects his latest kicks, looks back on his entire line, and reminisces about his Olympic Gold in this in-depth interview.

40 Of course, none of this would be possible, though, without Kobe, who has pushed the limits to such an amazing extent as a player that he has inspired the footwear to keep up the pace. It takes a special athlete to be able to communicate so accurately why something works for him, and why something doesn’t. Kobe is just such an athlete, and he uses this innate ability to inspire everyone around him. The result of this has come in the form of many of the best performing shoes in recent memory. He not only plays with an intensity rarely seen in professional sports, he approaches his footwear design with the same passion and knowledge that he displays on court.

greatness It has been quite a journey for Kobe since he first entered the NBA straight out of high school. Along with the many awards, accomplishments and records, he has also earned the respect of some of the sneaker industry’s top names as not only an amazing player, but a player who has helped push the performance of today’s top kicks.

Pushing Performance he Zoom Kobe IV is an exceptional shoe that was made for an exceptional   player and created by an exceptional team. It is a sneaker that could have never come to fruition without the absolute top efforts of everyone involved. From Kobe himself requesting the industry-defying lowtop cut, to the breakthrough material known as Flywire, to Nike legend Eric Avar’s sleek and modern design, the Zoom Kobe IV represents the best of the best.

Foreword

How low can you go? In the history of basketball, hi-tops have been the standard in footwear. But the Zoom Kobe IV is looking to break that trend. What do the studies say?

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Fly wire technology In terms of lightweight support, Flywire has been an industry changer. This performance breakthrough didn’t happen overnight, though. Read the story of its over seven-year journey.

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zoom kobe iv Sneakerphile From the materials, to the cut, to the inspirations, here is the full breakdown of the Zoom Kobe IV, straight from the source.

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Collector: gou yu Guo Yu has compiled a collection of Kobe memorabilia that could humble even the most die-hard L.A. fans – and he has done so all the way from China. Find out how he got started and where he received his favorite pair.

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Mentu Kobe Bryant leads China’s finest up-and-coming players in their pursuit of basketball greatness. He also lends his heard to a player in need.

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greatness

The Responsibilit y of Words by Zac Dubasik

ome athletes are born great. Some have to push themselves through years of training and dedication to their sport to achieve greatness. Kobe Bryant is not an example of just one of those types of athletes, but both. By choosing to push his natural talent to even greater heights by putting in the long hours and hard work to improve, he has managed to improve upon his already stellar skills. Throughout his already tremendous career, he has shown a passion, skill and knowledge that has rarely been seen. And the incredible thing is that he is still in his prime.

AFP / Getty Images

Bryant began his NBA career as few have, going straight from high school to the League. After excelling academically and achieving nationwide recognition for his basketball skills while attending Philadelphia’s Lower Merion High School, Kobe was selected 13th in the 1996 Draft by the Charlotte Hornets (the team now resides in New Orleans). The Hornets didn’t play into Kobe’s plans, however, and less than a week later, his draft rights were traded to the team he still calls his own: the Los Angeles Lakers.

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greatness the people, he’s out and about. You can see him shopping, or wherever.” Because he manages Kobe’s business relations with Nike, Harrison has had the opportunity to travel him to Asia. He adds that, “when he does a clinic, he’s giving a lot of himself. He’s kind of making himself vulnerable. I think they really appreciate that. He approaches it just like he does basketball.” Archie McEachern has also spent years working with Kobe, beginning with product in Nike Basketball, and now serving as General Manager of AsiaPacific Basketball. “Kobe Bryant has become an icon at the highest level of proportion,” he begins “He is a world champion, he’s an MVP, he’s a great individual and he’s also a great teammate. He’s respectful; he’s had great engagement with the Chinese consumer.”

Kobe wasted no time exciting the fans by winning the NBA Slam Dunk Contest in his rookie season. By his third season, after firmly establishing himself as an important part of the team and playing an increasing number of minutes, he was added to the Lakers’ starting lineup. Just a year later, in 1999, the legendary coach Phil Jackson took over coaching duties for the Lakers. With the pieces of Bryant and Jackson, along with Shaquille O’Neal in place, the Lakers went on to win three consecutive titles in 2000, 2001 and 2002, cementing their place as one of the NBA’s greatest legacies. In the season immediately following that championship run, Bryant put together one of the most amazing individual achievements the NBA has ever seen. While averaging over 30 points for the season, Kobe strung together nine consecutive games where he scored at least 40 points. He was also named to both the All-NBA and All-Defensive First Teams, posting career highs in steals, rebounds and assists that season. Of all of Kobe’s individual accomplishments, though, the one that truly stands out – perhaps even over his 2008 MVP award – is the 2006 game in which he single-handedly scored 81 points. It was the second highest single-game point total in NBA history, behind only the 100 points scored by Wilt Chamberlain in 1962.

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He has also built up an exceptional library of signature shoes after signing with Nike in 2003. From the now-classic Huarache 2K4, to the shoe he wore for the 81-point game – the Zoom Kobe 1 – to this year’s daring low-cut Zoom Kobe IV, his sneakers have offered some of the highest levels of performance and technology ever seen from Nike. With those three World Championships, an NBA MVP award, a successful sneaker line, and now an Olympic Gold Medal, Kobe Bryant seems to have all the makings of a basketball legend. His accolades and accomplishments put him right up there with all of the greats, like MJ, Magic and Bird. But there is one thing he has that they didn’t – the world. Kobe’s appeal on the international level, and even more specifically in Asia, is something that hasn’t previously been seen in a basketball player. That’s not to say that the aforementioned hall-of-famers weren’t international stars, but never has an NBA player permeated the Pacific like Kobe.

is taking on the same significance and cultural importance it had in the U.S. in the late ’80s and ’90s. This passion for hoops has been building up for years, and thanks to the Bejing Games, it has become apparent to the world. This has only been aided by Bryant’s presence. His diverse, yet smooth style of play, mixed with his leadership and killer instinct, topped off with his history of accomplishment on both the personal and team levels have endeared him to the fans. According to Kris Aman, VP/GM of Athletic Training at Nike, who previously spent many years working in Nike Basketball, Kobe is an athlete “that represents the best in individual skills, that represents the ultimate professionalism when he goes to a foreign market.” But he does more than just respect the culture and people. According to Aman, “He is there to be a teacher.” Kobe has now been traveling to Asia for several years, teaching and sharing the game with communities just waiting to soak up his knowledge and experience. He has responded with an equally open mind to learn, too.

The game of basketball is going through a period of rapid growth in Asia, fueled by the Chinese market – and at the center of that basketball world is the popularity of Kobe Bryant. Characterized by a strong, aggressive and athletic style of play, basketball in China

Nico Harrison, Nike’s U.S. Pro Basketball Director, has known Kobe since he first signed with the brand, and says that when Kobe travels to the region “he doesn’t just go do an appearance and leave. He’s really ingrained in the culture. He’ll go eat the food, he gets with

Even during the off-time between games, he still managed to deliver quite a performance. Harrison tells a story of when he and Kobe tried to catch the second half of a women’s basketball game. Many of the other USA basketball players were already in attendance, and during the halftime of the game, these players had the attention of the fans. “So, all the fans are down there trying to get to LeBron and Chris Paul,” he begins. The bus they were riding could not make it to the correct entrance, so the two were then forced to enter through the arena’s main entrance. “Kobe said he never had walked in the front doors of an arena since his rookie year,” Harrison laughs. “So, we walk in, and as soon as we do, I’m like, ‘Hey, Kobe walk fast.’ It’s just me and him – there’s no security, no nothing,” he continues. “All of sudden you start hearing the buzz going. And we walk in, and then we go

kind of inside into the little inner ring, and all of a sudden you hear people just like buzzing. So, he tucks his necklace in, gets underneath my right arm, and we shoot through the crowd and get to where the little roped-off section where all the rest of the NBA guys are, and the fans just start chanting, “Kobe, Kobe, Kobe.” And they almost forgot about what they were doing with LeBron and those guys before. It was surreal.” Following this Olympic appearance, U.S. fans seem to have taken notice of his massive international popularity. Kobe’s visibility and recognition appear to be at-all time highs back home as well. Taking back the Gold was an honor for Kobe. “When that moment finally came, and we’re all together [at] that podium standing in front of the crowd, and you look out there and see all these USA fans waving flags, with tears in their eyes, and their hands over their heart, there’s no moment that can ever top that,” he said. Kobe’s Gold Medal, along with each and every one of his countless accomplishments, didn’t happed by accident. According to Harrison, Kobe “always says having natural, God-given talent is responsibility. So, it’s his responsibility to make

Image courtesy of Nike

AFP / Getty Images

With his presence in Asia at an all-time high, the Olympics couldn’t have come at a more ideal time for Kobe. The eyes of the entire planet were focused intensely on China for the Beijing Games, and one of the biggest features of those games was Kobe Bryant and the USA Basketball team. And for those that didn’t previously know the love he felt in China, it became obvious the moment he appeared at the Opening Ceremonies, entering to one of the loudest

ovations of the entire Games. It was the first-ever Olympic Games that Kobe had played in, and the urgency and intensity he played with made it apparent how important the Games were to him. He also endeared himself to the fans by displaying that as one of the best offensive players in the game, he had the work ethic to take his defensive to the next level as well.

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NBAE / Getty Images

greatness

Kobe’s desire for greatness, mixed with his finely tuned sense of his own body’s needs, have made him an athlete unlike any Nike has ever developed shoes for. His insights have allowed Nike’s team to go deeper and deeper

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into projects than they had previously imagined. “Most basketball players aren’t that cerebral when it comes to insights into a shoe and what he wants. It’s definitely a different level. He’s very specific,” notes Harrison. When teamed with a designer who has an equally elevated level of insight, the product can be pushed that much higher. “The relationship between Eric Avar and him is really a synergy that’s hard to duplicate,” beings McEachern. “You have individuals – Eric on the design side and Kobe on the basketball side – that are the best at what they do. And they are all about pushing the needle to seek the ultimate performance and how do you continue to get better.” The team of Kobe and Avar has embraced the process, and some industrychanging footwear has been the result. “He has unconventional ways of looking at things that force you to solve the problem differently,” says Aman. The development of the Zoom Kobe IV as a low-top serves as a perfect example of how Kobe’s confidence as a player, knowledge of his own body, and fearlessness allowed them to try something so drastic. And that small advantage Kobe felt he could gain in speed and quickness by having a lower cut provided more than enough reasoning to go through with the project. Kobe even stays connected at the level of keeping up to date with which colorways release next, where they will be available and how many

pairs are made. McEachern sees Kobe’s insights changing “how we’re now creating footwear and how we are connecting with consumers,” he begins. “He has kinda pushed us back to product excellence as the lead, and he’s pushed us back to seeking the ultimate solutions for the game.” This influence of the entire direction of basketball footwear couldn’t have come at a better time. The sleek, low-profile, and well-cushioned designs are not only what Kobe wants, but also the style preferred by the emerging Asian market, which is led by China. With a renewed energy surrounding the NBA this season, largely thanks to an exciting rookie class and continued excitement from the Summer Games, Kobe has lead the Lakers to an exceptional start. His influence in the U.S. and Asia is becoming evident in not only his star power on court, but with the way he is influencing the culture of basketball. Harrison has seen an important transition in China especially. “They’ve grabbed onto the culture of basketball, which takes it to another level. It takes it beyond just the courts, but outside the courts.” As a player, as a worldwide ambassador to the sport and as an influence in the sneaker world, Kobe has taken on the role as a leader – doing this with intensity, and acting as if it were his responsibility to do so.

Image courtesy of Nike

sure he gets the best out of it and not just rest on his laurels – and not just be good, but be the best. So, that’s what motivates him to work out as hard as he does.” That passion and intensity even inspire those around Kobe. “He pushes you to bring out your best,” begins McEachern. “He does that as a basketball player, he does that as a team leader, and he does that working with brands – and specifically with us. He really pushed us to deliver innovation at the highest level we can.” From his body to his mind, Kobe works tirelessly to gain each and every advantage he sees an opening for, however big or small it may be. He approaches both his training and even his footwear with the same passion he displays when he plays the game. “He has that intensity,” says Aman. “He respects the game at that level of intensity, and he also respects the sneaker game at that level of intensity. He’s not afraid to call people out, and he’s not afraid to get called out. That’s just one of the reasons that I respect him at such a high level – because he’s not just telling, he’s listening. And to me, that’s always a sign of the great ones who are able to do that.”

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retrospective

In Retrospect The History of Kobe’s Kicks

Words by Nick DePaula Photographu by Steve Mullholand

ust after the turn of the millennium, there was quite a bit of uncertainty about Nike’s stable of basketball athletes. Michael Jordan had just retired after an illustrious career, only to return and briefly play for the Washington Wizards for just two seasons. Surely, that didn’t mean much in terms of having a long-term face of the brand that would carry the brand deep into the future. At the time, Kevin Garnett was no longer a Nike athlete, LeBron James wasn’t yet signed to his monstrous endorsement deal, and there was still a void in the realm of superstar athletes as Tim Duncan’s personality didn’t quite excite consumers, and the youthful skill of Gary Payton seemed to be diminishing. Vince Carter may have been leap-frogging actual humans while dunking, but there still wasn’t a proven franchise athlete that the brand could depend on. Luckily for Nike, Kobe Bryant was a sneaker-free agent of sorts, and the brand was looking at the threetime champion as a vehicle for not only the future of Nike Basketball, but also the future of performance footwear and innovation. It was around that same time that Nike had just opened its Innovation Kitchen, an advanced timeline sector of the company’s headquarters where designers and developers would be given the space to work years ahead on projects of the future, toying with everything from new materials to new cushioning systems and anything that could potentially revolutionize or improve their current athletic categories. Just before Kobe Bryant was officially signed to the brand, current Nike CEO Mark Parker called upon accomplished designer Eric Avar, who had previously had great success with the signatures lines of Penny Hardaway, Gary Payton and Jason Kidd. “I had just transitioned from in-line

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basketball down to the Kitchen, and actually, I was looking forward to having a break from basketball,” admits Avar. “I was looking forward to working on running, cross training and other things. I was there for all of two months and Mark Parker called, and he said, ‘Hey, we’re thinking of signing Kobe, and we would like you to work on his product.’” The return to working on basketball product would be different for Avar this time around as compared to the decade he had spent within Nike Basketball, as he would now be working out of the Innovation Kitchen and be given more resources, more room to try new things and more freedom to attack high performance with no restraints. He would also be working with Kobe Bryant on creating a series of signature sneakers that could speak to his sleek style of play and his unyielding demand for excellence. “From there, Mark, myself and Tinker [Hatfield] went down to L.A. and met with Kobe for the first time,” Avar reflects. “We sat across the table, and I went in with an open mind, and right from the start I could just tell that he was so passionate about basketball, but [also] about product and design as well. He literally blew me away within the first two minutes of talking with him. I had worked with a lot of athletes prior to that, but it was just an eye-opening experience for me, and I was amazed at how intelligent, articulate and passionate he was about every aspect of the game, product, design, performance and aesthetics. Right from that moment I was super excited to be working with Kobe.” After that initial meeting, the tone had been set, and the duo was ready to tackle the performance basketball industry head-on.

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retrospective

air Flight Huarache

While the Zoom Huarache 2K4 might be the first Nike shoe you recall Kobe Bryant regularly wearing, the Flight Huarache was actually what he rocked during the beginning on the 2003-2004 NBA season in player exclusive Lakers colors. Just before he debuted the Huarache 2K4, Bryant paid homage to the ancestry of the line, which began a decade prior with enhanced fit and targeted support in mind. The shoe featured quite a few overlays, but it was also very minimal along the collar, allowing for a conforming fit unique to each wearer. Legendary designer Tinker Hatfield reflects about how the entire Huarache series almost never was … So the Huarache concept came out of a singular experience I had. This doesn’t always happen this way. But I was water-skiing one day, and I was sitting in the water slalom skiing. Both feet were actually in these neoprene booties, and you’re strapped in. So I’m getting ready to get pulled out of the water, and I got yanked up and either the boat wasn’t going fast enough or I wasn’t doing something right, but I crashed. So I’m sitting there, waiting to get pulled up again, and I’m looking down, and I’m just kind of waiting, and I’m looking at how these neoprene booties sort of fit nicely around [my feet]. They just sort of conform around anybody’s ankle. The neoprene bootie in a water ski fits a bunch of different people, so I’m thinking, “That’s kind of cool,” and then … whup! [laughs] In the middle of that thought, all of a sudden I’m skiing again. [laughs]. So afterwards, I skied on, and then I got out of the water, and I was just looking at the booties, and I’m just going, “That’s one of the problems we have with shoes, they don’t really conform to different shapes of feet very well,” and I said, “Neoprene does that.” I went back to my studio a couple days later and started sketching up neoprene-based shoes. A lot of people think that Huarache comes from the Sock Racer, but it doesn’t come from the

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Sock Racer at all. The Sock Racer was stretchy [in the forefoot], and I’m going, “That’s not really where you want stretch.” You want stretch to be [along the collar] where your feet are all different shapes. You want it to fit better [at the collar], that’s where shoes should fit better, right there. So I started sketching up booties and then realized that it needed, for support, some sort of exoskeleton, because I thought it would be cool to be seen. So the whole exoskeletal approach to the shoe design sort of came out of this sort of desire to want to develop this Dynamic Fit shoe. In some ways I guess you could say it has an internal bootie. It’s not really internal; you see most of it in this or in the original running shoe. I started drawing this exoskeleton over it, and I took it into Sandy Bodecker’s office, this first sketch, and it’s in archives. We actually have it. The first sketch sort of showed this neoprene idea with this exoskeleton over it and Sandy, he thought it was really cool, and in a red pen he just wrote, “Sneaker of the Gods.” Like it looked like something that Zeus would wear, like a sandal, kind of like a sandal. I was not thinking sandal or Huarache or anything at the time, it was Sandy who wrote “Sneaker of the Gods” and [he was] kind of thinking, “Yeah, this is what Zeus would wear or Mercury or somebody.” So I came back, I’m going, “It’s sort of like a sandal.” And then I’m going, “I don’t want to call it a foot sandal or a something.” So a lot of us had been to Mexico, and I’m thinking, “Instead of calling it a sandal, I’ll call it a Huarache.” So that’s how the whole thing got started. The idea was interesting in that it focused on the fit of the shoe around your ankle and your heel and your instep rather than sort of being stretchy and conforming up in the toes. Sock Racers always make my toes go numb, so the last thing I wanted to do was create another one of those, because

the stretchiness was pulling on my toenails, and it just made my toes feel funny. This was a minimalist concept of what we called conforming, or in our case, we called it Dynamic Fit with the exoskeletal support system. We didn’t need a heel counter, and then we combined it with this sort of cupping. As I was finishing up the running shoe, which, by the way, was developed by Michael Donohue, and Sandy Bodecker got involved, and Mike Quinn got involved … some of our very best people today were some of our very best people way back, in a different role. Quickly we realized that this had more legs than just being in a running shoe. So, I thought, “Well, I’ll just sort of take this same idea, and transfer it into both a cross training shoe and a basketball shoe.” Kind of the big three at the time: running, cross training and basketball. I did this sketch [for cross training] that pretty much mimicked the running shoe. It was very similar, but with an extra strap for the upper to go up higher in a hi-top silhouette and then a deeper, bigger midsole cradle and then, of course, the rubber was different than we would have on our running shoe. So my recollection is that I had this sketch, the original sketch of the basketball shoe, and I handed that off to Eric Avar. And he was still pretty young at the time, so it was just sort of given to him to finish it all off. So he finished his design, put in some of the other little details, and he did the outsole, too. I didn’t do that particular outsole. He took it to its conclusion and that was because I was busy working on the cross trainer. He was doing this one, and the running shoe was kind of just up and rolling. So that’s really how it got sort of birthed. The running shoe, by the way, it didn’t book at all, the original Huarache shoe, it did not book.

It was going die. Only 50 pairs were booked by maybe only one store. I remember Tom Parks saying, “You know, it’s just a niche product, [we] probably shouldn’t even make it.” Tom Archie believed in that running shoe so much that he ordered 5,000 pairs, and he didn’t even have the authority to. He was the PLM for running, and he ordered 5,000 pairs without bookings, which Nike, at least then, never would have done. He just did it anyway, which is awesome. That was so cool. Then he was kind of in a sense on the hook for these 5,000 pairs. [laughs] He took them to the New York Marathon, put them in our booth at the New York Marathon, and started selling them. He sold them all, and people were putting them on, and it was one of those rare products that looked different, but when you put it on it also felt different and felt different for the better because it sort of fit in a new and more conforming way, and going back to the water ski analogy, it sort of just conformed to your particular shape, and it was interesting. Now there’re 5,000 pairs out there, and the orders just start rolling in. And then the rest is history for that running shoe that, I think, at the end of that first year had sold 250,000 pairs. So, we were probably a little more able then to change and ramp up production than we are today just because of the way factories were a little looser. So they were able to ramp up production and get more shoes into the marketplace, and then the design stayed around. They kept it for the following year or two maybe. In the meantime, what was cool about the basketball shoe was that the Fab 5 at the University of Michigan were given these shoes, and they all wore them. They thought they were great. This shoe developed a life of its own partly because there was no basketball shoe that ever looked like that before it, and these guys all at the University of Michigan were all wearing them. Again, it was an explosion after that. That’s how I remember the story. … Zoom Kobe IV

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retrospective

air Zoom Huarache

With Kobe Bryant now part of the Nike Basketball family, Eric Avar and the team of developers he was working with in the Innovation Kitchen aimed to provide him with a more modern piece of performance footwear rooted in light weight, support and minimalism. “It wasn’t a pure Flight shoe, it wasn’t a Force shoe and it wasn’t an Uptempo shoe; it was just a shoe unto itself,” explains Avar. It drafted back to Tinker Hatfield’s original Flight Huarache, as the 2K4 would incorporate a similar ankle area cutaway, but it also took on a more streamlined and simplistic aesthetic based on the needs of Bryant. “He’s an extremely dynamic and versatile player,” says Avar. “He can be extremely quick, but at the same time he can be extremely explosive and powerful. Early on, we just figured that his product had to be versatile, and it really had to cover off all ends of the spectrum. It had to be the best of everything, like Kobe’s style and his game. That was the thinking with the 2K4.” From there, Avar designed the shoe to incorporate a collection of proven components that would help in the goal of making the shoe a dominant performer. The upper was comprised of a simple leather base with a toe cap for reinforcement, and the heel was locked in place with the help of a TPU external counter. A breathable, perforated Neoprene tongue lined the shoe, and the strap along the collar added an extra sense of security and fit. “We used Zoom Air, kept the midsole heights low to the ground and used a simple, almost one-piece upper,” notes Avar. “It was very lightweight, very minimal and just what you need.” While the Zoom Huarache 2K4 became a staple shoe on the feet of nearly all of Nike’s collegiate- and professional-

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level athletes, it was quite a departure for the brand, as during recent years before it, they often relied on more visible cushioning elements in their flagship and most featured models. It was for good reason that the brand shifted away from previous cushioning systems like Shox or Tubular Air, as the hope with the 2K4 was that its simple nature and no-frills approach to performance would lead to its overall playability being the focal point of the shoe and not a specific technology, gimmick or seasonal theme. “The 2K4 was designed around the best of all worlds,” says Avar. “At the time, there was a lot of visible technology going on, and we envisioned this being much more [of] a simple, modern product grounded in classic elements. At the time, some of the classic elements of basketball shoes were getting lost.” Right from the start, the 2K4 was a huge success, as its classic lines translated well for team product at the college level, and yet the more flashy and personalized Lakers colorways Kobe Bryant was wearing at the time took on a buzz of their own. The 2K4 served to be an excellent starting point for Kobe Bryant’s footwear coming from Nike, as it would lay the foundation for the contoured fit, responsive cushioning, lateral stability and attention to detail that Bryant’s line would later become known for. “He said that the 2K4 was one of the first shoes that he felt like was an extension of him,” Avar reveals. “That Nike had captured the essence of his performance style. That’s manifested itself in some of his other product that we’ve done and certainly in some of the future product that we’re working on.”

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retrospective

air Zoom Huarache

After the tremendous success that the Zoom Huarache 2K4 experienced just a year prior, Nike Basketball now had a market of fans eagerly awaiting the next iteration of the Huarache line. They were rightfully expecting the same top-notch performance attributes, and the next evolution of the line wouldn’t disappoint, as the Eric Avar-designed Huarache 2K5 featured a similar collar strap for protection and once again incorporated the highly responsive Zoom Air for cushioning. “We felt like we had something good going with the 2K4, and Tinker [Hatfield] always says, ‘Every third Jordan or so, you really change things up from a performance and construction standpoint and from a visual standpoint,’” says Avar. “The 2K5 was coming very much on the heels of the 2K4, and we felt like we had a good thing going. And we didn’t want to reinvent the wheel too much with this one.” Rather than entirely re-craft the look of the Huarache 2K4 that people seemed to be falling in love with, Avar looked instead to the performance attributes of the shoe that could use some improvement. “We were wondering, though, ‘Could we make it a little lighter, could we make it a little more dynamic?’” recalls Avar. “We were working with Free at the time, so we wondered if we could make it more flexible and make it have a little more responsive toe-off.” Avar, who also designed the original Nike Free 5.0, sure enough decided to incorporate what he learned from that running shoe and several of its Free principles into the 2K5, as he carved out weight along the midsole and added in segmented flex grooves for increased flexibility. Along the heel, the crash pad and point of contact

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was also more radiused for a more natural landing and improved heel-to-toe transition. But, the biggest shift from the 2K4 to the 2K5 was certainly the newly segmented flex grooves along the forefoot’s midsole and the more pronounced outrigger, which provided some stellar lateral stability. While the Zoom Huarache 2K5 was once again a team shoe worn at the collegiate and professional levels, Kobe Bryant was a headlining act for the shoe, and he could often be seen wearing it in a mean Black/Canyon Gold colorway and various other Lakers-related styles. The Huarache 2K5 was also the shoe that debuted his Sheath logo, as three colorways that released in the summer of 2005 incorporated his logo just above the external counter along the heel. While the shoe featured several trusty performance attributes, it also included the use of laser etching, as the toe and tongue featured hits of leather removed with the help of a laser machine for an added graphic element. The 2K5 wasn’t as revolutionary as some of the sneakers to come in the Zoom Kobe line, nor was it as iconic and simplistic as the Zoom Huarache 2K4, but it did do a great job of foreshadowing the role that Nike’s Free ideology would have in Kobe Bryant’s sneakers in the coming years. It also began the evolution of the outrigger within the line, which seemingly becomes more pronounced every year in order to support the lateral needs of the ever-active and explosive Bryant. More than anything else, it continued to build from the stellar on-court performance that brought the 2K4 such adoration, and it offered up several added benefits – like increased flexibility – along the way.

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retrospective

Zoom kobe After spending two seasons wearing both the Huarache 2K4 and 2K5 in several player exclusive colorways, the time came for Kobe Bryant to receive his very own signature shoe, and immediately there were several key components that had to be incorporated into his first sneaker. With designer Eric Avar away on medical leave, Nike Basketball Design Director Ken Link stepped in and crafted the Zoom Kobe I, which proved to be full of things he learned from his previous shoes and also full of personal touches and core attributes specific to Kobe’s needs. “I think the best thing about Kobe is when he looks at a shoe, he wants to see himself and his game in his shoe,” says Link. “I think that’s one of the things about Kobe is that he gives so much information that it truly drives the process.” The shoe began as a modern approach to offering lateral support and stability in a cushioned ride, and right away, there was a move away from the strap that had become so recognizable on both the 2K4 and 2K5 before it. “He said he didn’t want one,” reveals Link. “We wanted to focus on the collar, and you’ll start to see it in other shoes [later in his line], because a lot of times he was already thinking about, ‘Could I get to a low?’ Getting to a low is not necessarily the easiest thing to do, but he felt like his game and where he was headed was getting to that low thought process.” It would be another three shoes before Bryant truly got into that low-cut height, but the Zoom Kobe I serves as a great opening to his signature series and included several performance merits. The heel and forefoot Zoom Air was carried over from the 2K series for outstanding cushioning, and at Kobe’s request, the shoe was more padded and cushioned at the expense of some weight. He was willing to sacrifice a few ounces in the shoe because he was just coming off of a summer

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of grueling two-a-day workouts and weighed in higher than he had any other season before at a chiseled 225 pounds. While the shoe may have clocked in at a slightly higher weight than his other shoes, it still included attributes of protection and support that his line has become known for, with the pronounced lateral outrigger providing the shoe with a stable base. Along the heel, a molded TPU wrap served as a chassis for the foot, helping Bryant as he quickly changed directions during games. “The back heel wrap was based more around [the thought] that you lock the heel in, and you’re cool,” says Link. “That has everything to do with the control of the foot.” For Bryant, the shoe was everything he needed at the time, offering a great multi-directional traction pattern, reliable support and the cushioned ride he demanded. The various colorways offered up were also extremely personal and specific to Bryant, like the Retro Nights version in the colors of the MPLS Lakers that paid tribute to retired former Lakers greats, as well as the Black/Varsity Maize colorway that was inspired by the movie Kill Bill and Kobe’s ability to be an assassin with the ball. It’s also a shoe that holds a special place in the hearts of both Kobe and Link, as he was wearing the White/Black/Varsity Purple on January 22, 2006 when he exploded for 81 points against the Toronto Raptors. It was one of those moments in Link’s life where he could recall exactly where he was and what he was doing. “I was in Taiwan

watching the game, and it was like, ‘He’s out of control.’ I’m thinking, ‘He could go for 100,’” Link says. “I remember it being big – it was in the paper the next day. I remember just thinking like, ‘Wow, when he wants to, no one can stop him.’” While some people thought afterwards that the Raptors simply didn’t bother to show up and gave Kobe free reign on scoring, Link remembers quite a different scene taking place as Bryant earned every last basket. “If you go back to those highlights, there were a lot of cats in his face, leaping, surprised as they can’t try and stop the shot. It was not old lady defense,” he jokes. Once the season concluded, Kobe had a full summer of workouts ahead of him and he began to reduce his weight and frame, getting to a more nimble playing style, but once again, he had the foresight to call out his specific needs in the Zoom Kobe I, that would most benefit his game at that time. “Kobe, he’s so far along the spectrum of what he expects out of a shoe and what he wants to put into it, and so he’s been there every step of the way,” says Link. It made things easy on Link, who had an articulate and decisive subject to work with and a set list of needs to infuse into Bryant’s first sneaker. “He really is ahead of his time, the way that he thinks about his game, the way he thinks about training for his game, the way he thinks about how his game interacts with the rest of his world and the world around it – he really gets that on a level that most people don’t get.” Zoom Kobe IV

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retrospective

Zoom kobe As Ken Link and Kobe Bryant paired up once again to work on his second signature sneaker, the Zoom Kobe II, they looked to innovate on many new fronts and take Bryant’s footwear to new levels of court feel and construction. Kobe had lost some weight and bulk from previous year, and now he was looking to take advantage of his explosive first step and slashing style of play. Rather than build directly from the Zoom Kobe I and its more sturdy construction, Link looked to Bryant’s favorite weapon of choice for his more stealth frame: the Huarache 2K4. “If you take the 2K4, a great shoe, how can you make it more flexible, less layers, lighter, lower to the ground and provide better cushioning?” questioned Link. “Could you really change one of the best playing shoes we’ve done? And could you take it to the next level for Kobe?” Surely those were the type of questions Link was hired to solve, so he set out to find the solutions for Kobe’s current set of needs. In order to make a shoe that sat lower to the ground and offered greater flexibility, Link and his crew of developers at Nike decided to incorporate the methodologies of both Nike Free and Nike Considered, which at first appeared to be a daunting task. Almost immediately, it was decided that this new approach to the shoe would fundamentally change the way it would be constructed, and for the first time in basketball a shoe was made with reduced waste, and without toxic chemicals or bonds, as the Zoom Kobe II was instead fully stitched throughout. The upper was comprised of a series of panels that worked to provide flexibility and targeted support, albeit in a single-layer construction. “The single-layer Considered upper was a way to get to a lighter, better system,” says Link. Rather than develop the shoe with a traditional midsole in mind, the shoe’s outsole featured a sidewall that crept up along the perimeter of the shoe, serving as a

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footbucket to provide the athlete with lateral support and protection. The shoe was also crafted differently in that the heel and forefoot Zoom Air cushioning units were embedded within the insole, which helped in ridding the shoe of its traditional midsole and allowed for it to sit just millimeters off of the ground. The outsole was then created with Nike’s Free principles in mind, as it incorporated a series of liner and lateral flex grooves for amazing flexibility never before seen in hoops footwear. The Zoom Kobe II became a new way to make a shoe. Unlike previous shoes that included the upper, the midsole and then the outsole, the Kobe II’s upper was stitched directly to the shoe’s footbucket, so it was the insole within providing all of the shoe’s cushioning. The result was a shoe that was lighter, lower and offered greater control of Bryant’s movements when planting and changing directions. “Kobe has an incredible first step, and we asked, ‘How do we get that separation [from his defenders] for him?’” Link recalls. “We feel that Free could give him great court-feel, and it’s going to give him that quick first step, and really let him feel the court and move with it.” Once again, it was the insights from Kobe Bryant through a series of discussions and meetings that helped Link and Nike Basketball create the Zoom Kobe II. Link feels that Kobe is able to provide those bits of inspiration simply because he thinks the game through differently than any other athlete, for basketball is truly his relentless passion. “Vincent Van Gogh was asked, ‘Do you love what you do?’ He said, ‘No, I obsess it.’ I think most people understand that people that are great at what they do, they don’t really love what they do, they obsess it. That obsession is what we see in Kobe,” Link says. “I don’t really know of any athlete on the court that lives and breathes basketball like Kobe.

He’s so intelligent, he’s so into it, and at the same time he just really loves it.” As the Zoom Kobe line would progress beyond the II, Bryant’s sneakers would always come back to the notion of daring to try new things, which can include new cushioning setups, new methods of construction and even new heights. “We want to think of Kobe in a test pilot type of manner, and how can we really begin to push the envelope with him and do some different things,” explains Link. “Instead of incrementally getting there, really taking a big leap as far as function goes. The Kobe II is not a complete departure for a Nike shoe, it’s more about how we got there and the functionality of it, and that when you put it on, it does have a different feel than most basketball shoes that we’ve done.” As Link would hand back the reigns of the Zoom Kobe line to designer Eric Avar after the II, it would also signal a noteworthy change in Kobe’s line, as Avar sought to remove Bryant’s series from the normal business sector and work on his signature line from the Innovation Kitchen. Now, the shoes were given more than the normal 14month window that products from the basketball category are provided for their design and development process. “I think the way that Eric works now is really important for a guy like Kobe and how important he is as a kind of test pilot for Nike,” Link says. “It’s important to get out, to get ahead of stuff and try new stuff. The vibe is really amazing, and it’s all because of that time to really work with the athlete, fine-tune the idea and push the envelope for performance. But, Eric recognizes that, ‘Hey, if I get out of this system, I can really help this guy out. I can really develop a bond and a true insight that will help the category beyond even what it thinks it can be and show it where it could be.’” As we’d find out in the coming years, Link couldn’t have been more right.

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retrospective

Zoom kobe After two great performance successes in the first two installments of the Zoom Kobe line, the Zoom Kobe III took on its own unique styling approach as designer Eric Avar came back into the fold. Avar again took Tinker’s advice of changing things up every so often in a shoe line to heart. This sneaker was undoubtedly unlike any other shoe in the line, as it took on a theme and aesthetic all its own. “He’s very, very big on analogies and metaphors,” Avar explains about Kobe’s approach to design. “That’s great from a design standpoint, because it’s just so rich in design inspiration and how you pull different inspirations. At that time, he had talked a lot about the black mamba snake and it being one of the most deadly and sleekest creatures on earth and how that related to his game.” It was the notion about the black mamba’s lethal abilities that immediately clicked in Avar’s mind, as he instantly knew where he planned to take Bryant’s third shoe. There were a few goals he had right from the start as he attacked the design of the shoe, namely, he wanted it to be lightweight, incredibly stable, and very sleek and comfortable against the foot. “We always talk about how good design is the perfect balance between science and art,” says Avar. “And it starts with science, and you always have to make sure that the product performs well. From there, how do you bring some of the performance to life, and how do you mix [in] the character of the athlete … so that, as Kobe says, the product becomes an extension of him.” With the Zoom Kobe III, the approach was actually fairly straightforward, as Avar and his team of developers implemented a decidedly protruding outrigger for unmistakable support, as well as Nike’s reassuring Zoom Air in both the heel and forefoot for cushioning. “The upper was really pretty simple. It was one piece of mesh with this injected, molded structure, and it was

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really breathable and very conforming,” notes Avar. “Kobe says it’s one of his favorite shoes to this day. The shoe played great, there was great cushioning and a great responsive feel.” Unlike the Zoom Kobe II before it, the III goes sans strap, and it includes a simple lacing setup for quick and easy entry along with a full Sphere Liner for amazingly plush comfort. One thing the shoe did carry over from Bryant’s previous signature kicks was the diamond touches along it – this time appearing in the forefoot’s traction pattern, as the configuration served as an ode to his daughter, Diamante. The shoe became an instant hit among basketball players for its incredibly light weight and closefitting comfort, though some people were certainly initially uncertain of its at-first awkward appearance. “We tried to bring some classic elements into this shoe, but we also pushed the needle with this one, and it’s kind of a love/hate shoe definitely with athletes and consumers,” admits Avar. “And every so often, I think that’s a good thing to do. You push the boundaries and have people question what footwear can be. We created a unique product that is very much manifested from Kobe’s unique style.” Despite whatever initial resistance to the shoe’s appearance there may have been, consumers were won over either once they wore the shoe themselves or because Kobe was having a career season in them. It would be the shoe he wore during his first-ever MVP Award season, and he also wore the Zoom Kobe III while leading the Lakers all the way to the NBA Finals. Either way, Eric Avar has no regrets for the shoe’s daring look. “First and foremost, it’s about performance,” he says. “It’s about creating the best product for him, but also for all ballers. He likes being on the cutting edge of new technology and new style, but also to push the dynamics of what a high-performance basketball shoe could be.” Zoom Kobe IV

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retrospective

hyperdunk Just as Eric Avar was beginning to put the final touches on the Zoom Kobe III, he had already begun working on the Nike Hyperdunk, a shoe that would not only hope to clock in at the lightest weight yet for a Nike Basketball shoe, but that also would provide more support and stability when compared to shoes of the past. Once again, Avar and his team of designers and developers tapped into Kobe Bryant and his explosive and active style of play as they began to build a shoe that would debut two of Nike’s newest technologies: Lunar Foam and Flywire. “We had presented some of the early concepts to him in terms of what we were doing and what we were thinking with Flywire,” explains Avar. “Of course he was very interested and liked the notion of new performance.” After getting some initial feedback from Kobe and beginning the design process, the team aimed for the shoe to be worn on quite the global platform during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. “It was never specifically meant to be Kobe’s signature shoe, but it was designed definitely with him in mind,” says Avar. “It starts with an athlete and a close relationship with a designer and a couple of innovators.” For Nike Basketball, the Hyperdunk looked to reintroduce some familiar ideas from previous shoes and also go where no shoe from the category had gone before. The shoe’s upper was entirely new to the sport, incorporating a large, clear panel of Nike’s Flywire construction that proved to not only reduce weight, but also provide great lockdown and support for the game’s most active players. With the help of Lunar Foam cushioning in the forefoot and an otherwise minimally constructed upper, the shoe was able to clock in several ounces lighter than previous shoes in the Zoom Kobe line, which are always considered to be the lightest basketball shoe for every season. Once the Summer Olympics rolled around, the shoe was validated quite well on court, as players of all sizes and positions relied on the sneaker during the world’s most important basketball tournament. From guards like Kobe Bryant to active big men like Yi Jianlian, the Hyperdunk was able to provide protection and containment for

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an array of players and at the same time provide the lightweight cushioned ride that all ballers dream of. Even before it was widely released, the shoe took on a life of its own thanks to one of Nike’s most extensive viral campaigns yet. Whether it was the creation of a fictitious Hyperdunk Recovery Center for victims of a posterizing dunk, or the series of viral videos that showed Kobe Bryant jumping over anything from a speeding Aston Martin to a pool of snakes, the Hyperdunk was given top billing from Nike on all fronts, and it looked to define a new era of design and performance going forward. “We’ve talked internally quite a bit about the Hyperdunk being a catalyst,” reveals Avar. “We’ve been doing a lot of great product in basketball, but I think the market, too, is somewhat turning, and I don’t know if it’s going to go back to the craziness from the ’90s, but in terms of new and honest innovations and a return to classic elements, I definitely feel like we’re seeing that shift. The Hyperdunk was a good catalyst to start and repoint the arrow for where basketball and product in general can go.” With the Hyperdunk serving as the signal of change in the direction of basketball shoes going to more minimal and simplistic uppers with protection and support where needed, Nike had made a statement that Flywire was here to stay. For ballers worldwide, the technology was a welcomed change, as it’s able to reduce the weight of a shoe without compromising its stability. “I think we knew after we made that one there – we were like, ‘Oh, shit, this could be something,’” says Jay Meschter, Innovation Director of Nike’s Innovation Kitchen. “This is the real deal, and we were pretty confident about that internally. To hold your tongue for four years about something you know that’s going to be impactful, that’s the hard part.” After the success that the Hyperdunk experienced on a global scale, Nike Basketball now had a new direction for the category, as the shoe’s lightweight and soft cushioning properties proved to work for people of all sizes and playing styles. Zoom Kobe IV

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interview

A Conversation with Words and Interview by Nick DePaula Photos courtesy of Nike

hen most athletes are asked about their sneakers, they oftentimes have only a surface level of interest in the details surrounding their footwear, from the way the shoe looks and is developed to the way it fits and feels. For some, they might not get past saying, “I just want them to be comfortable.” And that’s OK, because after all, it’s not their jobs to design and construct a high-performance basketball shoe to suit their needs. But that’s what makes Kobe Bryant so different. He’s not like most athletes. He not only understands on a technical level the componentry and logic behind his footwear, but he also guides the direction of design and innovation at Nike. If his shoes are too high from the ground and his court feel is being compromised, he knows it, and he’ll make sure the necessary changes are made. An obsessive analyst of game film and images of his playing form, he’ll even notice if his foot is sliding too far off of the footbed in shoes, and he’ll push for improvements in support to help with his reaction time. Rarely has an athlete been so involved in the back story of his shoes, calling out specific

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inspirations and needs in his footwear as he looks to improve not only the playability of his shoes every year, but also his performance on the basketball court as he seeks out an NBA championship every season. His sneakers are a crucial component to that quest. It was at Kobe’s request that the Zoom Kobe IV be made as a low-top in order to help with his range of motion, help reduce weight and also help the shoe become a part of him, ridding him of any worry or distraction that might prevent him from making that lightning-quick first step as he splits a pair of defenders and heads right towards the rim. He also has been closely involved in the development of every one of his shoes, and it’s his attention to detail and close working relationship with Nike Designer Eric Avar that allow the two to continue to push the envelope of design and the boundaries of performance. Follow along as Kobe has quite a lot to say about how his shoes are created and designed, how the Kobe Mentu project came about, and how important it was to capture a Gold Medal at this past August’s Beijing Summer Olympic Games.

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interview Nick DePaula: How long ago did you get involved with the process of designing the IV and what made you decide to go in the direction of a low-top shoe? Kobe Bryant: Maybe about a year and a half ago. It was a couple of reasons. One is, I wanted the foot to move comfortably. I felt like hi-tops at times can be a little bit restricting of your movement. Also, I wanted to decrease weight. I wanted to cut the shoe [in height], make it lighter, make it sleeker, and we were able to accomplish both of those things. How much of a role did your background of growing up in Italy around soccer have on this shoe? It actually just came from a functional point of view and just thinking about the game and how I feel when I play. I just wanted to have better range and flexibility within the ankle and be able to move and cut and not feel like that movement is restricted. I think how the soccer background came into play is understanding how much stress you put on your ankles and how hard you play the game. In soccer, you can still wear low-tops, and they put more stress on their ankles than we do, but they can still wear low-tops. So I think you need a confidence to be able to push the boundaries a little bit. Were you met with any resistance when you approached them with the idea? No, not really. They know that once I come up with an idea, whether it was with the 2K4 or all of the other shoes that we’ve developed, all of the technology that we’ve put into them comes straight from me, from a necessity and basic need [perspective]. And Nike, they’re so true to the athlete and what the athlete wants that I’ll say, “Hey, this is what I need in my shoe,” and everyone else will just jump on board. Where there any elements or technologies that you wanted to see incorporated in the IV? Well, we kind of developed a theme for my shoes. We always want to push the boundaries of lightness and speed. Also, we want to minimize the reaction time in the shoe, so when you change directions, we want to try and minimize that so that the foot is not sliding within the shoe and it actually reacts quicker with the change of direction and changes of pace. … Another thing that we wanted to implement into the shoe is to make the shoe a part of the foot so that it is almost one, and they’re moving as one and the same. The Zoom Air technology obviously is a big part of

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the reaction time, and those are some of the core elements that we put into the shoe. [The] Flywire Technology that you’ve seen in the Hyperdunks as well enabled us to make the shoe as light as it is and still be as strong as it is. Did you notice anything different right away once you started wearing Flywire in the Hyperdunk? How light they are—that’s the thing that’s the most impressive to me is how light they are, but how strong they are. You know, once you start cutting in the shoe, you can feel the comfort and the stability immediately, which is a big key. When you have a low-top shoe or a shoe that is that light, the thing that you want to make sure that it gets an “A” on is stability. Making sure that the calcaneous is locked in and that it’s sitting in there properly and that it’s not sliding around on you. Do you have any input into the colorways of the shoe? Well this is what I do: I sit down with the designers, I sit down with Avar, and we just come up with all these concepts, and I tell them what I want in this shoe and the technology and so forth. And they’ll go into the lab, and they come back with the technology and the design of the shoe per the inspiration that I’ve given them. When it comes to the color schemes, I tell the designers, “You guys just go have a good time and knock yourselves out.” ’Cause, you know, this is what they do, and the hard part is over. The hard part has already been done. Now, I want you guys to just have a good time, and they have a blank canvas to trick it out. Are there any materials or textures you like most? I like the snake print – the snake print has been kind of my favorite. How much importance do you place on your shoe looking good in a casual setting? Actually, none. That’s never even something that’s crossed my brain. This shoe, I personally wanted to play in. Whether it [works] well off the court or not, is really irrelevant to me at the time. Is there any one theme that really stands out between all of your shoes? It’s original. All of my shoes have all been original, and that’s the one thing: that all my shoes stand for themselves and there’re certain technological components that we carry over from shoe to shoe, but all of the designs have all been original. You’re not going to see a shoe that you can say, “Oh, it’s like that shoe or it’s like this shoe.” All of

my shoes are original concepts. Can you explain what your logo means to you? The logo, to me, is more of a symbol and kind of an inspirational symbol to me in terms of what you use as fuel and what you use to drive you. That symbol is where I store that and where I hold that fuel. This is also the first shoe of yours that has your signature on it. Why is that? It was just another touch that we put on the shoe that we felt would just make it more personal – to put my signature on it. Your mentality as a determined and focused individual and athlete seems to align with Nike’s as a company. Did that play a part in your decision to come to Nike? Oh, no question. No question. I’m telling you, it was like when Harry Potter landed in Hogwarts. [laughs] He was home. I’m always around a bunch of people who are competitive and just as competitive as I am or just as passionate about the sport as I am. I’m not looked at as being different or anything like that because I’m ultra competitive. I’m just around a bunch of people who are exactly the same way as I am. Lets talk about some of the past shoes that you wore, starting in 2003. Were you a fan of the Flight Huarache going back to the Fab Five days? It was a fun shoe, and I was very familiar with it back in High School because of the Fab Five, obviously. Those shoes were so tough to find, and I think I only had one pair, and I only wore them once a month. [laughs] Was it different just because of the ankle cut-away, or was there anything in particular that was different about that shoe? Well, the thing that I noticed, and even at that early age, I always used to look at the technology of a shoe, at that early age I could tell that my ankle had a lot more freedom of movement, which interested me because it felt different than any of the other shoes that I played in. It felt better and it moved better in that shoe. Did wearing the Flight Huarache give you any insights into what you wanted to see in the 2K4? Well yeah, we kind of said that we wanted the 2K4 to kind of go take it a step further. Like, Huarache was a good place to start for us, now what’s the next step? How do we take this Zoom Kobe IV

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interview technology and increase that and take it to the next level, both in weight and in stability, and we were able to do that. What did you like so much about the 2K4, as you wore it last fall, and what made you decide to keep coming back to it? Well that was my first one, and I remember sitting in a room with Avar and Tinker and I dropped the Great White design on ’em, [laughs], and we just hit the ground off and running with a classic. Were you aware of the Free technology through the running line, and was it something you wanted to see incorporated into the 2K5? Absolutely, and we talked about that, and I was very open to it because if your foot can move as God intended it to move, then you’re in a good position. When you run in Free technology, your foot is such that you can actually feel your feet underneath you moving as they should, as opposed to just being one…blocky…thing going up and down the court. The Zoom Kobe I had a much more solid and sturdy look and feel than the 2Ks. Was that a reflection of your playing style at the time? Well with the Zoom 1, what I wanted to do was I wanted to have more cushioning. It was a season where I was coming off of some knee injuries and some things like that. So, we actually sacrificed some weight with this shoe for a lot more cushioning. As soon as you put that shoe on, you are going to see that it has a lot more cushion. A lot of power forwards and a lot of players that are bigger in stature enjoyed those shoes more than some of the others because it had a lot more cushion in them. Coming off of that shoe, I wanted to get back to the lighter weight stuff. Does the Kobe I hold a special significance to you because of the 81-point game? It’s special man, because when you see that shoe, that’s the first thing people think of: the 81. It’s special to have those moments with shoes and how people tie in your years or games to a shoe. What was you mind-state like during that game? I was just in – it was almost like a trance, where you’re just relaxing and you’re playing and everything is just flowing. You put a lot of work into the offseason, and everything is just clicking. Whose idea was it to incorporate Considered as well as Free in the Kobe II? That’s something that we decided to do. It’s

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always us sitting in a room just chopping it up. The designer on that, Kenzo[Ken Link], is extremely talented, and we just sat around the table and chopped it and came up with a design that I really liked. I love the Free Technology in it; that really works well. It was good, but still, the most special shoes that I enjoy the most is when me and Avar are sitting around and we come up and just brainstorm man, because that’s just having certain guys that are on the same wavelength and get each other. With the II, you went back to the strap. Was that something came up with, or did you want to go back to the strap from the 2K stuff? The strap was comfortable, so we kind of did take that from the 2K and just advanced it a bit. The Kobe III is a very distinctive-looking shoe – it draws a strong response from anyone that sees it. Was it your idea to go with such a daring look? Well, me and Eric always just do stuff that’s true to form and stuff that we enjoy. So, when people first saw the shoe, they were like, “Oh – I don’t know. I don’t know.” Then they see it in different colors and different schemes and stuff is tricked out or it’s the Lower Merion color, and then it’s like, “Oh – that shoe is murder!” But that’s what we do; we create stuff that you’re just not gonna see on the shelf like any generic shoe, because it’s not a generic shoe. It’s me and we fit our personality into the shoe so it can’t be a shoe that looks like a LeBron shoe or whoever else’s shoe. It has to be a shoe that’s you and is your special shoe. Both the II and III have a diamond-inspired pattern based around your daughter Diamante’s name. How much do you try and add in those little personal touches to the shoe? Oh it’s always fun to do that, because that’s part of my inspiration. So, we always try and put things that inspire me within the shoe, but we hide them like Easter eggs. [laughs] Was minimizing weight becoming more of a priority at the time of the Kobe III? Well, it was always a goal of mine, outside of the I. We always wanted to minimize weight, always, and we wanted to continue to cut and continue to slice it down. I told them after the II, “What we’re going to do is, we’re going to continue to cut weight, but we’re not gonna sacrifice stability, and we’re not gonna sacrifice the cushioning of the shoe.” And it seems, at the time, like why the hell would you do both? [laughs] That was a challenge that I gave to them, and they went back

to the lab, and they came back with that goal being reached. What were your first thoughts of the Hyperdunk? The thing that sold me on it was the technology. I’m a real technology guy, and there’s not a lot of people who would push that boundary or hop in a shoe that’s so new or be liked or not liked. So, I like to push those boundaries, and it was pretty easy for me to jump into a shoe that fit everything that I had been talking about for years. All of your previous shoes included Zoom Air, so what were your initial thoughts on Lunar Foam? I actually enjoyed it. It’s comfortable, man. You know, the foam actually gives you a lot of cushioning and a lot more stability, and like I said, we continue to advance it and we continue to progress it. I’m still a big fan of Zoom, but the foam ain’t bad either. How has your experience working with Eric Avar evolved from model to model? As soon as we first met, we hit it off instantly. The first meeting with the 2K4, as soon as I started to talk about the Great White and the design and the sleekness of [the shoe] and how I wanted to incorporate that into the shoe – “It’s fast and quick and it can change directions, and it’s lightweight and yadda, yadda, yadda” – and he got it right away. Our whole conversation was about Great White Sharks and Bull Sharks, and that was the whole conversation. Everyone else in the room was just kinda like, “What the hell are you guys talking about?” [laughs] But, we were just talking about a shoe, and he got it. Ever since then, that’s how all of our meetings have been. And as an athlete, how much does he push you in performance? Were you familiar with a designer like Avar that pushes things so much? Not really. I was familiar with some of the work he had done, but to talk to someone that can talk at the level that we talk at, it’s rare to find someone like that. He enjoys the same things that you enjoy, and he watches the same things that you watch, and he gets inspired by the same things that you get inspired by, and he gets it. We play off of each other so well and it’s ridiculous. We talked with Eric, and he mentioned how big you are on metaphors, whether it was the Orca Whale inspiring the Kobe II or other shoes. Can you talk about the role that metaphors from Spiderman played in the Kobe IV? Zoom Kobe IV

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interview The concept behind that is it being one and the same. It’s that scene in the movie where he’s trying to pry it [the suit] off of him, and he can’t get it off of him because now it’s part of him. And that’s how I want the shoe to be. I want the shoe to be a part of my foot. I don’t want it to be separate; I don’t want it to be my foot and the shoe. I want the shoe and the foot to mesh together. What’s your familiarity with the outrigger in your shoes, and how does that help you out during a game? The reason they put that in there was to be able to reach that goal of being able to change those directions. Knowing that when I rotate, we’ll see pictures of my foot actually sliding to the outside of the shoe, and that’s one of the things that we were trying to cut out. When did you make your first trip to Asia? Umm…’99.

When did you realize the level of popularity you have with the Chinese fans? This Olympics. This Olympics was pretty crazy. This Olympics was beyond anything that I’ve ever imagined. Was there any specific event? I remember you just trying to even enter the gym being an ordeal and a huge mob of fans surrounding you. Well what’s funny with that is at the Olympics, we couldn’t get in. The person I was with, Nico [Harrison] from Nike, he didn’t have the pass to get in through the back. I didn’t have my pass to get in then, and they were really, really finicky to let people in through there – and it sounds crazy that I couldn’t get in – so we had to sneak in through the main way and just go through the normal entrance and then get down to the player’s section. [laughs] How did the Mentu project come about? It was a concept that Nike pitched to me when we were in Asia of doing a Kobe Mentu show, and I was on board with it. Any time I have an opportunity to reach out to kids and teach them about the game – the game is so fun and it’s been

such an inspirational part of my life, and I try to share that as much as possible. Could you ever imagine a project like that growing up? Did you have any idea that the popularity of basketball would grow so much all throughout that region? The project came together very well, and the show was very successful, and I’m happy that the kids found out a lot about themselves and how much better they can be. Basketball is just truly a global sport, and they’re very knowledgeable about the game from top to bottom, and they’re very passionate about it. Basketball has come a long, long way. Were you surprised at their response to the intensity of the training? It was very demanding, but that’s what we wanted to do was to push them and take them to the point that they didn’t think they could get beyond and then let them figure it out and let them see if they wanted to push themselves. And they did, they pushed themselves, and they realized they could be better than they ever imagined they could be, and that’s when we had the magic. How do you rank the Olympic Gold with your NBA titles and MVP award? Winning an Olympic Gold is second to none, and it’s the most special moment that you’ll have as an athlete. Being on that stage and representing your country, there’s just no greater honor. How did the location of the Games impact the importance of winning? It was just one of those things that happens once every so often where it just comes along where it’s that magic time where the Olympics are in Beijing and it’s just a perfect setting. We were all just extremely excited and thankful for the opportunity. How do you see basketball in China and the rest of Asia evolving over the next few years? I think it’s going to just continue to grow. We have some players here that are doing some special things. Everyone knows Yao, obviously, and Yi is doing a great job in Jersey, and we have a young kid here who has a lot of potential in Sun Yue, so it’s going to continue to develop and continue to get better.

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The low top

how

can you go?

Th e Hig h v s . Low Deb ate Words by Zac Dubasik Photos courtesy od Nike

Air Command Force

Air Unlimited

Air Max CB ‘94

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But a higher cut will at least help, right? Not so says Nurse. He explains that the “wobble board (a training device) is the only thing shown [to] reduce ankle injuries – that’s it – there’s nothing else in the literature shown to reduce ankle injuries.” The difficulty comes from the simple anatomy of the ankle joints. The top joint allows the ankle to plantar and dorsal flex (to move up and down), and the second allows it to invert and evert (to roll from side to side). Plantar flexion (when your heel is up and toe is down) is a common and important position for your ankle to be in when playing basketball. It serves as excellent shock absorption to aid landings. The problem is that when the foot is plantar flexed, it loses the protective qualities of the joint’s tendons, allowing increased motion from side to side, where you are more prone to invert the ankle. It’s not all bad news though. Studies show that over the past 25 years, ankle injuries

have decreased by almost six times in the NCAA thanks to evolving training methods

The hi-top vs. low-top debate appears to be counter intuitive, because the high cut is stiffer just sitting stationary. But when plantar flexed, the line of force changes. You are working with the same amount of material supporting you, whether it is a high- or low-cut shoe. That area is where resistance actually comes from, not higher up on the ankle.[maybe a diagram to show this – I could do a crude one to show you how it would be] Time and time again, studies evaluated by the NSRL have shown no significant change in the frequency of ankle injuries when wearing hi-tops, even when it is paired with taping or bracing. These other common protective methods don’t seem to add any real benefit. “There is

a lot of stuff in the scientific literature about ankle taping for example,” begins Nurse. “The mechanical advantage of ankle tape disappears before they hit the court. They go out, warm up and stretch, and that mechanical advantage is already gone. But what it does do is give you that proprioception feel, and I think that’s important.” There is a big difference, though, between a mechanical advantage and just a feeling. That feeling won’t help you prevent an injury. But the mind is a powerful tool, and if playing in a lowtop presents a mental barrier to playing at full speed, then a higher cut may help you feel more secure. The problem is that it also may limit your potential. According to research analyzed by the Nike Sports Research Lab (NSRL), a high-cut may also limit your range of motion and may lead to a decreased performance on agility courses and vertical jump assessments. Nurse says that, “If

n the late ’80s and throughout much of the ’90s, basketball kicks with sky-high cuts were the norm. Shoes like the Command Force, Air Unlimited and Air Max CB ’94 appeared to some to be a cross between a hoops shoe and a cowboy boot. They had an undeniably cool style and casual appeal though, which went along perfectly with the excesses of the times. But along with all of the extra protection that they were supposedly providing came added weight, a restricted field of motion and limited breathability. All the while, a simple fact remained: ankles kept getting injured. According to Matt Nurse, Senior Researcher at the Nike Sports Research Lab (NSRL), the ugly reality is that ankle injuries just happen if you play hoops. He explains that with basketball, statistically speaking, “if you play 1000 times, you are going to turn your ankle at least once. That is a guarantee.” Whether it is through contact with another player, a harsh landing, a sudden change of direction or an abrupt stop, sooner or later, it will come. Not surprisingly, ankle inversion injuries are the most common injury in basketball.

High speed video shows that by locking the heel in place, the ankle can stay firmly supported in a low-top even when making harsh cuts.

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The low top

The use of the Y-shaped, segmented heel allows for better ankle alignment upon impact.

hi-top shoes were that much better, you’d see guys playing soccer with hi-top shoes – you’d see tennis players playing in hi-top shoes. There’s a feeling that comes with it, and there’s a culture that goes with it, but you can get it other ways.” Taking that research into account, it becomes obvious that a low-top sneaker will work perfectly well for hoops. Low-tops aren’t anything new in the world of basketball, looking back to even the Air Force 1 Lows. Although they have been often used as a casual shoe more often than on court, players like Steve Nash and Mike Bibby have been wearing low-cut kicks on court for years. Going even further back, the Air Jordan III could be looked at for originally leading the trend of sneaker height first starting to lower. Its three-quarter-cut was in major opposition to the shoes of that time, but when it performed the way it did, people took notice. So, while Kobe isn’t the first person in the NBA to play in a lowtop, he definitely is the highest-profile player to currently, or ever, have a low-top signature shoe.

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That shoe is the Zoom Kobe IV. Kobe sought an increased freedom through a cut that would allow a fuller range of movement without ever having to struggle against the shoe. “Kobe is very performance driven,” begins Nurse. “He saw that there were performance advantages.” By focusing on heel stability through a meticulously padded collar and heel, a skin-like fit throughout the upper and exemplary traction thanks to added herringbone, the Nike team has been able to meet the performance needs that Kobe’s play demands, and do so in the low-top package that he wanted. An additional and important feature is the Y-shaped segmentation of the heel, which was first seen on the Zoom Kobe III. (IMAGE OF HEEL AREA OF ZKIII AND ZKIV) When the either side compresses upon impact, the split sole allows the heel to then maintain a better alignment, which is so critical to preventing injury by providing a stable base. Check out page 50 for the full breakdown of the Zoom Kobe IV. For the NSRL, working with an athlete like Kobe offers a rare opportunity. He is constantly

bouncing ideas off of his trainer and works back and forth with Nike to fine-tune every last detail. “Kobe is very in touch with his performance needs,” says Nurse. “He can speak to points and then give a reason for it, too.” Being able to connect on that level gives Kobe an edge above and beyond his already pure physical advantages on court. It also helps the NSRL that much more in their continued pursuit of excellence in footwear development. Constantly striving for that edge is what allows them to attempt such a highly visible project like making the Zoom Kobe IV a low-top in the first place. Through the use of external references on projects like this, they were able to objectively decide if it was even a path worth pursuing. And once that had been determined, and coupled with in-house research once the product hit the testing phase, the Zoom Kobe IV was able to be fine-tuned until it arrived at its final stage. “For all intents and purposes, I’m Nike’s worst critic,” says Nurse. It is refreshing to know what with researchers like him involved, the idea of a lowtop hoops shoe – one that is every bit as safe as a hi-top – can become a reality.

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Fly wire

Flywire The Path To Lightweight Containment

Words by Nick DePaula Photography by Steve Mullholand

istorically, the term “innovation” has been thrown around the sneaker landscape in an almost reckless fashion. As brands struggle to come up with new silhouettes and models for each upcoming season, this word is often used to profess a new industry-shifting technology or improvement made in sneakers. Sometimes, that just might be true, but it seems that more often than not, innovation around the industry is filled with catchy terms and phrases that, as of late, haven’t been living up to their billing. At Nike, there’s a sector of the expansive U.S.-based World Heaquarters that tends to do things a bit differently when it comes to more honest innovation, and Jay Meschter would know all about that. After all, he’s the Innovation Director of Nike’s Innovation Kitchen. A 12-year veteran at Nike, Meschter previously worked at Apple, designing their computers with the same crew that is now universally renowned for creating the iPod and other product designs. After spending several years at Nike designing eyewear and equipment, the chance to move into the Kitchen was presented to him, and he immediately knew it would be the best place for his talents, as the new workspace inspired by Nike legend Bill Bowerman’s passion for creativity and problem solving provided the long-term product timeline that would help give birth to the innovations of the future.

The very first pin model that Jay Meschter built over seven years ago. This simple model would spark all of the inspiration for what we now know to be Flywire.

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Fly wire

This model shows Flywire progressing into the more technical and calculated alignments that we see today, as the heel features a crossing of strands for maximum lockdown.

fibers I wanted, and I would align them,” explains Meschter. “That’s the whole premise behind this, and this fundamentally changes the thinking of how you’re going to build shoes, because you’re not going to do it in overlays. And that is where the magic is—in just that perfect alignment, that sort of mechanized alignment of fiber, because it is so purposeful. You know exactly where it is going.” In Flywire, it’s important for the panel to be protective, firm and supportive against lateral cuts, but be as light and flexible as possible so the shoe’s transition and comfort can still be maximized. An easy analogy for Meschter can be found in everyone’s favorite childhood toy: the Slinky. The toy can flex freely and still remain incredibly firm and strong if you place pressure on its coils from inside. “The Slinky is incredibly flexible in that direction between each one of those cells, but if I’m inside that, it’s completely belted,” he explains. “So the dichotomy that you’re playing with within this product is that any time I have wire and [it flexes inward], it still moves that way. When I cross it over itself, when I do a double cross, I’ve locked it 100%. So, we’re very strategic about where we over-cross and where we don’t.”

The innovation that Nike is currently most proud of is Flywire technology, but it surely wasn’t something that developed over night. It was a long and arduous process that began well over seven years ago, with Meschter alone in his office, tinkering with new ways to cradle the foot and help reduce weight in footwear. The very first insight he had in the development of Flywire can be seen in what is referred to as the “pin model,” upon which he placed strands of string strategically over a foot last. The initial goal was quite simple: How can you minimize the weight of a shoe without sacrificing the support and stability necessary for high-performance sports? Before he could even get to the point of evolving that first model of the last and start crafting and beginning to create what would eventually become Flywire, Meschter had to begin to break down the way footwear construction has always been definitively perceived to be. “Just think of any Nike shoe that has a lot of overlays,” he explains. “Think of a running shoe, all of the overlays you’ve got. The whole methodology of footwear construction the past couple hundred years, dating back to, god knows, Romans, has been ‘I take a roll of material and I cut out a piece, drape that over the last, and if I need strength, what do you do? You put another piece over the top of that.’ It’s the layer construction.” The

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use of layers in building footwear has certainly been a mainstay across all brands, categories and performance needs within the industry, but Meschter hoped to look beyond the more traditional and perhaps archaic methods of construction and tackle the core principles of athletic needs: support and light weight. As he began to look deeper into the history of footwear in hopes of fundamentally changing the way our shoes are constructed, he immediately noticed a time in which reversing the traditional layer construction didn’t work. It was during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, and it seemed all anyone could talk about was American sprinter Michael Johnson’s gold shoes, which were not only a bright metallic gold, but also a single layer upper and one of the lightest shoes Johnson had ever worn. He would go on to win the 200-meter and 400-meter individual sprints – he was quite a fast man! – but, at the same time, Meschter realized that in reducing the amount of layers on that shoe, Nike also compromised the support of the shoe. “In that model, to make it lighter, you take off all of those overlays, and then pretty soon you don’t have a shoe that’s very strong,” he says. “So, what we were fundamentally trying to do was change that idea or formula of making footwear.”

With what they learned from the ’96 Olympics in mind, Meschter then was faced with the struggle of not only sorting through such a concept, but also then determining how that way of thinking and change in construction would manifest itself in a shoe. “A lot of times you do that, where you try something and you know conceptually where you want to go, but you don’t know how you’re going to make it,” he admits. Just after working with the pin model, he began to realize that in order for a shoe to incorporate minimal layering along the upper, it would have to feature a harness for the foot and a way in which the shoe could cradle the foot and support it during an athlete’s harsh lateral movements or bursts of speed in running. He continued down the path of tinkering with potential alignments of string, and he also realized that it would take a series of tensile strands that could wrap over the foot in order to provide enough support. The support, he would find, became a result of the precise alignment of the strands of fibers, which are similar to the way in which a bridge’s cables are suspended vertically to maximize the strength and tension. By eliminating the overuse of layers and relying on the strength of a series of fibers, the area in between the fibers could be cut out to help reduce the shoe’s overall weight. “If I was really smart about it, I would just take the

As he figured out the research behind how a shoe’s support could be provided by just this type of a series of strands, he then began the process of sorting through his ideas and trying to figure out a way that such a shoe could actually be created. Just as he was starting to progress towards finding a solution to create a sample of what he had in mind by using stitch patterns, he stumbled across serious production struggles and limitations. “When we did the pin model, we actually went out to see guys in Schenectady, New York, who were doing helicopter rotors,” reflects Meschter. “[They used] an amazing 3D winding machine, but, you know, it’s going to be a $50,000 shoe. [laughs] So, we shelved it.” The next few years became a dark period for Flywire, as no progress was being made and constructing the shoe with a 3-dimensional armature would be excessively costly, even if it was the only way the shoe could be made. “And then it wasn’t until about three or four years after that initial model that we stumbled on the embroidery machine,” says Meschter. “It was like we could do this flat and pretty much get the same result.” The embroidery machine found in a Nike development factory became the technology’s saving grace, and it eventually was used to create the strands of Flywire by stitching them as a flat panel that could be molded to the contours of

the human foot and constructed into the upper of a shoe. The first embroidery machine that they worked with wasn’t particularly special or different from the other machines they used for stitching purposes, but it was actually a glitch on the machine that eventually worked in the favor of Flywire. At the factory level, normally an embroidery machine is only capable of shorter and more concise stitches, but in order for Flywire to work, the stitches had to be long strands across the shoe’s upper in order to retain strength. “I often get asked, ‘Why?’ and if you go to stretch a strand, it’s got a lot of elasticity to it, simply because I’m taking the thread and I’m going up and down the material and you just made a nice spring. When I go point to point, the fiber has integrity,” Meschter points out. “So it was very critical for us to do that, and the machine was not designed to do the job. The machine had a limit of 12 millimeters, and then it cuts off. And so we literally went in and adjusted the settings and kind of fooled the machine

into thinking it could do longer. Some of these [strands] are super long, and for one giant stitch we’re looking at around 300 millimeters.” The ability of the machine to be able to stitch the difference in the length of the strands simply became a make or break decision in order for Flywire to become a reality. “The machine wasn’t designed for it, but it does a really good job of pulling this off,” beams Meschter. “And then we discovered that pretty much every embroidery machine in Asia can be tuned to do the same thing. We just had to undo this stop that was on there, and we were able to do it.” Once Meschter and the team of developers he was working with were able to solve the embroidery machine problems they faced, the last step in perfecting Flywire and making it ready for production rested on finding the right fabric for the strands and also refining their alignment. “It becomes critical that you can place [the strands] accurately, because now what we’re doing is much more making tendons and muscles on the outside of your foot than Zoom Kobe IV

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Fly wire like the Huarache 2K5. “Just naturally, basketball is focused on making the right shoe for basketball players and not some gimmick,” admits Meschter. “We were like, ‘We’ve got to prove to you that you can make a decent shoe out of this first of all.’ I would say once they realized and accepted the [nylon] is strong enough to do that, then it’s, ‘Geez, this could really make something different.’”

When Flywire was almost ready for production, its strands were stitched onto a flat sheet in order to get more precise and taught stitches within the structure.

we are strapping material around,” Meschter says. They also decided to make the material a package composition, meaning there is a laminate structure that houses the strands, and there is also a top and bottom pattern of stitches. “For every line you see, there is a perfect parallel behind it,” he says. As the team began to get more comfortable with where the alignment of the strands were placed, they still had to come to a decision on which fiber material they would be incorporating, and there were several. The very first runable prototype that the Innovation Kitchen created featured strands of Kevlar, a composite known for its high strength properties that can often be found in bullet-proof vests. “That shoe is one of the strongest things you can imagine because it is made out of Kevlar,” says Meschter. But, as the team began conducting an extensive series of tests, they found that the Kevlar strands were quite vulnerable to heat as well as compromised strength when flexed, forcing Meschter to look to other fabrics that were more durable under conditions footwear faces. “Kevlar has street appeal. Everyone knows bullet-proof vests, but it also doesn’t flex very well over time,” he explains. “Vectran proved to be a much better fiber, albeit it doesn’t have that street credibility.” And so, the team went with Vectran – a fiber that boasts absolutely zero strength loss when flexed, as compared to Kevlar, which can lose up to 25 percent of its strength. Obviously in high-performance athletic footwear, a shoe can be placed under an array

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of stresses and flexing, and a fiber’s response to those pressures is quite crucial. “In the end, the funny thing was after all these exotic fibers, the Vectran turned out to be great. Vectran is great when I’m squeezing that last second of someone racing around the track,” says Meschter. “When you’re getting that last second out of the guy on the track, there’s a slight difference.” As it appeared the team of Innovation experts from Nike’s Innovation Kitchen were getting closer to their goal of making the shoes ready for production, they faced quite a few struggles, such as convincing all of their elite athletes that this new minimal construction method could harness their forces during their most important competitions. While Flywire may have made its official debut at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, Meschter began having athletes wear Flywire-based shoes in competition over a year prior in order for them to become comfortable with the new approach. “You can’t just show up on game day at the Olympics and hand this guy the shoe and say, ‘Go race in this,’” he laughs. “If you look at the World Championships closely and you look at their shoes, they’re all white, and they are all Flywire shoes, but they’re all undercover because they’re all white-on-white, because we wanted these guys to get comfortable in these beforehand.” Running was certainly the first sport Meschter had in mind when he began refining the properties of Flywire, but as he says, “it doesn’t take long to connect the dots and say, ‘Let’s get the weight out of basketball, too.’”

While running may be a linear sport and basketball can place some of the harshest lateral demands upon a shoe, there was never a doubt in Meschter’s mind that Flywire could work in hoops. “I would say within the first year that we were doing track spikes, we said this would make an unbelievable basketball shoe. And basketball was kind of intrigued,” he reflects. He approached the basketball group about the idea of incorporating Flywire into their division, and immediately there seemed to be some disbelief that such a minimal construction could support the frames of the sport’s largest athletes. “They were saying, ‘You know our shoes are pretty lightweight,’” says Meschter. “I’d say, ‘Well how light can you go?’ Then they’d say, ‘Well, our guys are pretty big, you’re not going to be able to hold them in that string.’” So, in order to convince the basketball division that Flywire could indeed support even the largest of frames, Meschter had a sample made that featured extensive allowances of support strands. While running shoes feature Vectran as their support fiber, basketball shoes that include Flywire actually contain strands of hightenacity nylon, which provide a bit more give to hug the contours of your foot more closely, and can also be colored for some cosmetic effect. Under several high-speed cameras, the sample Flywire upper that sits atop an Air Jordan XI tooling proved to not only keep the foot locked in perfectly over the footbed, but it actually outperformed previous Nike Basketball shoes

From there, the Innovation team continued to develop Flywire for use in basketball shoes, and the Nike Hyperdunk would be the first shoe to showcase the new technology, designed by two of the Innovation Kitchen’s finest designers: Eric Avar and Tom Leudecke. The Hyperdunk was not only a great accomplishment in providing a lightweight package that performed outstandingly, but it also came in a modern and refined presentation. “From that standpoint, you always think internally, too, about how the consumer is going to react,” says Meschter. “So I think there is a lot of balancing in that original Hyperdunk about how do you get something that is consumer recognizable and yet introduces a new idea that doesn’t make them uncomfortable. I think Eric and Tom did an excellent job on that first one, stringing that fine line between consumer acceptance and a new idea.”

Of course, having the alpha player in Kobe Bryant to lead the Hyperdunk on-court didn’t hurt either, as each time down the hardwood, Bryant would validate the shoe’s containment claims with his slashing moves and hard cuts to the basket. “He’s a great guy because he gets it,” explains Meschter. “He’s articulate, he knows what he’s talking about, he knows what he’s asking for, and he’s pushing the line. There’re a lot of guys that come in [and say], ‘Well, I kind of like what you’ve got.’ He’ll come in and say, ‘I want something that does more of this,’ … Because he’s so athletic, he can do it, too.” In order for the Innovation Kitchen’s products to become a success, having an athlete like Kobe Bryant to draw feedback from and work with in crafting the next evolution of footwear only further helps the design and development process. “That’s a dream client, it really is, because he’s pushing us as much as we’re pushing what he can do,” Meschter says. “That’s when you make leaps, for sure that’s when you make leaps … He’s going to take the rest of the industry with him.” As Flywire has already received a tremendous amount of adoration in both running and basketball, you’ll continue to see its use expand across all categories within Nike. The technology will reach across a variety of sports, because as Meschter sees it, “At the

end of the day, I have yet to find a category where lightweight, responsive, close fitting to the foot doesn’t matter. We found a better mousetrap.” While this past summer’s Olympic Games surely represented the pinnacle of Flywire’s visibility up to this point with the extensive media coverage given to the Games, Meschter won’t ever lose sight of the fact that it took a seven-year journey of trial and error, a bit of luck, and relentless persistence to finally bring the new technology to the market. “I work in the Kitchen, and the Kitchen is a pure innovation investment,” says Meschter. “I like to think that you put money in, and you’re going to get some results out, and I think we have a talented crew working in here. I know for a fact that we would not have done this if I were sitting, for instance, in the day-to-day business category, because it took us seven years and three years of solid work to make it work. You need to have the breathing room to do that. That’s why I think we [can create something like Flywire] first. We invest in it.” While most products at Nike and other brands go through a 14-month timeline and a series of checkpoints along the way in the normal business categories, it’s that extra breathing room and open-ended space to try new concepts and new approaches to design that make the Innovation Kitchen so successful. “Believe me, there’s many months where we were just hitting the wall,” sighs Meschter. “That’s just part of the deal, and you’re like, ‘OK, this is a waste of time,’ and then there’s just that one day, the right glue and the right string and the right humidity of the afternoon, and it worked. But you’re not going to get that unless you have that opportunity to try it. There aren’t many companies out there that understand that, and that’s the convenience of having a designer [in Mark Parker] for a CEO. He gets it.”

This was the very first Flywire basketball shoe, with an upper featuring huge allowances of Flywire all atop the iconic Air Jordan XI tooling. It was created to prove that Flywire could support the movements of basketball players.

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sneakerphile

zoom kobe iv taking you to daring new heights Words by Nick DePaula Photography by Steve Mullholand and Zac Dubasik

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sneakerphile

Senior Footwear Designer, Eric Avar

Earlier samples show the evolution of the collar height as the low-top cut was refined and perfected.

Kobe’s #24 on the heel of this sample made its way to the final desgn.

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The original outsole design had a more stylized look to the splatter-like design. Keeping with the performance-first ethos of the shoe, it was eventually changed to a herringbone pattern for maximum traction.

hen Kobe Bryant and Eric Avar meet several times throughout the year to discuss the next stage and the next evolution of Kobe’s performance footwear, it’s unlike the required meetings that most other athletes and designers must sit through. These guys are on the same wavelength, with a similar approach to performance at all costs and a similar goal of trying new things, and not just for the sake of being different, but because there’s a performance insight that backs where they’re headed. Avar, a Senior Footwear Designer in Nike’s secretive Innovation Kitchen, always looks forward to discussions with Bryant, as the two bounce ideas back and forth, and they have developed a progressive vision for different performance attributes that might help Kobe’s game. “I personally always like to just get some time for some honest design time,” he says. “There’s a time and place for marketing and strategies and things like that, but I like to get some time to talk about design.” Since the first time they met in 2003, just as Bryant signed with Nike, they “clicked right away,” according Zoom Kobe IV

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sneakerphile definitely this perception that ankle support has to come in a high top or a ¾ height.” While the Zoom Kobe line has become known for its industry-pushing performance in all three of its iterations up to this point, never before has one of Bryant’s signature shoes featured anything close to a low cut. “I asked him two or three times, ‘You’re sure you want a low?’ And right away, he says, ‘Yeah. I don’t need all this stuff around my ankle, and in fact, I want to prove to athletes and consumers that you don’t need all this stuff.’” Avar explains that according to Kobe, “People might question, like, ‘Can you play in a low?’ and I’ll go drop 50 and say, ‘Yeah, you can play in a low-top.’”

Early sketches of the Zoom Kobe IV.

to both, as they were instantly on the same page about their goals for lightweight, supportive and responsive footwear. Bryant’s latest shoe, the Zoom Kobe IV, is once again an extension of that mentality that the two share, and it was born from a singular request made by Kobe. “He always comes with a deep, insightful and almost philosophical point of view of inspiration,” says Avar, “whether it’s an inspiration on the metaphor side or also on the performance side. This one, in particular, was on the performance side, and he said, ‘I want the lowest, lightest weight basketball shoe.’ I asked him, ‘You mean, like a ¾ height?’ ‘Low-top,’ he says. ‘Soccer, Mercurial-type low?’ He just looks at me and says, ‘Yes!’” After their meeting, Avar and his fellow Innovation Kitchen designer Tom Luedecke set out to build a shoe that not only was rooted in achieving a lower height and lighter weight without compromising support, but it was also backed by years of findings by Nike’s Sports Research Lab that showed playing in low-tops posed no greater risk of injury as compared to playing in a higher cut shoe. “He’s coming at this from a performance standpoint, and he just believes that, ‘I don’t need all this crap around my ankle.’ He thinks it’s going to help his game with his quickness, his speed and his agility,” Avar explains. “All of which we’ve thought from the Nike Sports Research Lab for years, but there’s

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As Bryant became set on the direction of his next shoe’s design and silhouette, Luedecke and Avar attacked just how they would position the height and stance, hoping to offer more range of motion for Kobe during play. “When Eric first came back and said, ‘Hey, he wants a low, like a soccer-type low,’ I said, ‘Great, lets build him one,’” says Luedecke. “So, we built a III bottom with literally a Ronaldinho upper, just to say, ‘Hey, are we on the right track with this, and is this what we’re talking about?’” After wearing the one-of-one prototype during his own private workouts – which means nothing short of a game-speed session of countless jumpers, driving moves and agility drills – Kobe could already tell the difference in fit and feel along the upper, and he felt no less stable or secure than when he was in his mid-top predecessors. “We really just wanted to illustrate the point, but it was also a gut check, like, ‘Is this what you’re really saying?’” says Luedecke. “So it was for him to wear around and shoot around in and get used to so that we knew we were on the right track.” Once they heard all of Kobe’s glowing feedback towards the proposed lowered height, it was now up to Avar and Luedecke to begin the design process of crafting his next signature shoe, and no matter the inspiration, faced quite a difficult challenge since his two previous shoes, the Zoom Kobe III and the Hyperdunk, were easily some of the best performing sneakers of this decade. As they do every year, the designers sat down and itemized the design cues that Kobe really liked from his previous shoes, and they also noted things to improve upon. “Kobe wore the III and the Hyperdunk all in one year, and there’s definitely some learnings that he had from those shoes,” says Luedecke. “We have a lot of learnings from those shoes, and we decided, let’s take a best case scenario of the shoes and take the best parts from each of them. There’s a

continuation and a logical progression here, not only for him, but for us and anyone that plays basketball.” Most notably, Bryant has been a huge fan of the pronounced outrigger that offers up great lateral stability and support, as well as Zoom Air for responsive cushioning and a Carbon Fiber midfoot shank for a “springier” feel, as Kobe describes it. Once Avar and Luedecke gathered up all of the information to be had, it was time to build the Zoom Kobe IV.

and think that really, if we can get the heel to lock in really well, that does a lot of work for us, and then once we get the midfoot more locked down, then you really can begin to bring the silhouette down,” explains Luedecke. “You can’t just take any other shoe and just drop it lower, you have to do the homework of the internals and how close

you can get to the foot. The stability doesn’t only come from the bottom, the stability comes from the upper and it’s a systematic approach. We started that on the Hyperdunk and we definitely want to exemplify that on the IV.” While the upper may take on a more simplistic

Upper: Understandably, the first thing you’ll notice on the Zoom Kobe IV is its purposefully lower height. For some, playing in a low-top is almost a taboo concept, as for years it has been ingrained in every baller’s mind that a higher cut equals more ankle support. “Not so,” say Kobe Bryant, Eric Avar, Tom Luedecke and countless others at Nike. With a focus placed on heel lockdown and an ergonomic fit within the shoe that slopes to the contours of the human foot, the Zoom Kobe IV aims to offer not only comparable support to shoes of a higher cut, but actually greater stability and control of Kobe’s next step. “We did look back at the 2K4’s external counter

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sneakerphile and it’s like, ‘Oh man, why the hell didn’t I think of that?’” he says. “But what’s behind that is really a year straight of Jay Meschter working on Flywire and thinking outside of the box to turn it into a lightweight composite and a lightweight structure.” In terms of the details to be found on the upper, there’s several firsts along the otherwise conservatively designed sneaker. On the medial side of each sneaker lies a series of perforations, and each shoe has a varying pattern with a different set of emphasized perforations. When closely read, you’ll notice a “2” along the left shoe and a “4” along the right shoe, tying in to Bryant’s jersey number. At the heel of both shoes, the aforementioned external heel counter aims to add lockdown to the shoe, but along the right shoe, you’ll also find Kobe’s signature within the heel counter, flowing nicely along the shape of the piece and conveying Bryant’s signature stamp of approval. While other athletes have been pretty vocal in having their logo the same size, if not bigger, than Nike’s trademark

The Zoom Kobe IV takes shape.

look than the Zoom Kobe III from a year ago, the design stems from Kobe’s performance needs, as the shoe’s overlays and components are all geared towards providing fit and support. Along the heel, a TPU external counter provides the lockdown necessary for such a height to even be possible, and at the same time, the nontraditional construction of the shoe’s heel helps to eliminate weight. “It doesn’t have an internal counter; it’s literally just the external counter and the foam and that’s it,” says Luedecke. “That’s how we’re able to get to this light of a shoe, by taking some of the thicker and heavier material that we use on the internal heel counter out of the shoe and making the heel more beautiful.” Just above the heel is the shoe’s foam-backed collar, which has been given the task of providing fit and comfort right against the wearer’s malleoli. “For me, the personal biggest quest on this whole thing is the thing that you can’t see at all – the internal heel foam,” admits Luedecke. “The collar foam literally took close to the entire time of the process of making this shoe to get this right.”

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The heel contains quite a bit of the science of the shoe, where Luedecke and Avar carefully studied every last millimeter of padding in order to make sure the collar provided the perfect balance of comfort and sharp fit, and the rest of the Zoom Kobe IV features targeted support and fit as well. The forefoot incorporates a molded toe cap made of synthetic leather, patent leather or a faux reptile skin, depending on the colorway, and the midfoot is blessed with Nike’s Flywire Technology, which does a tremendous job of reducing weight as compared to more traditional materials while at the same time providing greater support. “The external heel counter, the molded internal collar and the Flywire upper – if you get those three elements right then you’ll have a very secure and stable upper,” says Luedecke. The Kobe IV may seem to be less than complicated at the surface, but that’s just how Avar wants it to appear, with all of the thoughtful design cues and innovations remaining subtle and purposeful. “That’s the mark of good design. Something ultimately seems so simple,

Swoosh, Bryant doesn’t so much mind when the Swoosh plays a large role in his sneakers. “The Swoosh has still been pretty dominant in his product, and he’s respectful of that, and he likes being part of the Nike family,” says Avar. “He also likes the Sheath logo, so we always try and play on that prominently.” Though the application or treatment of his logo may have varied from shoe to shoe, there’s definitely, as Luedecke says, “a natural progression from shoe to shoe and a consistent language of the placement of his logo on the tongue.”

Midsole: If there were one piece of the Zoom Kobe IV that drafted most off of the previous shoes that Bryant has worn, it would probably be the midsole. It features similar attributes like a pronounced outrigger, as well as a deeply sculpted medial arch and a low stance for great court feel. While the main difference between the Hyperdunk and Kobe IV tooling that Kobe noted was traction,

the two shoes share nearly the same cushioning systems, as both feature Zoom Air and Lunar Foam. At the heel is an 8mm Zoom Air unit for great responsive cushioning, and at the forefoot is an embedded 8mm Lunar Foam unit to help reduce weight from previous shoes in the line and still provide a spongy and soft cushioned ride. The IV will be the first shoe in Kobe’s signature line to incorporate Lunar Foam, which originally debuted in the Hyperdunk. The cushioning element was originally inspired by Avar and fellow Innovation Kitchen Senior Designer Kevin Hoffer’s quest for a lightweight cushion that would feel similar to “running on pillows,” according to Hoffer. During the time they spent trying to find what would become the next evolution of cushioning that Nike as a company has become so famous for, the two decided to look towards more practical resources. “We looked at our cushioning systems, and we said ‘We really want to be light and mobile, but maybe it’s not about some new major invention of a mechanical cushioning system,’” says Hoffer. “Maybe it’s almost ultra lightweight, springy foam.” In order to find that balance between light weight and responsiveness, the developers and engineers within the Innovation Kitchen spent the last few years fine-tuning the foam-based unit, mixing traditional EVA with Nitrate rubber for more bounce than standard foams like Phylon or just EVA. “When you look at our foams or anybody’s foams in the industry, there’s a few metrics that just kind of all triangulate one another,” says Hoffer. “One is weight, one is responsiveness or just the amount of

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sneakerphile it was the notion of having a second skin. It captured the essence of what we wanted to achieve in having a second skin and in getting closer to the foot.” The contrasting colored rubber graphic represents that Venom inspiration, but it also serves to highlight the multi-directional traction that can help Bryant as he stops and turns at any moment of a game. “There is an element of the radial herringbone pattern that speaks to cutting and cutting motions in every direction,” says Luedecke. “It’s not just your regular herringbone fill from heel to toe, it’s actually engineered because you’re cutting at every single edge on that shoe, and all of those things are considered in the traction approach.” The rest of the outsole’s inspirations once again come from performance needs and what has previously worked in Kobe’s line, such as its purposeful outrigger. “The outrigger is something

energy lost that the foam will take on, and then there’s the softness of it.” In Lunar Foam, the team within the Innovation Kitchen feels they were able to find the right combination of those three variables, without sacrificing any one component in order to get to a lighter weight, softer or more responsive feel. When Bryant is dealing with Nike’s designers, he takes his involvement seriously and takes an active interest in the materials and cushioning elements that make up his shoe, leaving the final measurements and adjustments to Nike’s trained professionals. “So much of it is just trust and building a relationship and building trust,” says Avar. “As detailed as Kobe is about things, I think he really trusts us to take care of the millimeters of stuff. He’ll stay with the bigger picture of things.”

Outsole: While the upper and midsole incorporate proven elements of several past Zoom Kobe shoes like the toe cap support overlay and sculpted heel counter, the IV’s outsole also relies on tried and true essentials like its herringbone traction pattern. The pattern features quite a burst-like aesthetic, and for good reason, as Kobe once again infused his inspiration into the shoe’s design. “The Spiderman 3 Venom character is something that Kobe talked about to us,” explains Luedecke. “He got really hyped about this character and

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sneakerphile that stays and players have said they like that,” says Luedecke. “We’re always trying to push the degree of outrigger, but it always seems to come back to a zone that you see in the end product. We’re confident this is where it needs to be, both for durability and for stability.” As the outsole may seemingly at first glance appear to be simplified with its full herringbone design, indeed there’s quite a bit of unassuming science in the flex grooves found throughout the shoe that help to provide added flexibility and transition. “This is a more graphic play, but it really came from the Free-based lines,” describes Luedecke. “The heel has the Y-shaped crash pad and there’s also the forefoot medial and lateral transitions.” When compared to the Hyperdunk, the IV features a similarly sized “credit-card” carbon fiber midfoot shank, but coupled with a more radiused heel and the Free-principled grooves that Luedecke references earlier, the shoe provides Kobe with the buttery smooth heel-to-toe transition he’s come to love. “They have similar construction, but there’s a little more flexibility in the forefoot of the IV as compared to the Hyperdunk and he picked up on that immediately,” Luedecke says. With the upper focusing on fit along the midfoot, collar and heel, there wasn’t as much room to play with the look of the shoe as each panel was intrinsically tied to the performance needs of that specific zone or area. But, along the outsole the design tandem of Avar and Luedecke was able to have a bit more fun with the Venom inspiration directly from Kobe. “As a graphic element, it also tied in well to the art and the background

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thinking and all of the reasoning behind it. He’s not just wearing it to make a statement, but he’s thoughtful and calculated in why he wants to wear it, and there’s no one better than Kobe to make this statement.” Just as Avar and Luedecke learned in building the Hyperdunk, the advance product design timeline that working in Nike’s Innovation Kitchen offers is quite an advantage when creating high performance product. They, along with their

behind the shoe, and we were able to balance the science and art of the shoe like we normally try to do,” Luedecke says.

The Importance of Low: After a single request was made nearly two years ago by Bryant to play in the lightest, lowest possible sneaker, Nike has responded with an industry-shifting signature shoe that’s rooted in science and research and offers the support and stability that Kobe needs to endure the

pounding he puts his body through after every 82-game season. “When you’re working directly with the athlete, especially someone like Kobe, it gives you all the justification you need and the confidence you need to make a statement like this,” says Avar. While some players have relied on low-tops for most of their careers, no one as prominent, versatile, quick and explosive as Kobe Bryant has dared to push the boundaries of height in the realm of signature footwear. By doing so, Bryant is hoping that people will become more in tune with the physics of the game. He also expects players to be quite surprised at the amount of support provided by something as minimal and lightweight as the Zoom Kobe IV. “It’s probably going to take someone like Kobe to get this message across,” Avar says. “Not just by wearing it, but because of all the

team of designers, developers and researchers were able to perfect all the millimeters and durometers necessary, and they’re already looking ahead far into the future with the focus dead set on keeping Kobe’s signature footwear at the apex of performance. “It’s going to start with the IV, and certainly we’re going to carry on with the V, VI, VII and so on,” says Avar. “It’s not just light for light’s sake or minimal for minimal’s sake, it’s highly engineered performance product.” For Luedecke, the arrival to the Kobe IV’s low-top height through years of research and development is building up to be a transcendent moment not only in his career, but perhaps for all of footwear. “When we had it in Wear Testing, people said, ‘I don’t know – I don’t know if I can do this.’ They’re used to [a higher cut.] They’d say, ‘Yeah I signed up for the test; OK I’ll wear them. I’ll go 80 percent or 90 percent,’” Luedecke recalls. “But then by halftime, they would forget, and then after the game, they came to us and would say, ‘Wow, my game changes.’ It’s those differences that get me up and I want to get better than that. I’m already on to the VI and the VII. I think that’s the things that keep me going, and we’ve changed perceptions about how people can play.” Zoom Kobe IV

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collector or Yi Jianlian does, maybe even larger. I think so many Chinese fans would be influenced by his basketball skill and attitude towards this game.”

Guo

In 2007, Nike created a special exhibit of Kobe memorabilia in their Nike 706 space in Beijing. Nike borrowed many pieces of Yu’s amazing collection to be part of this exhibit, which Kobe himself visited on one of his trips to China. This visit presented Yu an opportunity to finally meet Kobe. Knowing the chance would come, Yu “prepared a pair of lace buckles of platinum inlaid with diamonds and shaped in Chinese ‘Ruyi.’ They were made by order by a friend in Hong Kong. I gave them to Kobe in Nike 706 as a gift, and I think they represented the best wishes to him from us Chinese fans.” The most prized piece of his collection also has a connection to this meeting. Not only did Kobe receive a gift, Yu received one from Kobe as well. “Kobe presented me a Zoom Kobe II Team USA 2007 World Championship edition. He signed his name on both shoes, and they became my favorite piece of my collection.”

Words by Zac Dubasik Photos courtesy of Nike

or fans in the Unites States, and especially those living in the Los Angeles area, finding the latest Kobe kicks and memorabilia can be as simple as a quick drive to the local sneaker spot on release day. For Guo Yu, hitting an L.A. sneaker spot would require considerably more effort, not to mention quite a bit of money. This significant obstacle has not stopped him this far, though, and won’t be stopping him any time soon. While he may live in Beijing, China, his dedication to collecting the greatest Kobe memorabilia would put many local Kobe collectors to shame. Yu’s interest in Kobe began when Phil Jackson took over coaching duties for the Los Angeles Lakers in 1999. Jackson had become a legend while coaching Michael Jordan with the Chicago Bulls, and his arrival in L.A. was seen as the final piece to the Championship puzzle when combined with Kobe and Shaquille O’Neal. It was Kobe, though, that immediately caught Yu’s attention. His attitude towards achieving victory and his drive to get there were obvious to Yu. “It is his strength and tenacity that fascinates me so much,” he says.

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Once Kobe signed to Nike Basketball, Yu began to take special note of his kicks. He quickly became a fan and chose the Zoom Flight 2K3, with Kobe’s No. 8 on the heel, as the first piece of his collection. It is an exceptionally rare piece, and one that Kobe never actually even wore. From that single pair of shoes, he has gone on to amass roughly 100 pieces of memorabilia, including many more pairs of shoes, as well as clothing, basketballs and even bobble heads. His favorite model in the Kobe line thus far has been the Air Zoom Huarache 2K4 – specifically the laser versions. “On first sight, from both perspectives of visual effect and athletic performance, I felt they’re excellent,” Yu begins. “Finally, I got a pair of black and yellow colorway, which he had worn in a game before, and with his autograph.” As mentioned earlier, the logistics of obtaining new pieces for his collection can be a challenge at times. Simple geography puts him thousands of miles from the center of Kobe’s world. “It’s rather hard because I need to visit websites in the States or around the world to find my

Not many basketball players can inspire fans half-way around the world to do as much as watch their games. Even fewer can inspire fans to become passionate collectors, who seek out the knowledge and rare pieces of memorabilia like Yu has accumulated. And maybe only one player can inspire an entire continent to take an interest in a sport the way Kobe has. It’s no wonder that Kobe has become that player for Guo Yu.

desired pieces,” he says. “But all these difficulties can’t block my devotions and interests of new products about him.” With many shoes still on his list of wants, he has no plans on letting the distance stop him now. Yu doesn’t let the distance keep him from watching Kobe’s games either. “I will try not to miss a single one,” he says. He was especially impressed with Kobe’s desire to play in last year’s NBA All-Star Game and the Olympics, despite having nagging injuries. No matter where he is, Yu keeps his attention on the Lakers, knowing Kobe will always be giving his best effort. While he watched the Olympic Games on TV, he was able to catch the warm-up game between Team USA and Russia just prior to watching the Olympics in person. “That was the first time I went to a stadium and watched Kobe play live,” Yu says. “That’s so cool.” Kobe is having a massive impact on basketball in China. The sport is growing rapidly, and Yu sees Kobe playing a large part in the process. “Right now, Kobe has a fan base as large as Yao Ming Zoom Kobe IV

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mentu particular instance, a few players cut corners and didn’t touch the baseline while running a suicide, pushing Kobe to call the group together for a lesson on the importance of hard work and completing every drill properly. He told them that one day of hard work won’t make you an NBA player, and that it takes focus and effort every day to get better and realize your potential. “I like his charisma and the spirit of never giving up,” says Kobe Mentu player Cao Yan.

kobe

Words by Nick DePaula Photos courtesy of Nike

Tr aining For Greatness obe Bryant’s popularity in China has not only increasingly risen over the past few years because of his on-court performance for the Los Angeles Lakers, but also because there is now an astounding 300 million people who play basketball in the nation, making for quite a large fan base. Kobe’s passion for the game, his well documented commitment to training and preparation and his three championship rings have all rightfully earned him a great deal of respect throughout the Asia region, where more and more people are paying close attention to the NBA season. This past year, Nike and Kobe Bryant teamed up to share Kobe’s penchant for preparedness with China’s players as they launched an intensive basketball training reality TV program on CCTV called Kobe Mentu. After hundreds of players from Shenyang, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai competed for a spot within the program, thirty of the country’s most skilled and up and coming basketball players were chosen to compete against each other for a chance to come out on top as one of the nation’s elite players. As the top thirty players traveled to Beijing, they competed in a series of drills and scrimmages while living together in a team house. They were split into groups and matched with American and Chinese coaches and trainers, who were immediately demanding of their attention and efforts. “They were focus[ed] on fundamental skills, such as the shooting drills and physical training,” says Kobe Mentu player Chu Wen Ho. “The ways for physical training I think

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[are] scientific. Local coaches are not very good at these methods. There are many training methods that we don’t have in China, for example, physical training in a swimming pool. Also, they pay attention to teamwork. If one player made a mistake, the whole group would be ‘punished.’” The coaches never let up, pushing the ballers to their limits while stressing togetherness and sportsmanship. As the program progressed, six players were cut, and the top twenty-four Kobe Mentu players traveled together to Los Angeles to train under the guidance of Kobe Bryant himself. While the players were brought together to LA to compete against each other, as Bryant would select the final sixteen Kobe Mentu players, they each played with a sense of honor and individual poise throughout. “I didn’t think too much about competition, because for me it’s more significant to try my best,” says Kobe Mentu player Zheng Hang San. The program aimed to provide players with not only a foundation of basketball skills and fundamentals to help improve their game, but also a new outlook on training and preparation to help improve their conditioning and strength. “The message I wanted to send is, ‘You can be better than what you even thought you could be,” says Bryant. “So when you think you are working hard, you can actually work harder than that. You have to push yourself to that point.” As the players took to the court, Kobe made it immediately clear that each player would practice with pride and not short change themselves. On one

For Yan, the journey he faced after the Kobe Mentu program proved to be as trying and difficult as his time on the court, as the 16 yearold was diagnosed with Spina Bifida, a condition in which the spine doesn’t completely develop. As a result, Cao Yan underwent a series of medical visits as he withstood extreme pain along the right side of his body. Though the Kobe Mentu program had already ended, Kobe heard about Yan’s condition and immediately reached out to help. It was a time Cao will never forget and is extremely grateful for. “The first time I got the news it was in July, I will never forget it,” says Yan. “At that time, I felt I was the luckiest one in the world.” With Kobe’s help, Cao was introduced to Dr. David Skaggs, a renowned pediatric orthopedic spinal surgeon from Los Angeles who agreed to meet with Yan and help him with his condition. Rather than undergo surgery, a procedure that may have limited his ability to play basketball in the future, Dr. Skaggs suggested fitting Cao with a brace that would help to correct his condition and require as much as six months of rest and rehabilitation. Most importantly to Cao, the doctors fully believe that Yan will be able to continue playing basketball once he fully recovers. The Kobe Mentu program was intended to provide China’s top basketball players with the opportunity to not only improve their games, but to also learn more about themselves and the training that a dominant player like Kobe Bryant goes through every day. After the conclusion of the program, the lessons of hard work and teamwork truly stuck with each player, and they all became friends and still keep in touch. “It’s not an easy game, but the fact is that, we got along really well and became good friends after the program,” says Cao Yan. In learning about the game of basketball firsthand from Kobe Bryant, they also learned more about his character and approach to the game. For Cao Yan, he was able to learn about Kobe’s more giving side after fighting through his medical scare. “I really think he’s a good guy who loves to give others a hand,” says Yan. “I like his devotion in games and aggressive defense.” Zoom Kobe IV

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