Being one of the biggest icons in the sport of basketball, Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant had a huge fan following during his playing days. He had signed several endorsement deals, including a shoe deal with Nike.
Many NBA players and fans have always wanted to get their hands on the latest Kobe sneakers. But ever since the untimely passing of the Lakers legend and his deal with Nike expired, there haven’t been any new sneakers in circulation.
While there are still countless shoes in the market, it is hard for NBA players to get them. Your usual NBA player wears huge shoes and as per Brian Windhorst of ESPN, Kobe’s sneakers in bigger sizes are scarce.
This has led to players paying huge sums of money to wear Bryant’s sneakers. Some have even revealed that they have paid in over 5-figures!
Via ESPN:
“Over the past two years, a number of players who’d previously been with Under Armour and Adidas did not have their sneaker endorsement contracts renewed, a trend that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the new sneaker free agents went looking for Kobes. It all adds up to a large contingent who now have a source problem for their Kobe needs.
“There are still supplies on sale at some retailers, but not in great numbers in the sizes NBA players typically need. The scarcity of larger sizes has driven a pricing boom on secondary shoe resale websites like StockX, GOAT and eBay.
“NBA players who wear size 14 or larger are looking at spending at least $800 for the most basic models of Kobes, and that’s not what they typically wear. But the players are paying, with several telling ESPN they’ve spent more than five figures buying supplies of Kobes on the secondary market since last spring and summer.”
This issue won’t be solved until Nike starts producing more Kobe shoes. But as things stand right now, the company has said nothing about the matter.
This means that NBA players will need to pay extravagant money to wear the shoes of one of the best players ever to grace the NBA.
