Nike Basketball continues the Kobe lineage for their brand as the new Kobe A.D. Mid is revealed.
Officially unveiled yesterday, the Nike Kobe A.D. Mid comes in a new silhouette form. The newest addition to the Mamba family comes in a new collection of color specific tones inspired by color psychology. Each tonal pair represents a different characteristic via Kobe Bryant: yellow for optimism, purple for fearlessness, red for passion, grey for neutrality, and blue for honesty. Each of the sneakers have the same shape to them, with settle designs that differentiate each one to the others. The right sneaker also will carry the Kobe sheath logo on the tongue, with his ‘Kobe’ signature on the left.
Per Nike, the shoe will offer the same Lunarlon and Zoom Air cushioning as the previous Kobe A.D. Perhaps, the sneaker will be tweaked to where it provides a better experience than the original. Hopefully we have a top loaded Zoom Air again this year with a more prominent forefoot cushion. Many were underwhelmed with the results of the Kobe A.D. on court as the cushion did not live up to the standards that the Kobe series had established. For years, the Kobe signature line became the staple in performance basketball. Now that Bryant has retired, it is unsure how much feedback he gives to the designers as he once did during his career.
Per Nike,
According to Bryant, one crucial fault in people who fail to achieve greatness is an inability to accept candid feedback. Rather than ignore criticism, he embraces honesty. He knows that accepting imperfection allows him to better himself.
“There’s no such thing as perfection in basketball,” says Bryant. “Perfection is minimizing mistakes. Digging deep and being honest with yourself, where you are, where you want to be and how you can get there allows one to process and accept shortcomings in order to improve,” says Bryant.
The five KOBE A.D. colorways connecting to color psychology are available globally starting August 24 as a nod to both of Bryant’s uniform numbers.
The biggest news aside from the actual unveiling, is the return to the mid-cut silhouette. For eight years, the Kobe line has been known to be a strict low-cut sneaker. In 2008, Kobe Bryant debut the Nike Zoom Kobe IV immediately after the Olympics. That year was also the debut of the Nike flagship model, the Hyperdunk. Since then, year after year the Kobe series shaped the performance market single-handedly as it became the basketball shoe for the court. Up until the Kobe 9 Elite, the shape of the Kobe model never changed. With this debut of the Kobe A.D. Mid, many are calling it a mid-top Kobe 4 which is pretty accurate. Does this mean we’ll get a low-top version of this A.D. model? Maybe. But what is up with Nike and this line?
Shouldn’t this shoe be called the Kobe A.D. 2? It is a bit odd that Nike has no details on the actual name of the sneaker other than Kobe A.D. Since they ended the signature line at the Kobe 11, this should have been technically the Kobe 13. Hopefully we get clarification in the future with this decision by Nike Basketball.
The Nike Kobe A.D. Mid will drop in stores on August 24, 2017 for $150.00 USD in all five colorways featured in this article.
