On a quiet night in the weeks before the start of the regular season, Wilson Taylor delved into the Paycom Center's laundry room, which doubled as a deep storage facility for the Oklahoma City Thunder Equipment Manager. On a shelf against the wall, he put his hand on a layer of dust on a pile of black and gold Nike shoe boxes. Kobe 8 system TB, size 13.5.
He smiled, knowing the score he had just revealed. He pulled out his phone, snapped a picture, and texted Thunder rookie guard Josh Gidy.
"Impossible!" Gidey wrote back. "Can I come now?"
15 minutes later, Gidey showed up in the building to open the five pairs of orange and white thunder kobe originally prepared for Derek Fisher, who ended his career with the Thunder in 2013-14 after being a longtime teammate of Kobe Bryant. Geddy held the boxes like a Child at Christmas, looked at Taylor and said, "Can I take them all away?" ”
For years, this seemed like an unusual request. In the NBA, a world of excess and fashion celebrities, shoes are often everywhere. They're always fresh, everywhere, and usually free.
Until now.
Last spring, Nike and Vanessa Bryant announced they would break up after the shoe giant's deal with the late Kobe Bryant ended. Sources told ESPN that the two sides are still negotiating in the hope of eventually reaching an agreement, but the partnership has broken down. In the 2020-21 season, there have been production delays that have prevented players from getting a normal supply, and at the moment, there are no more Kobe productions.
Suddenly, the most popular sneakers among NBA players are also the hardest to buy.
Portland Trail Blazers forward Larry Nance said: "If you don't have them, you can't get them. ”
Kobe Bryant's classic Nike sneakers are undoubtedly the most popular shoe for NBA players in recent years. During the 2019-20 season, more than 100 players wore Kobe Bryant 4 Protro sneakers, a retro version of Kobe's sneakers originally worn in 2008. Today's players love kobes' design, feel and style.
Chicago Bulls guard DeMar DeRozan said: "This generation thinks of Kobe like our Jordan. "Demar DeRozan is known in the league as president of the Kobe Shoe Fan Association." It's a good pair of shoes. Men really fell in love with it. ”
In the 2020 Orlando bubble, just months after Kobe Bryant's unfortunate death, nearly a third of the roughly 330 players wore Kobe's signature shoes, and that number is rising. Over the past two years, many players who have previously worked with UnderArmour and Adidas have not renewed their sneaker endorsement contracts, a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many new sneakers go in search of Kobes. All of this adds up to mean that a large number of players now have a source problem with Kobe's needs.
Some retailers are still selling merchandise, but not in as many quantities as NBA players usually need. The scarcity of large shoes has fueled a pricing boom on used shoe resale sites such as StockX, GOAT and eBay.
NBA players wearing size 14 or larger are considering spending at least $800 on the most basic model of kobes, which isn't what they usually wear. But players are paying, with several telling ESPN that they have spent more than five figures on the secondary market to buy Kobes since last spring and summer.
"I wouldn't walk into a store and find a (size 17) jersey on Kobe. Impossible," said Anthony Davis, who switched to Bryant when he joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019. "I mean, it's men's favorite shoe... A lot of people are inspired by him and the shoes feel great. They all felt great. ”
Players used to wear sneakers of any color, especially after the league relaxed rules on sneakers before the 2018-19 season, and now they're scouring the web, trying to find forgotten stocks to wear sneakers during games. And they are competing with each other for large size products on the market.
"If you haven't joined them over the last few years," said De Lausanne, a longtime Kobe model, "you're not having a good time." ”
It's not unheard of for players to occasionally buy shoes for the game. Taylor said he sometimes helps players like former Thunder center Steven Adams, who wears a size 19 and loves Derrick Rose's old Adidas model the way it suits him, spending hundreds of dollars to find extra shoes. More commonly, in leagues, players wear what they pay for and almost never consider supply.
The current state of Kobes is a brand new game, even for players who pay to wear Nikes. Gidey signed a multi-year contract with Nike before the season, and players like him are now spending more than $1,500 on a pair of Kobe shoes as they try to stock up for games this season and beyond. Their agents looked everywhere for them, asked for help, and found a secondary market for their clients, but with little success.
Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker said: "I've had a couple of people turn to me for help. ”。“ I'll never run out of Kobes. ”
Booker and DeRozan offer PEs, shorthand for player-only products, that Nike has used as a brand ambassador for years. But they belong to the elite. The shortage hit in particular on young players who idolized Bryant and his sneaker line but didn't stay in the league long enough to gain experience.
New Orleans Pelicans rookie Trey Murphy said, "I do this every day. "He started the season in a pair of Kobes shoes that his teammates gave him." It's hard outside now. I am not Demar DeRozan. ”
But even De lausanne cannot be De lobsang.
DeRozan said: "I used to play in pairs and then give my shoes to the fans. ”。“ I probably can't do that much. ”
Rumors about the termination of Kobe's family agreement with Nike began circulating last season until it officially took effect in April. Representative Nike quietly told the team equipment manager to get their Kobe players ready to end the game.
"Some of us got the word and we started hoarding them," Suns forward Claude said. "By the time the news came out, I had saved enough money for two years."
Stars of major shoemakers like LeBron James have already given Nike his foot models, so custom shoes feel flawed the first time they're worn, introducing a new pair of sneakers every game. Some players will wear them in a few games. Claude says his two-year supply is 100 pairs because he usually supplies about 50 pairs a year. Davis, on the other hand, uses less because he says he will use 20-25 pairs of relatively shallow Kobe shoes this season.
Some players who do not have a similar deep supply have been forced to switch. Several equipment managers said players have turned to a large number of Nike Kyrie Irving Low models this season, which are similar in design to the Kobe model. Others are using Nike's new, more versatile GT series. But many custom shoes have been delayed as Nike and other footwear retailers respond to factory closures in Asia due to COVID-19.
Meanwhile, players who still have Kobe Bryant are trying to get the most out of every penalty area.
One equipment manager said: "I wore them with the people with Kobes until they almost collapsed. ”。
In discussing the situation with ESPN, players have repeatedly expressed hope that Nike and Bryant Legacy can strike a new deal, which has become very common in sneaker ads this fall. But even if that happens, it will take a long time for Kobes to reappear – both as a player and someone else. Sources said that the product line typically takes Nike 12-16 months to produce, and this is before the epidemic disrupts global supply chains.
Either way, as the season approaches, the supply of remaining Kobe shoes begins to dwindle, there is no replacement, and the demand for the late Hall of Famer's beloved shoe designs will only increase. While some players dabble in cryptocurrency investing, a new exchange may emerge as more and more players fall into despair.
De Lobsang said: "I've always had a lot of pairs of shoes, but I look at them differently now. Men are all asking me for them, but I can't wear them like I used to. ”。“ If the situation worsens, I may even have to go to my secret vault. ”