The year is not yet up, but Nike is announcing a new footwear for early next year, the Nike Kobe 9 Elite "What the Kobe," inspired by Los Angeles Lakers player Kobe Bryant, Slam reported.
Rumors over Nike releasing a new colorway came about when images of a new and never before seen Kobe 9 footwear were leaked online, according to Complex. Now, Nike finally decided to release the details of its new "What the Kobe" footwear, which was actually identical to the one in the leaked photos.
The Nike Kobe 9 Elite "What the Kobe" footwear was designed by Eric Avar and it comes in colors and graphic elements similar to the previous Kobe 9 Elite incarnations, including the "Gold Collection" and "Influence" colorways, according to Slam and Complex.
The "What the Kobe" boasts a mashup of color and graphics from the past Kobe 9 Elite colorways, a multicolored chlorine and blue-black colorway, with a Flyknit upper that has various shades of red, green, blue and orange on it. The Nike Swoosh brand is decorated with reflective tonal graphics and outlines in orange and neon green, according to Lakers Nation.
It even comes with a neon-colored and speckled midsole, an inner collar that has a print ménage and the inner tongue also has designs and tags reminiscent of past Kobe 9 colorways. There are also multicolored Achilles stitch marks and the trademark Kobe logo in multicolor.
Detailed images are available at Slam, Lakers Nation, Nice Kicks and more.
The Nike Kobe 9 Elite "What the Kobe" will be available at $225 on Jan 10, 2015 at Nike's online store and select Nike Basketball retail stores.
Throughout the past years, Nike has released numerous variants of the Kobe 9 footwear, according to Sneaker News. Each one comes outfitted with a high hitting design that mixes the Flywire, Flyknit and Lunarlon.
This month alone, Nike released the Kobe 9 colorways "Challenge Red," "Deep Garnet" and more, while the new "Maleficent," "Christmas," the High KRM EXT "Black Mamba," "Villain Red" and "Mamba's Greetings" colorway will hit stores soon.
Some of the more recent colorways that appeared out on the market this year include the "Sequoia," "Gym Blue," "Cal Bears" and the "Snakeskin," making for a variety of Kobe 9 styles for consumers to choose from.
The release of "What the Kobe" follows the Kobe 9 "Mamba Moment" edition that was unveiled in honor of Bryant managing to surpass former professional basketball player Michael Jordan's record on the all-time scoring list of the NBA, according to Baller Status.
