Nike Air Force 1 Low Premium iD 'Black Mamba'
Colorway: Black · Style code: AQ9763-991 · Release date: December 18, 2017 · Price: $674 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Nike Air Force 1 '01 (IV6999-001) · Nike Air Force 1 Low Luxe Se Oregon Ducks (JF5453-001) · PS Nike Force 1 Low (IQ7192-100) · Nike Force 1 Low (IQ7193-100) · Nike Air Force 1 Low (IZ1990-900)
Bryant played two careers in the same uniform. He wore 8 from 1996, changed to 24 at the start of the 2006-07 season to match the number he had worn in high school, and won championships under both: three in a row from 2000 to 2002, then two more in 2009 and 2010. When the Lakers retired his jersey on 18 December 2017 they had to retire both numbers, which no franchise had ever done for a single player.
The shoe carries that arithmetic on its surface. It is built on Bruce Kilgore's 1982 design, a basketball shoe that was the first to use Nike's Air cushioning and has since become the company's best-selling model in something over a thousand colour variations. This one is all black, with the leather textured to imitate snake scales, a reference to the nickname Bryant adopted in the middle of his career.
A gold swoosh sits over a drop shadow. One heel tab reads 8 and the other 24. Eight stars are stitched onto each tongue, sixteen across the pair, matching the franchise's championship count at the time. It listed at $200.