Nike KD 6 Elite 'Gold'
Colorway: White/Metallic Gold-Pure Platinum-Black · Style code: 642838-100 · Release date: March 17, 2014 · Price: $416 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Nike KD 6 Hero Pack Sneakers (642838-300) · Nike KD 6 Elite 'Team' (642838-400) · Nike KD 6 Elite Premium 'Supremacy' (683250-474) · Fragment Design x Nike KD 6 Elite Premium 'Chino' (683250-231) · Fragment Design x Nike KD 6 Elite Premium 'Deep Royal' (683250-410)
Nike ran the Elite programme through the early 2010s as a playoff-season upgrade: take a signature shoe already in stores, rebuild it in stronger and more expensive materials, drop it into a restrained metallic palette, and release it as the postseason started. The KD, LeBron and Kobe lines each got one.
The KD 6 Elite did more than re-skin. It was the first shoe in Kevin Durant's signature run to carry a visible full-length Zoom Air unit, which suited a forward who plays like a guard and wanted court feel from heel to toe rather than a stack of foam. The upper used Flywire cables through white mesh, reinforced with aramid fibre (the same family of material used in protective equipment) where the shoe takes the most stress.
The finishing is where the Elite idea shows. A single metallic gold Swoosh runs almost the full length of the lateral side, the heel branding is picked out in the same gold, and the tongue sits off-centre. Nothing about it is quiet, but it is a different kind of loud from the in-season colourways.