Nike Kobe 8 'Sulfur Electric'
Colorway: Black/Strata Grey/Vivid Sulfur/Electric Yellow · Style code: 555035-001 · Release date: December 20, 2012 · Price: $485 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Nike Kobe 8 'Venice Beach' 2013 (555035-002) · Nike Kobe 8 'Mine Grey' (555035-003) · Nike Kobe 8 'Christmas' (555035-030) · Nike Kobe 8 'Grey Camo Volt' (555035-063) · Nike Kobe 8 'Graffiti' (555035-100)
Bryant's signature line was unusual among basketball shoes for arguing continuously in one direction: lower, lighter, less. By the eighth model that argument had reached the materials themselves. Nike used Engineered Mesh on a basketball shoe for the first time here, a knit-like textile whose density can be varied across a single panel, so support and ventilation could be placed where they were needed instead of being built up from separate layers. No-sew synthetics replaced stitched overlays. The outsole was reduced to roughly a millimetre of rubber, with a glass composite shank through the midfoot to keep the shoe from folding.
The surface graphic is a snake, which by this point in his career had become the shorthand for him; he had taken the mamba nickname during the mid-2000s stretch when he was setting scoring records, and it stuck to everything he put his name on.
This version runs black through the mesh with a vivid sulphur yellow and grey working through the pattern. It is dated 20 December 2012 and listed at $140.