Nike Zoom Kobe 6 'Helicopter'
Colorway: Dark Grey/Glass Blue/Vibrant Yellow/Chrome · Style code: 429659-005 · Release date: March 5, 2011 · Price: $900 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Nike Zoom Kobe 6 'Bred' (429659-001) · Nike Zoom Kobe 6 'Black Del Sol' (429659-002) · Nike Zoom Kobe 6 'China' (429659-006) · Nike Zoom Kobe 6 'Purple Gradient' (429659-010) · Nike Zoom Kobe 6 'Black History Month' (429659-011)
Eric Avar designed the sixth Kobe around a single material idea: an upper covered in raised polyurethane scales, a texture taken from snakeskin and applied across the whole shoe rather than as an overlay. It was a literal reading of Kobe Bryant's own nickname and made the model recognisable from a distance. Underneath sits a low-cut basketball shoe with Air units at the heel and forefoot and a dual-layer memory foam sockliner, part of Bryant's long push toward lower collars in a sport that had assumed high tops for decades. This colourway is named for how he commuted. Bryant flew to games by helicopter to avoid Los Angeles traffic, and the shoe references that directly: a dark grey scaled upper with glass blue and yellow accents, and a rotor-blade graphic worked into the outsole. It released in early 2011, in the middle of a run of colourways built around specifics of his life rather than around team colours.