Nike Zoom Kobe 6 'Imperial Purple'
Colorway: Imperial Purple/Del Sol · Style code: 429659-501 · Release date: September 2011 · Price: $1127 · 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 'Helicopter' (429659-005) · Nike Zoom Kobe 6 'China' (429659-006) · Nike Zoom Kobe 6 'Purple Gradient' (429659-010)
Los Angeles Lakers purple and gold has been applied to so many shoes that it takes an unusual surface to make it register again. The sixth Kobe provides one. Eric Avar built the model's upper from raised polyurethane scales, a snakeskin texture covering the whole panel rather than a printed overlay, and rendering that in a saturated imperial purple gives the shape a depth flat leather cannot. Gold handles the tongue, the branding and the outsole. Underneath sits the low-cut basketball build Kobe Bryant had pushed the line toward for years: Air units at the heel and forefoot, a memory foam sockliner, and a collar cut well below the ankle at a time when high tops were still assumed necessary. It released in the autumn of 2011. Team-coloured make-ups are the least conceptual entries in a line better known for colourways built around helicopters, cartoons and individual games, and this one works because the material carries it.