Nike Zoom Kobe 7 System 'Prelude'
Colorway: Cool Grey/Metallic Gold-Black · Style code: 639692-001 · Release date: January 18, 2014 · Price: $499 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Nike Zoom Kobe 7 System 'What The Kobe' (488371-200) · Nike Zoom Kobe 7 System 'Fireberry' (488371-004) · Nike Zoom Kobe 7 Supreme 'Concord' (488244-100) · Nike Zoom Kobe 7 System 'Duke' (488371-400) · Nike Zoom Kobe 7 System 'Concord' (488371-402)
The Prelude pack was a countdown. Ahead of the Kobe 9 Elite launch in February 2014, Nike reissued each of Bryant's previous signature models on a weekly schedule beginning the December before, and gave every one a pairing: a milestone from his career matched to an art movement.
The seventh got cubism, taken from Spanish mural work, because the milestone assigned to it was the 2012 Olympic final in London, where the United States beat Spain for gold. The graphics fracture across the upper and a gold wrap runs around the heel. The original Kobe 7 design had been built around three animals Bryant saw in his own game, the leopard, the great white shark and the black mamba, and that imagery carries into the print.
A speckled midsole and black synthetic support at the ankle finish it. It was released in January 2014 at $200, one of the last instalments before the pack closed out with the Kobe 9.