The year was 2008 when Kobe Bryant, arguably the biggest and most well known athlete in the world, decided to debut his fourth signature shoe with Nike and it was to be Low-Cut! “They are the unwritten but widely accepted bylaws of sports footwear. Here, we hold these truths to be self-evident: Golf is to be played in spikes. Ice hockey is to be played on skates. Baseball and football are to be played in cleats. And basketball? Basketball is to be played in a pair of high-tops.” writes Wayne Drehs a senior writer for ESPN.com. So when Kobe decided he wanted a low-cut basketball shoe there were a lot of experts that thought it wasn’t a good idea, but Kobe himself decided it and no one could talk him out of it. He said “I’ve been playing basketball all my life and I’ve worn high-tops for a lot of those games, and I’ve rolled my ankle plenty wearing high-tops, if you come down on somebody’s foot, you’re going to roll your ankle and there’s not a lot you can do about it. But to have a low, I feel like it gives your foot more freedom to change direction.”
After playing in his first signature low-cut shoe for a year (and winning his fourth championship) his next two models were even more low-cut (Kobe V, Kobe VI). The following year (2009) the Kobe IV was the best-selling Nike basketball shoe in 2009 and was also the 2nd most popular amongst NBA players behind the Hyperdunk. The marketing behind this was pretty simple, “If Kobe can play in a low top why can’t you?” Same thing happened with the Kobe V in 2010. Now the Kobe VI is well on its way to joining its predecessors in terms of sales and popularity.
Why was Kobe Bryant so succesful at making a low-cut sneakers so popular? Does it have anything to do with him being a champion? Do people love to follow winners??
One Response
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Stephen Kelly Says:
I think the shoes definitely benefited from the “Kobe” factor. He is probably the most populat basketball player since Michael Jordan, and in China he is a big superstar. (Did anyone catch the video of Kobe getting off the plane at the Beijing Olympics?)
I’m going to go out on a limb here, but I think Charlie Sheen proved through Twitter that people love to follow winner. (yuck, yuck
