Nike Kobe AD DeRozan PE

This Nike Kobe A.D. is inspired by Demar DeRozan’s childhood memories of the Kobe Bryant. DeRozan’s earliest memory of Kobe was during Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Western Conference Semi-Finals between Kobe’s Lakers and the Utah Jazz. During that game, young Kobe air-balled a couple of shots during a crucial part of the game. Instead of letting those moment deplete his confidence, Kobe used it as fuel to get better and as you all know, the rest is history. While all this is happening, 8 year old DeMar is looking, observing, learning.

DeRozan grew up watching Kobe in his hometown of Compton. Kobe had a big impact on his life on the court, as well as outside of it. Using that as inspiration, the Nike Kobe AD Compton will feature a Compton-inspired Black and White sockliner. Other features on the shoe include greyscale accents on the Swoosh and Kobe branding that end up blending in nicely with the Light Bone and Pale Grey upper. The Light Blue, Purple and Yellow hits on the tongue branding is said to be a nod to the Utah Jazz, who got the W the day Kobe was air-balling left and right.