Kobe Bryant's Newest Sneaker Looks Like It's Straight out of 2027

They say heroes are remembered, but legends never die, and few in the world of basketball can own this phrase more than the Lakers legend himself, Kobe Bryant. Unfortunately, at the end of 2016, Kobe Bryant’s illustrious, 20-year career in basketball came to an end, but not until Kobe left some major marks, not only on the sport itself, but on the equipment that goes along with it. The Black Mamba’s own Nike shoe is making its way through the ranks of coveted swoosh-mark kicks, especially since his retirement. Between his shoe line, his venture capitalist antics in China, and his undoubted first-ballot Hall of Fame status, the future definitely still looks bright for Bryant, so we imagine the future itself was the inspiration for Kobe’s latest amazing sneaker, the Nike Kobe 11 ALT’s.

When we took our first look at them, we could only imagine that the 11 ALT’s inspiration came from a cross between Genji, the ninja from Overwatch, and the liquid metal terminator from “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” The exterior of the shoe is made of a tightly woven Flyknit fabric, possibly bearing the most use of Flyknit technology of any Nike shoe to date. At the front of the metallic gray shoe is a zipper that when unzipped reveals a matching jet-black lacing and interior, like some sort of black snake covered in metal skin that must be shed (clever one, Kobe). No word on a release date yet, but certainly stay tuned with Nike’s social media to see when these drop, because they’re surely going to be Kobe’s hottest shoe yet.

Images courtesy of Nike