Kobe Bryant's First Nike Sneaker Gets a Brand-New Treatment Celebrating the Lakers' Old Home

As part of a series of releases for NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles, Nike is throwing it back to its first signature sneaker with Kobe Bryant and the previous home for the Lakers.

The Nike Kobe 1 Protro “City of Champions” is a brand new colorway paying homage to the Forum, where the Lakers played from 1969 to 1999. Faux-aged details invoke the nearly 60-year-old arena with cracked white leather overlays used for the mudguard, Swoosh and mustache. The rest of the upper is then rendered in a dusty blue, calling back the Lakers’ original colors, while gold-tone metal accents are befitting of the “City of Champions” moniker.

The inner-tongue tag denotes the years the Lakers spent in the Forum while depicting its arches, and the insoles plot its point on the map with Bryant’s logo inside the overhead view of the arena.

In addition to this pair of Kobes, an Air Force 1 with Kobe branding will also release with the same theme. Leaks have revealed a brand new Air Jordan 4 will release in February with the colors of the Lakers.

Thursday will mark the first Kobe 1 Proto release since 2018, as the colorway from Bryant’s famous 81-point game makes a return. The model launched in 2009, and it became the first sneaker to get a Protro treatment nine years later with more modern tooling to hold up in performance.

The Nike Kobe 1 Protro “City of Champions” doesn’t yet have a confirmed release date but should arrive around NBA All-Star Weekend, which begins Feb. 13. Expect stock through the Snkrs app and select third-party retailers, with pricing set at $210.