Nike Kobe Offcourt Black Slides

Two ways to use them. First, functionally: straight after training or a match, worn with the socks you played in, letting your feet decompress out of a tight athletic shoe. Second, casually: black slides with grey sweats or wide shorts around the house, on a hotel floor, at the pool. Slides usually run large, so if you are between sizes take the smaller one and let the footbed compress into shape. Not for walking distance, not for driving, not for cold weather. Rinse them with plain water after pool or beach use, let them dry away from direct heat since heat warps moulded foam, and wipe the footbed occasionally so the texture keeps its grip.

Basketball is where Nike became Nike. The 1984 Michael Jordan signing, and the Spike Lee directed Mars Blackmon advertising built around it, made the brand the shoe of the sport and then, through the sport, a fixture of hip hop and mainstream American youth dress. Signature lines carried by athletes including LeBron James and Kevin Durant have extended that system for decades. Recovery product sits at the quiet end of it, but it is the end that fans actually copy, because a slide is affordable, unmistakable and worn in exactly the situations a fan finds themselves in. That is how a signature identity moves from broadcast into everyday life.

A slide is a foam question. The whole shoe is essentially a moulded footbed and a strap, so everything depends on the density of that foam and the shape pressed into it. Nike builds these with a contoured footbed rather than a flat one, so the arch is supported and the heel sits in a cup rather than sliding off the back, and with a textured surface so a wet foot does not skate. The strap is wide enough to hold the foot without pressure across the instep. In black, the entire piece reads as one mass. Wearing them, expect the foam to compress and take the shape of your foot within a week, which is the point rather than a flaw.