Nike Kobe 8 Protro Lakers Away

Designed by Eric Avar and released on 6 September 2024 as part of the Kobe 8 System line. This release has a mesh upper in Black/University Gold/White/Court Purple. Nike built the signature basketball shoe as a category when it signed Michael Jordan in 1984 and turned one athlete into a business rather than an endorsement. The Kobe line is one of the results of that model, and the 8 is remembered as the low, light, close-to-the-floor entry in it, a shoe that argued against the heavy high tops most brands were selling at the time. Protro marks a retooled return of the model rather than a straight reissue. Lakers Away is a purple and gold away-kit palette, which is the most direct colour statement the line has, and it makes the shoe legible to anyone who watched basketball in that period.