Kobe Bryant's Shoes Sold For $25,000

There was no doubt that even before he made the big jump of entering the 1996 NBA Draft, Kobe Bryant was already a sought after athlete for shoe endorsements.

Then a high school star, Bryant had already signed a multi-year deal to endorse Adidas even before he played a game in the NBA. And with Adidas expecting Bryant to turn out into the star he is today, the shoe company locked up the 6-foot-6 guard to be part of their “Feet You Wear” campaign.

Though Adidas benefitted with Kobe Bryant’s endorsement, the Black Mamba was reportedly disappointed with Kobe Two and was believed to be the reason why Bryant did not renew his ties with Adidas back then.

To get an idea of how disappointing the shoe did look, it barely had the flair and looked a lot like an unfinished pair of kicks that would obviously gain poor attention. And apparently that cut their ties.

With Kobe not tied up with any shoe endorse, Nike saw it as the perfect opportunity to sneak in and potentially hook up Kobe to the Nike brand

And they did so with a customized pair of shoes, a specially made size 14 Player edition of Air Jordan VII’s.

What made the shoes extra special was the fact that these were the same shoes that Kobe wore when he poured in 46 points on June 2, 2003 in a game against the New York Knicks. Below is a video of that game.

Kobe of course eventually made the jump to Nike but as far as those special shoes were concerned, no one knew what happened to them – that was until now.

The customized pair of Air Jordan VII’s eventually landed in the hands of one Mike Nguyen, the co-owner of IndexPDX sneaker shop in Portland.

Though it was unclear as to why, Nguyen decided to put the rare pair up for sale and once word of it came out, he was drowned with crazy offers for the special edition kicks from crazed sneakerheads.

It didn’t take long for Nguyen to find a suitable buyer who prefers to have his (or her) identity confidential.

The only thing sure is that the rare shoes, a customized Air Jordan VII’s complete with Kobe’s #8 jersey number back then and Laker-themed colors, sold for a whopping $25,000.

The sneakers were rarely used, understandably since Kobe would have been supplied with other models after he signed with Nike. Though his Nike era started slow, but it didn’t take long before Nike debuted the Nike Zoom Kobe I, one of the most popular signature lines to come out at that time.