According to Footwear News, the sneaker, designed in 2006 specifically for the late Los Angeles Lakers legend, will finally be released to the public in the summer of 2026, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of its debut. While an official price has not yet been announced, anticipation among sneaker collectors and basketball fans is already running high.

The revival is part of Nike’s ongoing strategy to honor Bryant’s legacy both on and off the court. Earlier this year, the company marked the eighth anniversary of Bryant’s final NBA game, commonly celebrated as Mamba Day, with the release of three retro models: the Kobe 8 Protro Venice Beach, Kobe 6 Protro Italian Camo, and Kobe 4 Protro Philly.

Honoring the Black Mamba’s Legacy

Bryant’s impact continues to resonate more than five years after his passing. The five-time NBA champion, two-time Finals MVP, and 2008 league MVP spent his entire 20-year career with the Lakers, earning 18 All-Star selections and becoming the youngest player to reach 30,000 career points.

His retirement in 2016 was punctuated by an unforgettable 60-point performance in his final game.

The basketball icon tragically died in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020, at age 41, alongside his daughter Gianna and seven others. Since then, Nike and other brands have continued to celebrate his enduring influence through commemorative releases, campaigns, and tributes.

Beyond sneakers, Bryant’s story is also set to reach new audiences. Warner Bros. Pictures recently secured the rights to With the 8th Pick, a film script exploring the New Jersey Nets’ failed attempt to draft him during the 1996 NBA Draft—an event that altered the course of basketball history when Bryant instead became a lifelong Laker.

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In an archival video shared by The Basketball Network, Jordan candidly recounts his early preference for Adidas at the start of his NBA career. “I really liked Adidas,” he admitted, reflecting on negotiations with the German sportswear giant.

At the time, major brands like Converse and Adidas had already cornered the market on athlete endorsements, leaving upstart Nike as an unlikely contender.

Michael Jordan, fresh off his collegiate career at the University of North Carolina where he sported Converse, revealed he gave Adidas every opportunity to win his signature. After hearing Nike’s proposal, which uniquely included creative input from Jordan on shoe design and marketing, he returned to Adidas with an offer: match Nike’s terms, and he’d sign.

“They couldn’t even come close,” Jordan said.

That was the turning point. Nike not only met the moment financially, they bet big on Jordan’s vision. They offered him center stage and creative control, a rare move at the time for a rookie athlete. The partnership didn’t just change Jordan’s life, it reshaped the sneaker industry.

What followed was the birth of one of the most iconic athlete-brand partnerships in history. Today, Jordan remains at the helm of his namesake brand, overseeing key decisions and sustaining a legacy that might never have materialized if Adidas had matched that fateful offer.

The post Michael Jordan Nearly Signed with Adidas—Until Nike Stepped Up appeared first on Black Elites.

In the new short documentary “Jumpman,” Rentmeester accuses Nike of copying his work to create the Jordan Brand logo, which has been used on countless sneakers and clothing items for decades. The original photo was taken during a Life magazine shoot for the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, where Jordan performed a grand jeté, a ballet move where the dancer jumps and spreads their legs wide.

The Jordan Brand is now worth $6 billion, but Rentmeester is upset that Nike did not properly credit or compensate him for his photo, which he believes inspired the logo. “There is a certain brutality by major corporations,” Rentmeester told Fortune. “They just take what they need and don’t want to share credit for the creative process.”

Nike has not responded to requests for comment

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Rentmeester, now 88, is a former Olympic rower who competed for Holland in the 1960 Rome games. He found the 1984 photo shoot request unusual compared to others. “I was asked to do a photo essay of athletes in outstanding situations,” he told Adweek.

Instead of using a basketball court, Rentmeester photographed Jordan outdoors against a blue sky to capture his athleticism as if he were flying. He claims this image guided a later Nike-commissioned shoot with photographer Chuck Kuhn, featuring Jordan in a similar pose. Nike art directors had initially paid Rentmeester $150 for copies of his images, promising to credit him and not to copy or duplicate the photos.

“They ignored that, obviously,” Rentmeester said. In 1985, he agreed to a $15,000 payment for a two-year license for Nike to use the photo in North America. The contract expired 37 years ago, but Rentmeester’s photo continues to be used worldwide.

“They kept using it all these years without coming back to me,” he said. Although he pursued legal action in 2015, the court ruled against him, stating the photos were “different enough to have been separate works.” His appeal was also denied.

“I felt very restricted because as a single individual taking on the law firms that Nike could produce, there seemed like very little chance that I would go far,” Rentmeester said. He added that had Nike shown good faith, such as offering him the chance to take later photos, there would not have been lasting resentment and legal actions.

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