Lakers G Kobe Bryant's signature Nike sneaker line "will continue despite" his retirement from the NBA after this season, and he and his team are "currently working on the Kobe 12," according to Gerald Flores of SOLE COLLECTOR. Bryant said that he "already knows what the next three silhouettes in the Kobe line are going to look like." Bryant over the last decade "helped put together a catalog of more than 10 signature sneakers." He "joined Nike in the middle of his career," and only Basketball HOFer Michael Jordan and Cavaliers F LeBron James "have had more silhouettes bearing their name." But what matters to Bryant is "pushing basketball sneaker design into uncharted waters." Bryant said, "I don't focus on how fashion changes. I only focus on creating innovative product." Flores wrote whether it was "moving to a low-cut shoe when no one in the industry was asking for one, or making a basketball sneaker that looks like a boxing boot, Bryant has completely shifted how Nike and the industry approach basketball sneakers." Bryant, on where he sees his shoe line going after he retires, said, "We'll remain extremely consistent with what we've been doing, which is creating innovative products that help athletes be the best versions of themselves. That's not going to change. ... Hopefully the consumer knows by now that if you're buying a Kobe product, you're buying something that's been thought through. We pay attention to detail all the way through. You're buying something that's going to help you perform better. That's not going to stop" (SOLE COLLECTOR, 2/10 issue). FOXSPORTS.com's Andrew Lynch noted Nike in '14 sold $105M worth of Bryant apparel. It is "another way in which Bryant and Jordan will forever be linked in basketball history" (FOXSPORTS.com, 2/10).
