2011年3月24日星期四

Kobe Braynt Signature Shoes of Zoom Kobe V& VI

There was much hype with the previous Kobe Bryant Shoes (including the Hyperdunk Series) that guys over at Nike wanted to outdo themselves by coming up with basketball shoes that perfectly befit the aggressive style of the former MVP. The Zoom Kobe 5 (or the ZK5) is unlike its predecessors. It actually looks more like a cross-training shoe than a basketball shoe. But the three-pronged Kobe trademark logo beneath the sole and on the tongue and Kobe signature at the back of the heel are unmistakable.

The flywire technology that was a staple in other Kobe Bryant signature shoes appeared to be tweaked a bit, this time using a different upper material. The Zoom Kobe 5 also features a full-length Zoom cushioning - a feature that was introduced in previous collections. This was probably done to increase comfort while the full-mesh tongue and upper are designed to increase breathability. As always, the Nike trademark "swoosh" appears on the side of the shoe.

This remarkable sneaker is as good to use on the basketball court as it is on the streets. Overall, the design is way different from what the fans used to see on Kobe Bryant's signature basketball shoes. But it only goes to show that being different is not exactly a bad thing. It's all about individuality. And Kobe Bryant knows how to stand tall, being different from the rest.

Even in China Kobe is huge. There's this video online of Kobe coming out to fans in China, and the fans were chanting his name as if he was a god there. Now that's some respect. So much respect that maybe it drove Nike to do a China inspired shoe for Kobe. Hence the Kobe 6 China was born. The Kobe 6 already looks like a stunner on the court. But the China version, even better. This Kobe 6 is a little different with the color scheme. The Kobe 6 China sports a gray scale with a purple color way.

Under the gray-scale like material is a hint of reddish pink topped off with a purple Nike swoosh and the Kobe symbol on the tongue being red. It's not like Lebron's version of his China shoe where he goes with more red and puts on a Chinese lion. Kobe's version however is a sleeker version as the essence of China is detailed lightly. Nike really does have remarkable ideas when coming up with designs, and the Kobe 6 China is definitely an eye-opener for Chinese and worldwide basketball sneaker fans alike.
Kobe Bryant Shoes

2011年3月21日星期一

Nike Basketball's Kobe Bryant: 'The Black Mamba' Movie Recap

NBA superstar Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers made his return to the big screen last week February 19, with the world premiere of "The Black Mamba," directed by Robert Rodriguez.
Bryant, who previously starred in "Kobe Doin' Work," an ESPN documentary movie directed by Spike Lee in 2008, found himself for the first time faced up to the challenge of projecting a fictional script.
The movie's main objective is to promote Nike's Zoom Kobe VI Kobe Bryant Shoes, which more than any other in the Kobe shoe series epitomizes on the image of The Black Mamba.
The Black Mamba movie revolves around the very character and essence of Bryant's alter-ego, The Black Mamba—a moniker for the legendary side of the five-time champion fans and players alike claim reveals itself when Bryant is at his fiercest and deadliest mindset.
The nickname Bryant has been bestowed with, is derived from the large, venomous and swift African snake with a likewise name.
The movie takes to the theme of switching to and fro between and within the imaginations of Bryant and Director Rodriguez to form mental images of each scenario they visualize.
The Black Mamba begins in an office like setting, with Kobe Bryant getting up from one of the present lounge chairs to greet the approaching Robert Rodriguez.
The two share a customary handshake, and each take a seat on their respective sides. Bryant wastes no time and immediately inquires about the word of Rodriguez's idea for a movie. Rodriguez then proposes his thought of making a film about The Black Mamba—Bryant's alter-ego.
The imaginative scene begins at nightfall, with Bryant getting off the Los Angeles Lakers' team bus on a supposed game night. Unlike the usual routine he has grown accustomed to in his experience as an NBA athlete, Bryant is left to wonder about his particularly chilling situation and why there is nobody aside from himself around the town or on board the bus. 
Bryant's common sense leads him to understand that the safest thing to do would be to re-enter the bus and await assistance, but before he is able to execute the task, the possibility of it is immediately compromised, as the bus suddenly explodes without warning.
Bryant is luckily left unscathed and thus forced to venture deeper into the town—in search of potential help—in the middle of nowhere.
As he walks on, he finds a rather large figure of a man facing the other direction, wearing a black leather coat, with long hair.
Director Rodriguez dubs the said man as "The Crippler," whom he mentions that hopefully actor Mickey Rourke would portray (The Crippler is instead played by action star Danny Trejo).
The mysterious figure turns back to reveal the man with unexpected monster-like arms and tells Bryant that a man named The Boss wants his Nike Zoom Kobe VI shoes. Bryant promptly responds by saying he is still using them, but the intimidating man reveals himself to have a hostage—a little Jack Russell Terrier dog that is blindfolded and leashed to a pole on the street.
Bryant is not pleased with the immoral hostage taking, and decides to put up a fight. Unfortunately for him, The Crippler is pure aggression, and begins to relentlessly swipe and claw at Bryant with his inhuman arms.
Thanks to Bryant's elusiveness and a number of The Crippler's futile attempts at ripping Bryant's head off, The Crippler finally gets a taste of his own medicine as The Black Mamba—who is narrated to have a killer instinct that is unmatched—retaliates by picking up a basketball that happens to be lying around on the side of the road and throwing a superbly strong and accurate chest pass at The Crippler, propelling the antagonist onto a cement pillar, causing the structure it supports to collapse and ultimately put an end to The Crippler's life.
Bryant then turns back to save the canine hostage, he unleashes the dog and finds a piece of paper around it's collar with the words "GAME ON" written on it. To Bryant's surprise, the seemingly innocent dog turns on him and attacks his new sneaker.
After escaping the situation, Bryant discovers that The Boss wants to end his reign as the best player on the planet and NBA champion. He wants to defeat Bryant and after which collect his shoe as a trophy.
Bryant, being himself, doesn't back down from the challenge and takes a jeep to make his way towards the rendezvous point. Bryant then meets a bald man at a back-alley basketball court wearing a respectable looking suit.
The formally dressed man is dubbed by Director Rodriguez as Mr. Suave, whom he again hoped would be played by the person of actor George Clooney (Mr. Suave is played by Bruce Willis).
The outlines of the back-alley court then catches fire, creating an eerie and intimidating surrounding for the approaching Bryant, whom despite the occurrences looks as unshaken as always.
Mr. Suave, holding a basketball, utters the beginnings of what sounds to be a lengthy monologue but is interrupted by The Black Mamba's nature to strike first—Bryant quickly snags the basketball away from him, only to find that The Boss was counting on his actions exactly.
The ball releases a metallic contraption that captures Bryant's right hand.
Mr. Suave then explains to him that The Boss wants to meet him. When Bryant asks Mr. Suave what the Boss wanted, the calm lackey says that while some take souls and scalps, The Boss, takes shoes.
He leads Bryant to a tall tower, topped with a basketball court with no rails to keep one from falling over the ledge, illuminated by two patrolling helicopters.
There, Bryant finally meets The Boss—who is played spot on by music artist, Kanye West.
The Boss then initiates the battle by asking Bryant if he is ready to join his trophy wall, while putting out five muscular genetic freak athletes to play against Bryant in a full court game of 5-on-1.
As the contest commences, Bryant's alter-ego takes over, beginning the game with a steal and a slam at the other end. He continues the intense game play, understanding that his life is at stake.
He resumes to eliminate the bigger thugs one by one, despite their continued efforts to push him off the sky-high court.
Later on, with Bryant down to one last opponent, The Boss gets involved and out of sheer desperation, pushes Bryant off the ledge, in what seems to have sent The Black Mamba plummeting to his death.
With Bryant gone, The Boss commands his final playing subordinate to complete a fast break score and finish the game—but Bryant was not to go away that easily. Bryant never fell, he simply hung on to the side of the penthouse ledge, and with a rush of adrenaline; sprints, jumps and blocks what was to be an easy basket for The Boss' team—sending The Boss into a fit of profanities.
With a look of fear on his face, the final henchman jumps off the side and completes a suicide, leaving The Boss unguarded.
The Boss runs off to one of his helicopters and swears to Bryant that their encounter isn't over.
Bryant then hears a beeping sound resonating from the basketball in his hand, which he discovers has a bomb implanted into it. Thinking fast and true to himself, he sends the ball into the air and towards The Boss' ascending helicopter, causing an infernal explosion that leaves no one aboard the helicopter alive.
To bestow a fitting conclusion to his rough night, Bryant sternly bids his enemy goodbye in his signature Italian, "Arrivederci" (Bryant learned Italian when he was a child as his father, Joe Bryant played professional basketball in Italy).
The scene then switches back to the conversing Bryant and Rodriguez, with Bryant asking how the movie should end. To this, Rodriguez toasts the idea that The Black Mamba(Kobe Bryant) doesn't end, because heroes come and go, but legends are forever.

Kobe Bryant Shoes

2011年3月16日星期三

High-tech basketball shoes banned by NBA

High-tech NBA Shoes are banned by NBA? Advertising is a funny thing. Somebody once said that there is no such thing as bad publicity, and that is being proved today in the news and on blogs nation-wide.

Athletic Propulsion Labs has designed and produced a new kind of shoe for basketball players. It is not uncommon for a sports shoe manufacturer to imply that you can run faster, jump higher, and perform better all around with whatever shoe they have to sell.

This time, it seems, there is some truth to it. The Concept 1 shoe at $300 a pair has been designed to help increase the wearer's vertical jump, and they show the results of the study of a pair of PHDs on their site.
While the results shown are not a radical increase in the height of a jump, if the numbers are true, the amount of increase is significant statistically. The self-funded and presented report is not what sells this expensive shoe. What sells it is the NBA's decision to BAN the shoe from professional sports.

One blogger had the opportunity to try out these new shoes, and wrote a glowing review of them.  LALate is discussing why these shows are being banned from play by the NBA, and The Business Insider Sports Page agrees with us that the NBA's move to ban this shoe will pretty much ensure that they are commercial success.

While an endorsement by the NBA would have been a real feather in their caps, Athletic Propulsion Labs will not, at the end of the day, be hurt in any way by the banning of the Concept 1 shoe.

More to the point, as there are a great many more basketball player wannabes than there are professional players, the non-pro market is an incredible niche to be in. We foresee that the Concept 1 shoe, and those that come after it, will be a huge success. We are guessing that even now knockoff shoes are being planned, and possibly are already on the way to the market.

NBA Shoes

2011年3月12日星期六

LeBron Shoe is better than Kobe Shoe

When you are looking for a pair of basketball sneakers, you will come across lots of sale message from the internet, and the most mentioned shoes are always Kobe Bryant Shoes and LeBron James Shoes. There are so many people keen on the comparison between Kobe and LeBron on the court, and it spans to the sneakers market under their signature shoes.

It is still a hot discussion of who is the best between James and Bryant. Different people have different ideas, of course. As a James’s fan, he/she will not buy a pair of Kobe Shoes, anyway. However, James seems much humor than Bryant that, he said himself that he’s got the better shoes than Kobe, because his signature shoe is more valuable for the market 30USD more than Kobe’s for the last Christmas Days.

Let’s look at some related information that the Nike Company released three special models for Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James for the Christmas; the shoes are sold at $88, $130 and $160 respectively. They are Zoom KD III, Zoom Kobe VI and Air Max LeBron VIII.

There are some reasons that James had his words that he had the better NBA Shoes than Bryant. "It's a better shoe" James said Friday after a practice at UCLA on the eve of Miami's Christmas Day battle with Bryant's Lakers at the Staples Center. "Because it's LeBron James Shoes. It's got my name on it. I take pride in my shoes every year and I've always taken pride in having the best shoe. So they're going to cost a little more if you decide to wear them.''

Now we can see a sharp shoe battle between LeBron and Kobe. As to what Bryant thinks of that, it is so far unclear. Apart from the shoe battle, there is a rivalry between them, on the NBA Court; and which is the most attractive affairs to the NBA Fans. The NBA General Season continues, and we will finally find out who will be the one that deserve the public's appreciation and good words. However, it is clearly that both James and Bryant have much more to do before they get their great fame.

NBA Shoes

2011年3月5日星期六

10 Donots for NBA Players

There are too many Don’ts or Bans for NBA Players by the league ruling. And some of they are so much unintelligible that make the boys both funny and annoying. Let’s look at them.

1. About the entertainment. No NBA Players are allowed to go to the night clubs. The rule started from the year of 2007, taking the safety into consideration, the league asked for a list of all night clubs and any other entertainment places from the local security department of the 30 teams.
2. About the head. No one is allowed to do any ads on the head. NBA said that before the league would not limit the hair style of the players in 2006, the only one rule was that there were not any ads on the head. And we could find out that the Artest just became the unique one for he had the name of his former record company embroidered on his own head.
3. About the Tattoos. No Ads from the tattoos. In 1999, when the businessman named Roman Abramovich contacted with Wallace with the purpose of making ads on his body, the league immediately refused and banned such case, with the reason that the kind of business was the same as the one who supported the NBA Game(NBA Shoes).
4. About the music. No one is allowed to listen to the music or any other entertainment when the player wears his jersey, especially during the training.
5. About the injuries. You should be off the court when you are bleeding. The rule started with the original of Johnson. In 1991, he claimed that he got HIV positive, after that, the league made a new ban with regarding to the doctor that, if any player was injuried with the bleed, he should be off the court and get warpped up.
6. About the sporting. No one is allowed to drive a plane. All NBA Players are banned to do the sports such as driving a plane, Bungee jumping and gliding, skiing, rock climbing, ropes decline and bungee jumping, boxing and wrestling, etc. Otherwise, any lose from such movement leading the players unable to play on the court, the players will be punished by the team or the NBA commit.
7. About the judger. No argument against the judgers.
8. Abount the study. NBA does not allow any NBA Players quit his study for the playing basketball. Kobe Bryant(Kobe Bryant Shoes), LeBron James(LeBron James Shoes) and Kevin Durant could take part in the league for their special condition of “Poverty terms”.
9. About the dressing. No hip-hop styles dressing is allowed on the players.
10. About the shoes. No sandals are allowed for the coach.
NBA Shoes