via NikeTalk

by Nick Engvall

His legacy on the basketball court will land him in the NBA Hall of Fame, but Kobe Bryant is also one of the most important athletes in sneaker history. Bryant wore some of the most revered basketball shoes in adidas’ catalog when he helped carry the “Feet You Wear” technology era, with styles like the KB8 (now known as the Crazy8) and KB8 II (now known as the Crazy II). Fast forward a few years down the line and a Nike sneaker deal, and the Black Mamba’s Nike Kobe 4 and Nike Kobe 5 helped Nike redefine what a basketball shoe could be. You could easily credit Nike designer Eric Avar taking Kobe’s passion for soccer for bringing low-top basketball sneakers back.

It was in between those years in 2003 that became one of the most important parts of Kobe’s footwear legacy. After the summer of 2002, Kobe paid a reported $8 Million dollars to get out of his adidas contract. However, the stipulations of the buyout stated that Kobe couldn’t sign with another brand until 2003. For sneaker enthusiasts, that meant the 2002-2003 NBA season would be unlike any we’d ever seen. One of the league’s greatest players had no footwear contract and could wear any shoe he wanted to play in. In honor of his recently announced retirement, take a look back at some of the shoes worn on court from Kobe Bryant’s Greatest Sneaker Season.