Alternatively, if Nike was that opposed to giving us OGs or PEs, give us new alternate colors on OG color blocking like they've been doing with Jordans. I recently imagined what if a Gold gradient Kobe 8 that had the same patterns and details on the engineered mesh as the purple gradient, but...
Underrated feature that engineered mesh is probably the best looking version in recent Pegasus models. You could almost fool me into thinking it was Flyknit.
You guys laugh at the leather Kobe 9s that at least still have the same tooling as the performance version, but who remembers these Kobe 9 NSW lifestyles:
That I won’t deny. I had the EM and the elite high so it wasn’t exactly a direct comparison (plus it’s been 10 years since I hooped in both), but I think the EM had better fit, flexibility, and ventilation.
I want all the protro 9 releases to be flyknit Elites. To me that's the definitive version of the Kobe 9, and the only reason the EM existed back in 2014 was to fill a pricing ladder. Flyknit was new tech and Nike couldn't price it at the 140-160 range. Nowadays we have Flyknit running shoes...
I think by unifying different running shoe line names into a Pegasus 41, plus, premium, it introduces a clear pricing ladder like how Apple does iPhones with plus, pro and pro maxes. So Nike can tempt customers into spending more.
I like the OG thin tongue more. The leather used on the Protro tongue isn't that great and not very flexible/breathable. If they really wanted better comfort and padding they could have took the nylon fabric tongue from the Elites. The tongue from the GT Cut 1 also heavily reminded me of the 8s...
It's so much missed potential. The black Lakers away pair could easily have been the Amnesty colorway, while the white Lakers pair could have been the Achilles game colorway. Those were "basic" team colors with solid black/white uppers and no graphic prints, but they had great stories behind...
Because it’s cheap. It literally took Nike the lower cost of mass-producing the all-white Halos and painting the swoosh and heel logo to make those lakers homes.
I like the college PEs of the OG 8s from 2012 better than what they're doing for the Protros. The new ones look like glorified TBs whereas the graphics on the OG Duke PEs have a lot more personality.