All season long, teams around the NBA have paid tribute to Kobe Bryant with gifts and on-court moments. Today, for their game against the Warriors (3:30 P.M. ET, ABC) the Lakers will do something no NBA team has ever done before, and honor Kobe Bryant by wearing custom Stance socks. This will mark the first time an NBA team has worn a piece of equipment to honor a current player.
From a release from Stance…
The socks, all of which pay homage to Bryant’s eye for detail, personal aesthetic and year-long #KB20 campaign, celebrate the guard’s incredible, record-breaking 20-season NBA career.
The first of the socks, called ‘The Final,’ is purple/gold/white/black and is adorned with the number TWO on the right sock and FOUR on the left. This style is built on Stance’s performance basketball block — with superior breathability, moisture management and targeted cushioning — and will be worn on-court by the Lakers this coming Sunday, March 6, when they face off with the Golden State Warriors at the Staples Center.
‘K. Bryant,’ the second of the three styles, is a casual sock that depicts a cartoon caricature of Bryant. The twist, though, is that the left sock depicts the guard as he would’ve looked at the turn of the century, complete with a No. 8 Lakers jersey, classic haircut and full goatee. Meanwhile, the right sock features Bryant in the No. 24, with a shaved head and his infamous jutted jaw.
The final style, ‘Kobe Faces,’ is a black/purple/gold/white mismatched casual sock that draws inspiration from Bryant’s HeroVillain line of merchandise. Most noticeably, HERO and VILLAIN are written in Mandarin on the socks, and the foot features the HeroVillain and KB20 logo.
The limited-edition Stance x Kobe socks are now available on Stance.com, KobeBryant.com, NBAStore.com and at Staples Center.