Even the Black Mamba’s enjoying the World Cup. Nike Phils shares this pretty cool video of Kobe during his visit to Johannesburg. He was there for the Brazil vs Chile match. Also in the papers today, Kobe was seen whoopin’ it up in Jo’burg. For those who caught on the Mamba fever late, he used to live in Italy while his dad was playin’ pro ball. If Kobe ended up playing football instead of basketball, do you think he’ll be a bigger star than he is today?

But do check out the video. It’s pretty cool.

Nike has done a couple of previous Draft Day colorways before, with the IV being the most recent one prior to this one. I like this better than its predecessor simply because of the clean cut silhouette. The teal isn’t too overpowering but enough for you to figure out its team’s colorway. The lace has been a downer for some, but I think it’s just right to put some additional flair to the shoe. The flywire on the upper and tongue’s not as detailed as the other flywire skins on the other ZKVs. Anyways, the shoe still retails for 6,995 Php at most Nike Parks and Stadiums.

I just had to borrow that phrase from Spike Lee aka Mars Blackmon’s ad from the 90s for the Air Jordans. These days, people are going crazy over Kobe’s kicks. Once again, we are being bombarded with multiple colorways of the Zoom Kobe V. Seen here are the POP (above) and the Home colorways. The POP looks a lot like the Carpe Diem (which apparently never made its way to the Philippines). The POP (Playoff Pack) series’ distinct look are the triangle/diamond design on the uppers. I’ve heard mixed reviews over the POPs, but mostly praises. Sneaker connoisseurs particularly like the icy soles on the V.

The Home CW is also available for Php 6,995. I’m actually a fan of white hues for basketball sneakers, but I do see myself on the fence with these. Compared to the Inlines, I’d go for the Inlines than the Home. But I’m sure Lakers fans would rep these with pride anyway. The laces are nice, though.

Ok. The ZKV colorways available here are now up to . Let’s see what dropped so far:

1. Chaos
2. Away
3. Bruce Lee
4. Dark Knight
5. White/Red
6. All-Star
7. Rice
8. Aces
9. Inline
10. Home
11. POP
12. Aston Martin*

*scheduled to release- unless they already dropped at rumored stores.

Damn. That’s 11 pairs over the span of 3 months, and I haven’t included the MS line. That’s roughly about 70k++ if you were computing. The Kobe V’s a great shoe and all the haters are keeping quiet. Can someone really say the IVs are better now?

FEBRUARY 5- KOBE V (colorways TBD- but Bruce Lees are confirmed)

FEBRUARY 6- AJ VI Black/Red.

Pick your poison and figure out which one (or both) you’re feenin’ for.

The Internets were at work yesterday. From an SMS all the way to forum posts, Manila was a flutter when they heard a shipment of Bruce Lee Kobe Vs were on sale at BHS. By the afternoon, word got to the big kahunas to hold off on the sale as the Vs were supposed to launch on the 5th (Feb 6 was also thrown around). Alongside the Bruce Lees, the Away, All-Star (maybe at a later week), and possibly the Chaos should be out on that date. So folks, mark your calendars. I was able to get a hold of the Vs before they were neatly tucked back in to the stock room. Guys, don’t pester our friendly neighborhood SAs to sneak you up a pair. Girls, don’t let your boys convince you to seduce the SAs for a pair. Let’s all wait til the 5th.

In the meantime, check out some shots of the V. Inspiration came from 2 Bruce Lee movies. Lee wore the yellow jumpsuit in Game of Death (thus the yellow/black colorway). The red accents at the heel as well as the 4 scratches by the toe section were taken from  Enter the Dragon.  Google it. You’ll see. 1 more week folks. 1 more week.

2 more days. If you’re a Kobe fan, you might, just might, want to get this. Extremely Limited, must cops, hard to find, whatever you want to call it. Crate, first ever Manila Sneaker Store x Graffiti Artist x Streetwear brand collab. SBTG x Royalefam x Crate x Nike. What more can I say? Hope to see you guys there! Oh, bring some cold hard cash. It’s gonna cost ya.

Aside from the usual drops over at Nike- Kobe IV gradients, Jordans, Hideout has the black/black Toki and the AJ1 purple/white Hi-Strap available as well. Crate Manila, is releasing a Crate x SBTG x Royalefam Varsity Bones Dunk. I’m sure all the NTers know about these bad boys. It’s a crazy release and Crate will only have a 1 size run from 8.5-12. For all those who know about SBTGs drops, these kicks go fast. and with this being Dunk a Kobe-inspired one, all the Kobe fanatics should not let this pass. I do warn you that these exclusives come with a hefty price tag. So save your xmas money and break the bank for these SBTG Dunks. Imagine- a local store, our very own, collabs with the best. Good Job Jave! I’ll have more info on these Dunks soon.Thank god I’m collecting runners (and not Js or Dunks) these days… Still no word on the Space Jams aside from it being a Dec 23 release in the US. I’m sure we’ll have some pairs available for us MJ fans…

I’ll have more stuff for you guys this weekend. Promise!

The Kobe love never ends over at Nike. With the huge success of the Kobe IV, Nike’s been churning out colorway after colorway of the kick ass shoe. I honestly don’t own a pair but it’s one of the better pairs Nike has released in years. Getting to meet the guy makes it even more special. This month (though I am 2 weeks delayed on this post. blame it for not having a camera around), they release 2 more (and if you don’t get it this week, chances are you’ve missed the boat…again) colorways- the 4 Rings and Del Sol Splatter. The tongue you see here is from the 4 Rings. The 4 Rings has a gradient from Purple to Gold. Even the laces go gradient too! The Del Sol Splatter is basically the same shoe but with a splattered outsole by the forefoot. The first Del Sol had a white forefoot. Better hurry, Kobe 4s don’t stay on shelves long.

Aside from the Kobes, Nike’s other big gun has his shoe out. LeBron James’ signature shoe, the Air Max LeBron VII has been out a little after the start of the season. I believe this has been LeBron’s lightest shoe to date (outside of the Ambassadors and Soldiers). Pictured here are the 2 out of 3 available. The Midnight Navy (for their alternate road jersey) and the traditional white/black/red (not really the colors of cleveland but what the hell). The third colorway, the Mooncake, is also a special release and from what I recall, there’s only 24 pairs available at the store. This is a gold/white colorway, usually Asia exclusive. There is still some available at the store. I’m a low cut guy, so I’ll wait on the Lows to come out before I rep ‘Bron.

Aside from Nike’s big guns, there are other PEs, Player Exclusives available at Nike BHS. That’s what’s great about Nike Philippines, they bring out the PEs to the Philippines. On a previous post, I posted the Sharkalaid PEs for Deron Williams and Rudy Gay. Not exactly your favorite players but they definitely go to work every time out. The Hyperize, following the success of the Hyperdunk has been out since July but the PEs are out just now. Here you see the PEs for Pau Gasol and Ben Gordon. Aside from the colorways matching their team colors, their PE logos can be found at the tongue. Nice touch, right? Ben Gordon gets love from Nike with two Detroit colorways (home and road CWs) while the Pau just gets his home whites here.

Lastly, we have the third tier superstars. I really don’t think they are but in terms of popularity, they would be considered as such. We have the Blue Chip II for Caron Butler and Jermaine O’Neal. O’Neal’s Black/Reds have his PE logo at the back while Caron has his 3D logo there. People may wonder why it’s 3D (which is also Boris Diaw’s nickname)  and not Tough/Tuff Juice for Caron. Caron holds a basketball camp called 3D  (Butler fans, correct me if I’m wrong). The black/royal blue/gold is definitely the Wizards’ colors and the Black/Reds are for the Heat, Jermaine’s 4th team in the L. Ofcourse there are other Nike Basketball shoes at BHS but these are my picks for illest for November.

As I struggle to catch up with all the drops this month, I try to figure out what else is in store for us this holiday ’09? Yes, we’ve seen a lot of sneak peeks online the past few months. A lot of them have surfaced– HideOut has the DOD Pack, the AF1 Savage Beast, Nitro Microphone AF1s, AM1s and Maxims while Nike Parks and Stadiums have had their share of QK and ultra clean releases.

I also passed by Nike over at Greenbelt 5 last week and saw the pairs you see here. The AF25 above is apt, especially with More Than a Game out in theaters. Ofcourse, these follow Bron’s High School colors- Green, Gold, White. I was never a fan of this pair, but the iced outsole gives the shoe extra cred. Another ‘Bron release is the LBJ Zoom Ambassador II. There’s another colorway (majority white) that plays with the same colors. They’re alright, as they aren’t as clunky as the Six or LeBron’s other pairs (well, except for the LBJ7).

Most of the fresh kicks are really for performance. Another pair worth mentioning are the Trainer 1s. This is actually the fourth colorway released here (Lights Out, Volt/Silver. Grey/White/Red and this). If you’re digging on Jigga’s Empire State of Mind, this definitely resembles NYC to the fullest… well, not so much the Yankees, but the Knicks and Mets represent!

Kobe cannot be outdone so they released 2 more pairs of the Dream Season X. The image below is the white/grey/purple with the black/yellow also available at my gallery. This definitely echoes the color of the Lake show, and one of the current Kobe IVs. They’re good as gold, especially if you like your high tops high. I’d rather go for the IVs though.

Last but certainly not the least are the NSW drops. With the speckle look invading NSW, here’s a Dunk that comes correct. Wouldn’t it be cooler if the speckle resembled blood blotches? Aside from the speckle, the pair’s pretty tame. I’d change the laces to white for an opposite pattern to come out or black to get with the low key look goin. The AF1 low here is pretty fresh. As we all know that purple/violet is the now color, this doesn’t disappoint. It’s just an awesome silhouette.

Well, more drops on the way. Just give me some time to load everything and get my act together. I wasn’t able to take a pic, but lil’ fans of LeBron and Kobe have their respective AF1 colorways. Also, kids get the jumpoff with the LBJ7. Their version dropped a few days before the real thing.

for other views of the shoes above, you can check out the gallery section of this site under the Nike album.

As this week is mostly a run through of the sneaker shops over at Trinoma, today’s article is all about the swoosh. As Nike’s been riding high on so many great releases over the Summer (US, that is), this 2 week hiatus since Ondoy/Pepeng has brought about a flooding on their Nike stores. Take the shoe on top, the Trainer 1, for example. Yes, this is the same exact shoe as the Light Out MPs, obviously in a different colorway. This is quite similar (but not the exact one) to the original Air Trainer 1 worn by Bo Jackson. Yes, kids. If you’re wonderin’ where the PacMan Knows design came from, it came from this man’s campaign with Nike some 20 years ago. Bo Jackson’s a multi-sport athlete, wherein he did play a lot of football and baseball in his heyday. So when Bo was all over the place, Nike had a brilliant campaign of stating that Bo Knows. The ads went on something like Bo Knows baseball.  Bo Knows football. Bo Knows (fill in sport). It was pretty cool and like Mike, everybody wanted to be as awesome as Bo Jackson. There’s another colorway of the Trainer 1s available here- the Red/Grey/White/Blue (i think). They’re also priced cheaper than the MP Trainers.

This Nike Dunk Low is for the ladies. There are 2 in this pack, one with a red colorway. The midsection of the upper has that glitter-y fabric that if you do look closely, are separated in flower-like sections. I just had to put these on here for the lady readers of the blog (so that I’m not too biased when it comes to the updates). And besides, they look good!  The Dunk, over the past 2-3 years has really blown up in terms of the mainstream crowd. The hardcore sneakerheads have been harping on the Dunks as early as ’01 if I’m not mistaken. You can always find someone rocking a pair of Dunks at the mall or at the club. In the Dunk’s defense, they are quite comfortable and they reall look great. You can find the Red ones over at the Nike section of the gallery.

Here’s another one for the ladies. Dudes, you’ll get yours in a bit. This Air Max 1 is also part of the 3-part pack for the ladies. The other one (no picture though) is white and cream if I’m not mistaken. They (along with a black version which I haven’t seen in store) are part of the Speckled Pack. If you look at the midsole, you can obviously see, well, the speckles. The suede/mesh upper’s pretty straightforward but poses a simple yet classic look, perfect with any get up. This is obviously part of their Holiday releases. In the coming weeks, we’ll surely see a lot of the nice colorways pop out of the woodworks from the Swoosh.

As mentioned on my Shoe Salon post, Nike’s also got this East vs. West campaign going on (if I’m not mistaken this is part of their Fall collection- just in time for school in the US and other parts of the globe not named Philippines). Initially, we showed you the AM1 for the West. Here’s an AM90 reppin’ the East (to be honest, I’m not sure if I read the tag right). For all I care, it’s reppin’ the south or the north or even the west. Bottomline, they look good. Part of the whole pack also carry Dunks, AM1s and AM90s. I’m sure there are more, so stay tuned and check out the real from the Movement on this Pack.

With Vans hogging the limelight a bit from the big boys, Nike had to come out with something that can kick Vans’ butt. The Talache Mid ACs, in brown and black suede, come with the vulcanized sole as well. They’re pretty clean cut and straightforward. What’s great about this is the stitching around the upper and the red-orange eyelets creating a nice accent to the shoe. The black one can be partially seen at the gallery as well under the Nike section.

For the performance/basketball junkies out there, I have something for you guys too. With the ZKIVs being such a huge hit, they really had to bring out another one! This has got to be the umpteenth release of the neo-classic Kobe shoe. Can we all agree that this is the best Kobe signature out there? Nothing against adidas and nike’s earlier works, but for a shoe to have a year’s worth of drops, in various moments of kobe’s career, wow. That’s all I got to say. This version is the White/Grey-Varsity Purple version. The shoe has a white base with purple flywires and a speckled mudguard. About the speckled look, is this Nike’s new trend? Earlier this year, it was the whole safari look that came out in a lot of AM1s. Now it’s the speckled effect. I’m not complaining, I actually like it. This is actually a clean one. I’d buy this over the Gold Medals or even the Black-Reds.

There’s also a new Hyperize colorway, and the some Jordan 1 Phat Lows in attendance. The Jordan 1 Phat Low 60+ pack is also available in the Atlanta Hawks colorway.

To add to the speckled effect, we’ve got a pair of Dunks- a low and a high, in the mix. I’m not quite sure if they glow in the dark, but my instincts say that they will look good in proper lighting. The low reminds me of their Dunk Low Notebooks they released last year. The color blocking on them as well are reminiscent of the Japan Dunk Pandas- well, minus the faux panda fur ofcourse. The Dunk Highs look a lot like the AM 90s I featured earlier. These Dunks can be purchased at other Nike stores as well. I’ve seen them at the Fort or at Glorietta too.

And last but certainly not the least, the Footscapes. Actually, the other two came out months before and I believe I was able to feature them already. The one listed right  below is the third one to the puzzle. The black/grey/yellow version also carries the flywire technology making this re-release more than a retro. The Footscapes are actually popular in Japan. So guys, don’t sleep on these! These are actually cool! The sideways laces may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but at least it’s different, right?

There you have it folks. A whole slew of  drops from the Swoosh. Look to find them all over town at various Nike Parks/Stadiums. Though if you want the fresher ones, do try to find them over at BHS or Trinoma. They seem to have the better ones in stock.