The newest shoe of the Black Mamba was unveiled via webcast.

The shoe is low cut, which surprised me since it’s the very first time Kobe will be using a low cut shoe in his professional career (as far as I know).  The very first thing that popped from my mind, when I learned about the shoes, was Gilbert Arenas (and his low cut Adidas shoes).

Anyway, Kobe reasons that he prefers the low cut design now because it doesn’t restrict his ankles that much when he’s changing directions (and he changes directions most of the time!).  He goes on to tell that high cut shoes doesn’t protect the ankles that much anyway.  He’s been playing the game using high cut shoes the majority part of his basketball life and he sprains his ankle nonetheless.

Another feature of the shoe is its ability to force shoe “to be one with the foot” (that’s a phrase I invented just now but may have been already used by somebody else).  That means the foot won’t have to slide inside the shoe when the player changes directions.

It allegedly is also the lightest shoe that Nike has ever made.

Kobe will debut the shoe December 19th, against Miami.