A widow asks Nike for clarification on the production of sports shoes

Kobe Bryant’s widow, Vanessa Bryant, used her social media to explain to Nike about the Mambacita sneaker leak online.

During the Instagram post, Vanessa explained that her intention was to sell the shoes and allocate the proceeds to Fundação Esportiva Mamba e Mambacita. However, the widow of Kobe Bryant did not give the green light to produce and sell shoes, since her husband’s contract with Nike was not signed again.

Vanessa worked with Nike to design this special shoe in honor of her daughter Gianna and husband Kobe Bryant, who died in January 2020 after a plane crash.

“This is the shoe I worked on in honor of my daughter Gianna. She was going to be called Mambasita (…) I chose the colors in honor of her uniform, the number 2 she wore on her uniform, the pattern on the interior, Kobe and Gigi on the back in gold instead of Kobe’s signature, Shoe internal details (butterfly, wings, halo), etc. Mambasita shoes are not approved for sale. I would like to sell them to honor my daughter with everything that is good for our organization, but I did not renew Nike’s contract to sell these shoes. The shoes were not approved to be manufactured first. Nike did not send Any of these couples to me or my girls,” Instagram.

Where were Mambasita shoes sold?

In the post’s description, Vanessa asked to share how they got access to the shoes, to which users on social media quickly responded that a UK tennis store called Foot Patrol launched the shoe as part of the raffle; While sites like GOAT and Flight Club have already resold them for $1,500 and $1,800 ($7.6 and R$9,200, at today’s quote), respectively.

So far, Nike, GOAT, Footpatrol and Flight Club have not responded to questions from Vanessa Bryant.