When Kobe Bryant hit the court on Friday night against the Miami Heat, he was wearing the new low-cut version of his signature shoe – the Nike Zoom Kobe IV.

This particular colorway, which features black along with the Lakers purple and gold, is dubbed “Venom” – continuing to play on Kobe’s Black Mamba theme.

Though some NBA players steer away from low-cut shoes because they think they’ll be more at risk for ankle injuries, Kobe feels the opposite. Nike says it’s the lightest basketball shoe it has created at 11.6 ounces. Kobe feels the switch makes the most sense for his game personally.

“High-tops really don’t do much for you,” Bryant said Friday to the press. “If you’re going to roll your ankle, you’re going to roll it. It kind of is what it is. If you come down on somebody’s foot, nothing you can do really about that. I wanted to have more mobility in the ankle, more movement at the foot and a lighter weight shoe, and I got it.”

“It’s more about what I needed as an athlete, me, myself,” Bryant said. “When I play, how do I feel when I wear the shoe? When I wear high-tops, how did I feel? What would I like to see improve in the shoes? What would I like to see perform better? From that, in our meetings, I would just throw all this stuff to them and they would come back with the technology necessary.”

This shoe also went on sale on Friday in limited numbers exclusively in Miami and Los Angeles. Via Nice Kicks.

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