Kobe Bryant’s Christmas Sneakers Get Upgraded for Their 10th Anniversary

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With Halloween just around the corner, retailers will soon begin replacing their hoards of candy with Christmas decor. Likewise for sneaker brands, which will shift from skull and spider-adorned styles to more festive holiday looks. One such shoe is getting an early preview months ahead of its release.

Originally released in December 2014, the Nike Kobe 9 Elite High “Christmas” will be returning in Protro form for its 10th anniversary. The “Bright Crimson/Black/White” sneaker’s theme is relatively straightforward: it’s covered in a red and white Flyknit upper with small accents of green solidifying its Christmastime inspiration. The green hits appear on Kobe Bryant’s signature on the tongue and on the nine stitches at the heel, a reference to an Achilles injury suffered by the late NBA star in 2013.

Like previous Kobe Protro releases — which Bryant himself conceptualized as “performance retros” — the Nike Kobe 9 Elite High maintains the look of the original ’14 sneaker while updating it with modern technologies. The biggest change to the Kobe 9 Elite High in particular was replacing the original shoe’s drop-in Lunarlon cushioning with React foam, although some enthusiasts believe Nike could have done more to update the performance aspects of the model.

Thus far, the Nike Kobe 9 Elite High has only been available in one colorway: the all-white “Halo” tribute style, which was released on Bryant’s birthday. Looking ahead to 2025, the sneaker’s “What the Kobe” colorway is expected to be released in April, although that pair has not yet been confirmed by Nike.

Cushioning changes aside, the 2024 “Christmas” Kobe 9 Elite High is a near one-to-one match of the original pair from ’14. And if things go according to plan, fans will be able to pick this pair up ahead of the holidays. While the original “Christmas” Kobe 9 Elite High didn’t release until Dec. 26, the ’24 version (SKU FZ7335-600) is slated to arrive weeks early on Dec. 12 for a retail price of $240.

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