Official Kobae XI thread

Pale horse vs Ghost of Christmas past

  • Pale Horse

    Votes: 19 86.4%
  • GOCP

    Votes: 3 13.6%

  • Total voters
    22
Please don't have Zoom in these, Nike.

for a performance shoe, zoom is necessary. lunar lasts a month (if that) and unless you're a nike athlete, you're not getting free shoes/insoles from them to last you a season.


I'll take what's in those pics over whatever ******* shoes that sketch is threatening us with.

What's wrong with simple? Ya'll want gaudy and unnecessary? Go get your lebrons.

With these Kobes we're looking at something that can be worn everywhere. It doesn't deviate from the rest of the Kobe line. It continues to be refined. That's the Kobe. I don't know what you guys were expecting. Straps? I see the Kobes as the same design scheme as the iPhone. 

This shoe is the first time we're seeing the flyknit workings through the outsole. Not to mention how beautiful the outsole is anyway. Its got a hit of Yeezys with the little vertical lines, theres no midsole to stubbornly make white, the toe box looks great, the whole thing is subtle but designed strong. It might be the perfect shoe after its all said and done, we'll see what the black ones look like.

Im over the red achilles lines though, starting to look wack af. Stitch them on the inside if they need to be there.

not sure what you're talking about because the model we've seen up there is not flyknit. so i don't know what you mean about the flyknit going through the midsole.

look at the kyrie's.. they're simple, yet they look great with so many different options that you can choose from on nikeid. whereas with kobe's, you pick 1 colour for your upper and that's it.. the problem with the kobe line since the 6 has been "1 piece upper with prints" and now the elite has flyknit.

as much as i love kobe shoes for performance, i don't mind his line coming to an end, nike has completely ruined it by being cheap on materials and inflating the price by 50%. the kobe 4's were $120 with LEATHER (patent i might add on some models :pimp:) and zoom. 6 years later we have EM and flyknit that rips after a few months of on court use and lunar that bottoms out quickly. basically forcing you to buy another pair of shoes rather quickly.


but i think what annoys me the most about nike and this line in general is all the bs they've talked about in the past that isn't present in the current models

- the heel cup was something new and heavily marketed (from what i remember, i could be wrong). nike used that all the way to the kobe 8 and then randomly stopped. the main purpose of this durable plastic (or carbon fibre on some models) was to better protect your foot in the event of your ankle rolling. i think it actually helped, but who knows. i only rolled my ankle once in the kobe 5 but only because the shoe wasn't properly tied (i rolled my ankle about a month ago in the kobe x).

- the carbon fibre shank in the midfoot under the shoe that was supposed to help with heel to toe transition all of a sudden disappeared as well after the 8. i actually feel the difference between my 6's (my goat) and the 9/10's when running up and down the court.

they're cutting costs like crazy by removing these key elements to the shoe that made them so effective on the court yet hiking up the price by $20 every year. don't get me wrong, the 9's and 10's are still beasts, but one has to wonder how well they would perform with these added components to the shoe. just a thought.

$200USD for the base? no thanks. that means i'll need to pay $300+ in canada for some EM kicks. if i decide to get the shoes it will be on discount, (just like i did with the 9's and 10's).
 
Flyknit flymesh, either way you can see it all the way though to underneath the sole. Thats never been done before. The stitching will have to be on point for it to look good, which Im curious on how they pull it off.  

Leather is done. That heel cup looked like shi*. The carbon fiber would be nice but I need to see the thing up close to know if it was necessary. 

As far as Zoom goes, its not good for your knees at all. Id rather my knees be straight than have soft cushioning. Too soft if anything.

Lunar bottoms out after a month? Then combine it with regular air. I don't know what the solution is, Boost? lol

Nothing stops a rolled ankle.
 
Not mesh. Almost always has a fuse toe if it is or looks somewhat crusty. They seem performance woven to me. Looks like heel zoom and lunar forefoot again. The white part only starts mid foot and extends further than a typical full length unit does, since full length cuts off just below your toes. I don't know how I feel but I just hope they don't wait out and give a better model for the elites again. That's some BS. Same tech as the KD 8 (roughly) and they're charging $20 more
 
I like em. But I think it's really cheap when a shoe doesn't have a mid foot shank.
 
The Air Jordan line is where its at now, Kobe's no longer push the envelope performance wise. They went to the low cuts first, made them better than anyone, but they haven't added any performance tech, The unlocked zoom on the Jordan XX9, Melo, etc.... should be the standard on all Signature performance shoes. Kobe's cushioning setup has been beyond lackluster for a long time. The Jordan line seems like the shoe is geared for a player to play on their toes, where the Kobe line seems like flat nothingness with no response. GET IT TOGETHER KOBE!
 
as much as i love kobe shoes for performance, i don't mind his line coming to an end, nike has completely ruined it by being cheap on materials and inflating the price by 50%. the kobe 4's were $120 with LEATHER (patent i might add on some models
pimp.gif
) and zoom. 6 years later we have EM and flyknit that rips after a few months of on court use and lunar that bottoms out quickly. basically forcing you to buy another pair of shoes rather quickly.


but i think what annoys me the most about nike and this line in general is all the bs they've talked about in the past that isn't present in the current models

- the heel cup was something new and heavily marketed (from what i remember, i could be wrong). nike used that all the way to the kobe 8 and then randomly stopped. the main purpose of this durable plastic (or carbon fibre on some models) was to better protect your foot in the event of your ankle rolling. i think it actually helped, but who knows. i only rolled my ankle once in the kobe 5 but only because the shoe wasn't properly tied (i rolled my ankle about a month ago in the kobe x).

- the carbon fibre shank in the midfoot under the shoe that was supposed to help with heel to toe transition all of a sudden disappeared as well after the 8. i actually feel the difference between my 6's (my goat) and the 9/10's when running up and down the court.

they're cutting costs like crazy by removing these key elements to the shoe that made them so effective on the court yet hiking up the price by $20 every year. don't get me wrong, the 9's and 10's are still beasts, but one has to wonder how well they would perform with these added components to the shoe. just a thought.

$200USD for the base? no thanks. that means i'll need to pay $300+ in canada for some EM kicks. if i decide to get the shoes it will be on discount, (just like i did with the 9's and 10's).
kobe 4's were synthetic leather. the kobe line hasn't used real leather since the 2. I'm sure the flyknit textile takes longer to produce than regular mesh that's why the flyknit is more expensive, but how much more does it actually cost is another story. as far as how much they differ in cost to using synthetic leather used on the 4 is probably insignificant to justify the price hike. it's all marketing there; nike's doing these price hike because consumers allows it. each year they price hike and each year they still sell. 

the external heel cup wasn't introduced by the kobe line. having the heel cup inside or external really makes no difference as long as it gets the heel lock down. it was more of a design element than anything else.

the mid foot shank is for stability of the shoe, not really has anything to do with transition. the 9 has the heel cup and mid foot stability all in one piece that's why it doesn't need a mid foot shank under the foot. The 10 also has the cage running full length on the side of the shoe that makes it stable. the 9 & 10 in my opinion play a lot better than the 8 on court.

the kobe 11, i'm sure there will be some performance improvement, but that's all there is since the 8. they started with a new concept with the 8 and improved the cushion & traction to make the 9, and improved the cushion & traction more to make the 10. 
 
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Nike basketball is not as good as it was a few years ago......across the board. 90% of the colorways won't sell out right away and could be had for well under retail so the $200 price point is not a big deal.
 
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Nike basketball is not as good as it was a few years ago......across the board. 90% of the colorways won't sell out right away and could be had for well under retail so the $200 price point is not a big deal.
Completely agree, Nike basketball is not good anymore. 2 years ago with the Kobe 8, Kd 6, and Lebron 11 was when Nike basketball was good and the prices were good. Look at this years all star pack, you can still find all of them under retail months after. Nike is getting lazy but they keep increasing the prices. I'm sure all of their Kobe, Kd, and Lebrons sales are low but I guess they don't care 
 
Nike has become very lazy with not only designs but performance all while increasing prices of shoes. You have to be crazy to pay 180-200 for a hideous color way of a decent performer when there are great performers for well under that price
 
 
Did everyone forget these were the first leaked pictures of the X's?

The XI's already look much better than the X.
Yea, those Early X's were/still are ALOT Better Look than that Garbage they're calling the XI.

If those weren't rumored to be the XI's, nobody in here would give it a 2nd Glance on the shelves, and wouldn't take it serious unless it was Under $80...
 
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