Some sneakers come off a moodboard. The Kobe 8 “Mambacurial” came off a football boot. Back in 2013 Nike took the colour scheme of the Mercurial Vapor IX — the boot Cristiano Ronaldo was wearing at the time — and poured it over the lowest, lightest basketball shoe Kobe Bryant ever played in. The result looked like no other Kobe then, and thirteen years on it still looks like no other Kobe. It came back as a Protro on 19 September, so it’s out now.
Pink into purple, cut by green
The upper runs from bright pink at the toe to deep purple at the heel, one unbroken fade across the engineered mesh. Straight through it, a Swoosh in toxic green, the same shade that returns on the tongue and on the translucent outsole, which itself shifts from green to a hint of blue front to back. The midsole is black and breaks up the colour exactly on time. Kobe’s signature sits on the glossy purple heel. Nike’s official names are Red Plum, Pink Flash and Electric Green, and “Mambacurial” is printed inside the tongue, a nod to where it came from. Under the shell is the Protro treatment — a React insert for cushioning, engineered mesh that shapes to the foot, and the grip the Kobe 8 always had. The silhouette stays low and slim, and that is the entire point of this model.
A loud shoe with a quiet drop
Here’s the honest bit. For a colourway this unmistakable, the release has been calm. Our Hypescore sits at 33, still in the INERT band — but it only dropped two weeks ago, and there isn’t much resale data to chew on yet, so read that as early rather than cold. What the market is telling you right now is better than any hype number: this one came out at retail and stayed there.
Retail in three currencies
On Solezilla.com this is one of the rare pairs you can line up across all three regions. In euros there are nine listings across eight shops, and the floor is still retail: Foot Locker and BSTN at €189.99, Kith at €190, then Sneakerask and OZ Sneaker around €212, StockX at €245, and consignment at the top with Stadium Goods at €287 and House of Sneakers at €361. In the UK there’s a BSTN listing at £171.99. And in the US there are six listings — A Ma Maniére, BDGA, Extra Butter, Undefeated, Sneaker Politics and Social Status — all at the $200 retail.
So wherever you’re shopping, the regular price is right there: around €190, £172 or $200, with the resale listings sitting clearly above it and easy to skip. Compare per size on the Kobe 8 Protro “Mambacurial” page, and the rest of the line is on the Nike Kobe 8 page. Grail or Bail: the football boot that became a basketball icon, or a 2013 colourway that should have stayed there? Your call.