Kobe Bryant‘s start with Adidas was not as bad as the end of the partnership. Signed with the brand in 1996 itself, Bryant’s global marketing campaign for the brand was once helmed by the present Peach Bowl Inc. CEO, Gary Stokan, who was once an integral part of Adidas.

Notably, Stokan was not only once responsible for getting entities to sign with the German brand but also formulated the marketing strategies. During his recent appearance on 11Alive, Stokan revealed how an interaction with Black Mamba helped him with his global marketing strategy for the 5x NBA champ.

He recalled an interaction with Kobe Bryant, where he asked Black Mamba how it felt coming from high school to the NBA. “And he said, ‘This is a dream,'” Stokan recollected on 11Alive. The Peach Bowl Inc CEO further revealed this is why he used the dream theme in the commercial featuring Bryant. It hit home for Stokan because it was a dream of a thousand kids and Bryant was able to turn it into reality.

The then Adidas employee believed the relatability factor of the emotion could work perfectly for the global marketing campaign based around Bryant. Black Mamba’s one of the first commercials with Adidas was for Adidas Elevation EQT. The tagline for the initial sneakers’ commercials was “Feet you wear.”

The first few editions, including EQT, KB8 and KB8 II, even witnessed some success. Bit did not take longer than 6 years for Adidas to turn this partnership sour. To such an extent that Black Mamba himself paid $8 million to get out of the deal.

The time that Kobe Bryant threw his teammate’s Adidas shoes in trash

Most basketball and sneaker enthusiasts would know that Adidas’ The Kobe II were outright disastrous sneakers. The 2001 shoes received significant criticism from the sneaker-heads for its design. And even the LA Lakers icon himself was not entirely happy. In fact, as per an article by Sole Supplier, Bryant went back to his original Kobe sneakers for 2001 Finals.

Adidas reportedly did not give the 18x All-Star much of a say on the designs of his own shoes. Fed up with this treatment and the mediocre shoes by the German brand, Bryant opted out. He had grown to avoid the sneakers at all times. In a similar instance, he once threw away the Adidas shoes that his teammate Nick Young wanted to get signed.

“He said, ‘Go get some Nikes’… He said, ‘Man, if you ain’t got no Nikes, I ain’t signing nothing for you’… So I went and got these Nikes and then he wrote, to my main man, swag and all that…” Young recalled on an episode of VLAD TV. With Addidas falling short, Nike holds the reins, still producing footwear and apparel from Kobe Bryant’s Zoom Kobe series among others.

Stay tuned for more such updates. And join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.