Nike and Kobe Bryant today announced the debut of the Nike Zoom Kobe V, the brand’s lowest-profile and lightest basketball shoe to date. Bryant challenged Nike to make his signature shoe even lighter and lower than the Nike Zoom Kobe IV and they responded with the Nike Zoom Kobe V.

The new shoe features a 10 mm forefoot profile and weighs 10.6 ounces – one ounce lighter than the Nike Zoom Kobe IV.

The initial inspiration for Kobe’s low-profile shoe came from an unexpected place: the soccer field. “I watch a lot of soccer and have seen how the best footballers in the world make sharp cuts at top speed in lightweight, low-cut footwear,” Bryant said. “The demands they make on their feet and ankles aren’t that different from what I’m doing on the court, yet nobody assumes they should play in high tops.”

“I wanted to push the envelope with a shoe that meets the demands of my style of play,” Bryant said. “The Kobe V is lighter, lower and more stable. Nike has done it again.”

With Bryant’s observation as inspiration, the Nike Sports Research Lab conducted hundreds of hours of testing to create a low-profile shoe that did not compromise stability or lockdown. By modifying the medial arch and sculpting the external heel counter, Nike researchers created a shoe with exceptional performance that moves with the foot and allows for multi-directional cutting. An enhanced outrigger provides lateral stability, while the de-coupled heel maximizes contact surface. The shoe also features a glass/carbon fiber weave shank plate for mid-foot control and rigidity.

“The journey from a high-top to a low-top basketball shoe is far more complex than simply cutting off the ankle collar, as we demonstrated with the Nike Zoom Kobe IV,” said Matt Nurse, Senior Researcher with the Nike Sports Research Lab. “With the Kobe V we constructed an even lighter-weight support system that provides superior, one-to-one lockdown while moving with the foot, not against it.”

LIGHTWEIGHT PERFORMANCE TECHNOLOGIES EVOLVED
Building off the success of the Nike Zoom Kobe IV, Nike Performance Footwear Creative Director Eric Avar wanted to further reduce the weight of the shoe while still enhancing support and stability.

“For the Kobe V, we started with the science and performance elements and built from there,” Avar said. “We wanted this shoe to be a true reflection of his game and persona. As Kobe continues to evolve as an athlete, so will the footwear we create for him.”

The Nike Zoom Kobe V also features a lighter, stronger version of Nike’s innovative Flywire technology, that’s strategically placed to perform like synthetic tendons while cradling the foot like a second skin. The shoe’s overlays were bonded with heat welding, which is lighter, more consistent, and less abrasive than traditional stitching. Nike Zoom units in the heel and forefoot, as well as lightweight Phylon-injected midsole, provide a cushioning system that reduces pounding without adding bulk or weight.

Bryant’s input and inspiration was also instrumental in shaping the aesthetics of the Nike Zoom Kobe V. Avar and the design team in Nike’s Innovation Kitchen incorporated aspects of Bryant’s game and personality into every detail in the shoe. The heartbeat traction pattern on the outsole is inspired by the heart, passion and self-described “maniacal will” Bryant brings to the court. The dot-matrix symbol on the front edge of the outsole – found throughout Bryant’s footwear and apparel product this season — represents a codified language sequence. Nike will offer clues to deciphering its meaning throughout the season.

The Nike Zoom Kobe V will be available first online with a unique Nike iD retail campaign launching December 26, 2009. A broader global brick and mortar retail launch will occur January 1, 2010 in China and January 16, 2010 throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe.

image and text via nike media.

Kobeeeeeee!!!

Little has changed in the NBA’s world of no-trade clauses. Kobe Bryant remains the only player in the NBA with full no-trade language in his contract.

However …

There are 21 more players this season who can block trades through three other provisions. Sixteen of those 21 players possess one-year contracts that require them to give consent before being included in any deal because they are also eligible for Early Bird or Full Larry Bird free-agent rights at the end of the contract. Bird rights are not transferrable to a new team in one-year deals.

Three more players signed two-year contracts that are treated in the same manner as the aforementioned one-year contracts because the deals include a player option for Year 2.

Including Bryant, then, there are 22 players in a league of 430-plus players who begin the season with a say in trades. They break down into three groups:

Group 1: Kobe, again, is the only player in the NBA universe with unlimited veto power on all trades, essentially because no-trade clauses in the NBA are almost impossible to get. Players can only secure a no-trade clause if they have eight seasons of service time as well as a minimum of four seasons of service time with the same team and also must be an unrestricted free agent with the right to negotiate a no-trade clause into a new contract as Bryant was in 2004.

Most NBA stars with the requisite stature or leverage to request a no-trade clause sign their first big-money deals well before their eighth pro season. They also frequently sign extensions to those big contracts as opposed to going onto the open market and then re-signing with their current team, like Bryant did in 2004.

Many of Bryant’s contemporaries have thus never even been eligible for a no-trade clause, since the current collective bargaining agreement does not allow such clauses to be added to contract extensions. They’re only permissible in new contracts.

Group 2: The majority fall into this category. They are mostly one-year Bird cases such as former Dallas forward Devean George, who refused to grant his consent to being traded in February 2008, which nearly scuttled Dallas’ complicated trade for Jason Kidd.

A team must receive permission to trade a player on a one-year contract in three instances. They are: (1) when the player can become an Early Bird free agent at season’s end, which occurs when the player finishes two consecutive years with the same team; (2) when the player, like the current Knicks duo of David Lee and Nate Robinson, can become a Full Bird free agent at season’s end, which occurs when the player finishes three consecutive seasons with the same team; or (3) when the player, like Charlotte’s Raymond Felton, has accepted a qualifying offer for the fifth season of a rookie-scale contract.

Phoenix’s Grant Hill, Miami’s Joel Anthony and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Shannon Brown are included here as well even though they all signed two-year deals with a player option for Year 2, because each would still be eligible for Early Bird or Full Bird rights at season’s end even if they decline the option.

Players who qualify for this season’s no-trade list must forfeit their Bird rights if they give consent to be traded in these circumstances, which limits their earning power further next summer when they return to the open market. The list:

• Othello Hunter (Atlanta)
• Raymond Felton (Charlotte)
• Aaron Gray (Chicago)
• Lindsey Hunter (Chicago)
• James Singleton (Dallas)
• Anthony Carter (Denver)
• Johan Petro (Denver)
• C.J. Watson (Golden State)
• Steve Novak (Los Angeles Clippers)
• Brian Skinner (Los Angeles Clippers)
• Shannon Brown (Los Angeles Lakers)
• Joel Anthony (Miami)
• Jamaal Magloire (Miami)
• Sean Marks (New Orleans)
• David Lee (New York)
• Nate Robinson (New York)
• Adonal Foyle (Orlando)
• Royal Ivey (Philadelphia)
• Grant Hill (Phoenix)

Group 3: There are two players this season who, as restricted free agents in the previous offseason, signed offer sheets with other teams that were matched.

Any team that matches an offer sheet to its own restricted free agent can’t trade that player for one calendar year without the player’s permission. The player also can’t be traded to the team that signed him to the offer sheet for one calendar year.

Players With Matched Offer Sheets Orlando’s Marcin Gortat
Signed with: Dallas
Veto Rights End: July 13, 2010
Utah’s Paul Millsap
Signed with: Portland
Veto Rights End: July 17, 2010

source, image via daylife

Nubeo boasts that it has created the world’s most complex watch case (given all the parts), with overall designs of the watches being influenced by Jellyfish and the ocean environment.  At least three limited edition Nubeo Black Mamba watches will be made available – each with different amounts of decoration.

The most limited in number will be the pictured Black Mamba MVP, which has rings of baguette cutsapphire crystals which have a “Whiskey” color.

more pics and details after the jump

The 48mm wide case is made from black titanium (with some DLC coating) and ceramic – while black sapphires frame two of the chronograph subsidiary dials on the face. Inside is an automatic mechanical movement of undisclosed origin. The banner pictured model will go for about $285,000, less for the models without as many sapphires. It is true that the economic status quo does not make it an ideal time for a new luxury watch release, but with limited numbers and niche market appeal, Nubeo (and Bryant) are confident in the Black Mamba’s market success.

Here he is seen wearing a Black Mamba MVP model with black sapphires around the bezel.

Prices for the Black Mamba watches strap at about $25,000 (more for the black sapphire stone covered models).

source, image 1 2 3