New signature shoes for a new NBA season but hings took an unexpected turn this morning as the Nike Kyrie 8 surfaced for the first time which lead Kyrie to voice his opinion on the design of the shoe along with his feelings toward Nike whcih none of us were expecting.
New Kyrie signature shoes are always expected around the start of the new season so just like any other leak, many were excited to get their first look at the new Kyrie 8 in hopes of a new design. Along with first look images that surfaced today, Kyrie himself commented on @k11kicks Instagram stating, “I have nothing to do with the design or marketing of the upcoming Kyrie 8, IMO these are trash! I have absolutely nothing to do with them! Nike plans to release it without my okay regardless of what I say, so I apologize in advance to all of my sneaker heads and true supporters of the KAI11 brand.”
While the statement seems harsh and will likely turn heads and peak curiosity, there are many other instances that signature athletes have not liked one of their new models like LeBron James with the LeBron 6 and MJ with the Air Jordan 2 but Nike has branded itself to have contact and relationship with their signature athletes especially for design rollout and creating sneakers exclusively for the athletes playing style and structure on the court which makes many wonder if the invasive process the Swoosh boasted the last couple of years was just a facade.
So what now? Nike is unlikely to scrap the shoe being so close to the start of the season due to being too far into production but with today’s social media presence, it will be interesting to see where this goes or leads into. While controversy sells, in this instance, the athlete has called his signature shoe “trash” which is a new one. Obviously going forward, Nike needs to correct some mistakes and be truthful on their processes behind the scenes.
The Kyrie 8 will be linked below so you can check out the new design for yourself. Going forward, make sure to keep it locked to JustFreshKicks for updates as we will be monitoring the story very closely.
Images Via: SneakerHighway23
