Why am I such a fan of Nike? It’s not because of their ground-breaking innovations or their superior products. It’s because they have a little something called common sense.
The entire MVPuppets promotional campaign essentially became a forum for speaking the truth. That truth of course being, that Kobe Bryant is by far the more accomplished, polished, revered and superior player – with all four cookies in tow.
I’d be astounded if LeBron was not irked by the fact that Nike completely mocked him by setting clear boundaries between his puppet doppleganger and that of the Black Mamba’s. The Nike Zoom Kobe V was heavily advertised through the campaign, but did you see any TV spots for LeBron’s kicks? He has not earned that privilege yet.
What’s more unusual is that Nike has not broken the bank into researching and developing a more exceptional signature shoe for him. Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that Kobe prefers to be heavily involved, even being the one who suggested an exploration into the world of low-tops, thereby once again, setting a new standard.
By the way, Nike CEO Mark Parker reported a sales spike of 300% for the Kobe V at the beginning of the month while LeBron’s Air Max VII is widely considered as a sneaker that fell awfully short of expectations. We’ll just chalk up the parallels between James and his shoe to coincidence…for now.
Kobe is the winner for Nike. As we talked about earlier, he is inherently obsessed with all things that can make him a better basketball player, including his kicks. His lead designer, Eric Avar even revealed that the Mamba is the most intelligent and articulate athlete that he’s ever worked with. Given Avar’s high-profile position as head director of Nike’s Innovation Kitchen, I’d say that’s quite considerable praise. I would not be the least bit surprised if LeBron’s involvement is more along the lines of, “Cook something up for me and I’ll see if I like it.”
While you may consider this a silly platform for argument, I personally believe that even their respective partnerships with Nike is a strong representation of the difference between Kobe and LeBron, as far as caring about all things basketball is considered.
