Pau Gasol And Kobe Bryant’s Friendship Lives On Nike’s “Siempre Hermanos” Pack

It’s one of the core texts in recalling Kobe Bryant’s crazed dedication to the game of basketball: despite having counted on the Spaniard through an NBA Finals run just months earlier, Kobe Bryant took every ounce of ferocity to Pau Gasol once he swapped a Lakers jersey for a Team USA kit. As that anecdote has become a canonized piece of “Kobe lore,” it’s easy to forget that the former Grizzly proved one of Bean’s defining running mates, a connection that far transcended the NBA hardwood.

More granularly, the Nike “Siempre Hermanos” collection, uniting the Kobe 8 EXT and Air Force 1 Low Protro, comes from a specific moment in that friendship. At a 2012 Lakers charity auction, the two found themselves in a bidding war for the racehorse “Siempre Mio,” eventually coming to an agreement to split ownership of the steed. In a real “who’s who” collision of equestrian equity, Siempre Mio would lose its debut race and eventually change hands to Saints quarterback Drew Brees, but that’s a narrative seed for a different day.

In adapting that slice of their relationship, the Nike Kobe 8 EXT takes a page out of lifestyle’s book, outfitting the performance icon in light beige suede with a pink-to-blue gradient in its translucent outsole. A horseshoe dubrae, brown trim, and beige contrast stitch at the heel all play into the tacit “cowboy” angle at work. For the Air Force 1 Low Protro, that palette remains in broad strokes, but it charts its own path with a pony hair Swoosh and an extension of those debossed stitches at the rear of its design. Finally, the drop-in midsoles that make good on the Protro title swap between the usual Sheath logo and a true-to-life adaptation of a brown stallion.

The Nike “Siempre Hermanos” capsule of the Kobe 8 EXT and Air Force 1 Low Protro is set to release on April 24th. Retail pricing hasn’t come to light just yet, but watch this page and our Sneaker Release Dates page for updates.