Gigi’s 18th Birthday

In celebration of Gigi Bryant’s 18th birthday, Vanessa Bryant and Nike are releasing a new Kobe 8 Protro ‘Mambacita’ today. The monochrome butterfly pattern is a tasteful tribute 🦋

These beauts will be available on the SNKRS app, and all profits will go to The Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation. In addition, Nike is also dropping a ‘Mambacita’ jersey pack for $120. I love the black one ☝️

In the past, retailers have bought up a ton of ‘Mambacitas’ and it’s a damn shame. No class, let the people buy and wear these shoes 🙏

New Rays Jerseys

Next up we have a cool story coming from, yup you guessed it, the Tampa Bay Rays. I got a chance to connect with some nice folks from the Rays and they walked me through their new jerseys, and I gotta say I think these are really sleek and creative ☀️

They wanted to tell a story about the city of Tampa that wasn’t just about sunshine, nature etc, all the good stuff. Instead, the Rays leaned into Tampa Bay’s rich skateboarding history to create city connect jerseys that feature a nod to Thrasher magazine, with grip tape texture on the jerseys and the under-brim of the cap 🛹

These jerseys will debut this Friday vs the Mets, and while one wouldn’t think there’s much of a connection between baseball and skateboarding, I kinda see it. It might take you ten tries to hit a trick, but when you finally nail it you’re a skilled skater. Hitting 3/10 in baseball gets you in the Hall-of-Fame. The skatepark of Tampa actually got a Nike SB collab back in 2013 👇

These gorgeous sneakers give me Takashi 2 and Tiffany Dunk SB vibes. Super fire and shoutout to the Rays for doing something different 👏

What’s Happening

• Nike has officially settled their trademark lawsuit against BAPE over copying shoe designs

• PJ Tucker’s new Flight ‘89 Lows are set to drop on May 5th. Sneaker God strikes again

• ‘Olympic’ Air Jordan 6 Retro’s are dropping on August 3rd. Team USA vibes

• Travis Scott’s birthday was yesterday, here’s a good read on the complete history of his sneaker collabs

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