The Nike Kobe 6 Protro ‘Dodgers’ Is a Love Letter to Los Angeles
Like it or not, Los Angeles is one of America’s great sports cities. There have been six titles won by five LA teams (Rams, Dodgers, Lakers, LAFC, Galaxy) this decade alone. And yet, if you drive around town and look at the murals adorning all the gas stations and strip malls, you might think this was a one-team town that happened to have tremendous affection for one basketball player. That one team is the Dodgers and that one player is Kobe Bryant.
I’m not from Los Angeles, but it’s home to me now, and I love it dearly. The easiest way for me to explain why is to take you to a Dodgers game. I’ve lived in a few different cities over the years, some with great sports cultures, but believe me when I say I have never seen a place that loves a team the way LA loves the Dodgers. Go to the stadium—baseball’s Vatican City, even if Soldier Field is technically the home of the Pope these days—and see for yourself. Crowds show up for weekday matinees in the summer the way Knicks fans are right now for the Conference Finals.
Every summer, the Dodgers honor the late, great Bryant with Kobe Night, the only Los Angeles sports figure who rivals the city’s affection for them, and every summer it’s one of the biggest tickets in a town full of big tickets. The Mamba was a mainstay at Dodgers games during his time in the city—these days, you can throw a rock in this town and you’ll hit someone wearing a tee shirt with a picture of Kobe in full Dodgers regalia on it. Forget Magic and Shaq and Gretzky and Beckham and Kareem and LeBron. There’s Kobe and there’s the Dodgers. In a city of champions, everyone else is fighting for second place.
Nike has draped plenty of kicks in Dodger blue over the years, from local favorites Cortezes to a pair of LeBron 7s back in 2021. But they’ve never decked out a pair of Kobes in the colors of his favorite baseball team until this week. In collaboration with the Bryant family, the Swoosh is finally dropping a pair of Kobes—the 6, his most popular silhouette—in Dodger blue for $180. Complete with white accents, the shoes also features red stitching across the tongue mimicking that of a baseball’s seams. Peep the outer heel and you’ll spot Kobe’s number 8 in the same style all Dodgers players wear on their uniforms. Dropping alongside the sneakers is a full array of baseball gear, from batting gloves to an $800 catcher set in Dodger blue and emblazoned with Kobe’s sheath logo (if you really want to lean into it, local icons Born X Raised are dropping their new Dodgers World Series collection on the same day).
It’s a good time for these shoes. LA is at once thriving and nursing its wounds. On one hand, Kendrick put the city on his back last year and just celebrated with tens of thousands of fans at SoFi Stadium last week. The Dodgers and the LA Galaxy both won titles at the end of last year. Luka’s on the Lakers. The West Coast is up, sure—but 2025 got off to a rough start when the LA wildfires ravaged the city, leaving thousands of Angelenos without their homes and without any idea what comes next.
We’re still rebuilding, and we’re going to be okay, but the road to get there is long. It’s silly to say a pair of sneakers can remind you of this, but there are few things that bring the city together like Kobe and the Dodgers. We stay filling that stadium up, and there’s still no better place to be on a hot summer night in Los Angeles than the Chavez Ravine.
The Nike Kobe 6 ‘Dodgers’ collection is available today via SNKRS.
