Kobe Bryant and the secret history of the black mamba
NIKE STAFFERS SAT around a conference room table inside the company's Oregon headquarters in late 2002 examining a space-age material.
Black and tubelike, Tech Flex had commonly been found inside cars and airplanes. Its grip expanded and contracted whatever was placed inside it.
Staffers saw it as a possible foundation for the next frontier of a basketball sneaker, one that wouldn't feature laces.
Gentry Humphrey, a Nike executive tasked with marketing the shoe, looked at its braided sleeving. "It kind of looks like a snake," he thought to himself. Others thought the same.
At home late that night, Humphrey searched the internet for more information about "the most badass black snake there is."
The search didn't take long. The top result: black mamba.
