Jalen Brunson gifts Villanova men’s and women’s basketball teams his new Kobe shoe
Brunson and Nike officially released his first retail player edition shoe, the Kobe 6 PE “Statue of Liberty,” on Thursday. He hasn't forgotten where he came from.
On Thursday, current New York Knicks star and former Villanova guard Jalen Brunson and Nike officially released his first retail player edition shoe, the Kobe 6 PE “Statue of Liberty.”
This is not the first time Brunson has created a player edition Kobe, but it is the first to go to retail. The shoe went on sale this morning at 10 a.m. on the Nike SNKRS app through the draw drop and in-store drops at the Nike Store and Foot Locker. It was first debuted by Brunson during the 2025 NBA Eastern Conference finals against the Indiana Pacers.
Brunson designed the shoes through Nike’s player edition collaborations. While it does not specifically mention the Statue of Liberty, it clearly draws on his New York ties, and is the same turquoise color as the Statue of Liberty and features bronze accents.
Instead of getting a signature shoe, NBA players like Brunson get to choose one from Nike’s current lineup and design the colorway of it. Brunson, a longtime wearer of the late Kobe Bryant’s shoes, undoubtedly went with one of the shoes from the lineup. The Kobe 6 was originally designed and created specifically for Bryant in late 2010. Bryant, of course, was born in Philadelphia and went on to star for Lower Merion High School and later the Los Angeles Lakers.
Brunson’s Kobe shoes are already sold out on the retail market and can now only be attained through third-party sellers. A pair currently runs for around $460 on popular third-party shoe reseller StockX.
But Brunson was nice enough to save a few for his alma mater, gifting every Villanova men’s and women’s player a pair of the sneakers. Both basketball programs posted player reactions to the shoes on their social media.
In February 2025, Brunson unveiled a pair of Kobe 4 Protro PE “The Natty’s” he designed that were inspired by Villanova’s championships from 2016 and 2018.
In 2014, Brunson met Bryant in Chicago when the Los Angeles Lakers traveled to play the Chicago Bulls. While Bryant did not play, he ended up gifting Brunson a pair of red Kobe 9s that he was supposed to wear in the game. Brunson went on to wear them for his high school, Stevenson, during the team’s holiday tournament. The team won the tournament.
Since then, Brunson has continued to wear Bryant’s shoes, and this collaboration with Nike marks the start of what possibly could be a long line of Brunson player edition Kobe’s.