Nike loves them some carbon fiber! So, we love Nike 🙂 About a year ago we featured the Nike Elite Series that they came out with for the NBA playoffs. And now it looks like they’ve added a new line to the Elite series, the Nike Basketball Elite Series 2.0, featuring the “Superhero” collection.
The ‘Superhero’ Collection of shoes was designed by Leo Chang, who was interviewed by Sneaker News, which revealed a lot of information regarding the shoe line, the meaning behind the name, and some other interesting stuff.
“We didn’t want to just do another comic book superhero thing. That’s kinda been done a million times and we feel like these guys are seen as superheroes in our consumer’s eyes and basketball fans’ eyes, because they do some pretty incredible stuff. That’s why they’ve earned the right to have these signature shoes and from there, we just had some fun with it like, if they had superpowers, what would they be?”
These version’s of the Elites are inspired by LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant. They each feature a carbon fiber-reinforced midfoot wing so that during side-to-side movements, a lightweight carbon fiber midfoot wing helps stabilize the foot, Kevlar aramid-reinforced Nike Flywire for lockdown and Kevlar aramid laces that resist stretching for a consistent fit.
Then Chang explains the reasoning behind the use of carbon fiber.
“So it all really started with the Diamond Collection on the X. We were looking at what was the strongest diamond out there and it was the unbreakable diamond, the carbonado. And people were saying that it’s not even from Earth, that it was from a supernova or something like that. It’s the hardest diamond out there. You need another carbonado to cut a carbonado. So we started thinking about that and that obviously ties directly into the carbon fiber use, the sharp edges, even the way the diamond shapes are embedded into the design.”
We are still waiting to hear back from Nike on whether or not the carbon fiber featured on the outside of the shoes for aesthetic purposes, are real carbon fiber or just a carbon fiber look. We’ll be sure to update you once we get the final word. These shoes must be in high demand too because, on the Nike website, there’s a 1 pair/per person limit. As far as pricing, each pair varies between $180-$260. You can also read more of the interview with the designer Leo Chang here.
[Sources: Nike, Sneaker News]