Following Kobe Bryant announcing that he will retire at the end of the 2015/2016 NBA season, Nike has unveiled Bryant’s latest shoe KOBE 11 via its social media platforms.

Originally launching in 2004, the key to Bryant’s signature line with Nike was that the shoe consistently introduced technological breakthroughs to basketball including Flywire, Nike Free-inspired natural motion, advanced proprioception and Flyknit. For each new line, the athlete worked closely with Nike’s Innovation Director, Eric Avar.

The KOBE 11 shoe will represent the end of a sports innovation story but it will do so with a bang in introducing a new Flyknit technology that includes thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) threads for superior strength, a steady sign of progression for the popular Nike Flyknit line.

Kobe Bryant said that the introduction of the shoe is an appropriate way to end his career on the court, introducing something new whilst saying goodbye.

“Throughout my time with Nike, I’ve obsessed over the details of my shoes. For the KOBE 11, we worked to perfect Flyknit for basketball”, he said.

While KOBE 11 will be officially available across the world on 9 January, Kobe Bryant and Nike will launch a competition with 20 pairs of autographed shoes hidden in 20 cities across the world with the hunt starting on 22 December.

What is also different about the KOBE 11 is the way the shoe has been unveiled. Following on trends by a number of huge brands who’ve chosen to launch their products via social media, the unveiling of the shoe was broadcast live via growing social media platform Periscope (live streaming video app owned by Twitter). In the stream from the brand lab in Los Angeles which featured Bryant and host Kevin Frazier, they revealed to fans the story behind KOBE 11.

Tomorrow, the #KOBE11 comes to life on @periscopeco live with @KobeBryant & host @KevinFrazier. pic.twitter.com/dHhOSe4Q6T

— Nike Basketball (@nikebasketball) December 14, 2015

In doing this, Nike have made clear their ambition to produce more real-time content around the KOBE product. With the brand being very active on Snapchat, Nike’s basketball account rolled out a Snapchat story featuring a collection of contents: historic Bryant pictures, KOBE 11 introduction, Kevin Frazier (event host) and Bryant reaction.

Once again, this is an ideal example of brands continuing their endeavours to explore social media in a way in which they can further their reach and exposure to their product.