This story first appeared in SLAM 240.
Time flies.
This summer marked 25 short years of SLAM KICKS. These days, as an adult, it feels like the annual issues drop monthly, with each year coming around faster than I can keep up. When you’re a kid, though, time moves in slow-mo. Years dragged, NBA seasons felt never ending and KICKS releases took a lifetime to come back around. A kid named Kobe Bryant soared onto the cover of KICKS 3 back in 2000. Despite being just 21, he had achieved more in the four long years that he’d been in the League than most NBA vets had in a 16-year stint.
From high school to The Forum, from The Forum to STAPLES Center, from skin-fade to ’fro, from classic showtime Laker jerseys to millennium-worthy Nike joints. Rookie to All-Star. Elden to Shaq. From learning from Mike to doing what Mike did; winning stuff. A lot changed in those early slow-mo years.
It’s only by reflecting through my adult-years mindset that I can soberly look back and appreciate just how quickly Bryant evolved from dunk contest participant to a franchise dynasty builder. Things moved so fast for Kobe from 1996-2000, it’s as if the world had to hit the accelerator pedal to keep up. The rise of the internet playing the biggest part of all, and (among other things) profoundly impacting the way that we discovered and copped sneakers.
Although the internet was gaining crazy traction, sneakerheads looking for a forecast on any upcoming heat would still lean on KICKS as their expert guide and, thanks to Russ Bengtson, KICKS 3 was stacked. It announced the Air Jordan VI “Olympic” drop and broke down how the Audi TT influenced the design of Kobe’s latest adidas sneaker. (Does it get more 2000 than that?!) It showed the upcoming on and off-court drops for each brand and reflected on the best shoes worn by key players around the League. Kobe on the cover was fitting. KICKS put in some serious work and on their way to building a dynasty.
