August 24 has become Kobe Bryant Day since it’s 8/24 — the two jersey numbers the late Los Angeles Lakers legend wore during his storied career — and to honor Bryant and his daughter Gigi, the team will wear special “Black Mamba” jerseys with commemorative patches on them for Game 4 of their playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Those jerseys were put on sale by Nike on Monday morning through the SNKRS app, but as we’ve seen many times, a lot of people were mad when they missed out on purchasing the jerseys.
From what fans are saying on Twitter, it sounds like the Black Mamba jerseys were sold out in a minute or two.
First, here’s a look at the jerseys we’ll see on Monday night in Game 4:
And some reaction from furious users:
It’s a legitimate gripe if what they’re saying is really the case. If bots and those intending to resell the jerseys at a much higher price flooded the market and grabbed the jerseys, that’s all kinds of awful. And shouldn’t Nike have anticipated this and put together a whole ton of stock so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen?
It makes business sense for Nike to limit supply of its special edition merchandise and shoes. It’s lame and drives sneakerheads crazy, but it makes sense. But doing this with Kobe merchandise is different. This is someone who was beloved by a lot of people, who died tragically earlier this year. Nike trying to limit the release isn’t a good look.
