Nike honored one of basketball‘s most legendary individual performances with the Kobe 1 Protro 81 Points colorway, commemorating Kobe Bryant’s January 22, 2006 game against the Toronto Raptors, where he scored 81 points to record the second-highest single-game total in NBA history.
The Protro treatment updated the original Kobe 1 with modern performance technology while preserving the silhouette’s classic shape, and the colorway nodded directly to that historic night. Few sneaker stories are as loaded with personal and athletic significance as this release.
The Nike Kobe 1 Protro 81 Points retailed at $210 and released January 22, 2026 on the 20th anniversary of the game through Nike SNKRS.
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The Sneakers Team
The Sneakers Team is the editorial desk behind becausesneakers, founded and edited by Nick Engvall. Nick has spent more than two decades in the sneaker industry. He built the original Eastbay Blog, led the first dedicated sneaker team at Complex, ran the first UGC and seeding programs at Finish Line, was employee number nine at StockX, and served as Senior Director at Stadium Goods. He hosts the Sneaker History podcast, and his first book, Small Luxuries: Sneakers, arrives in October 2026 from Motorbooks. Release details on this site are checked against the brand's own product information before publication, and anything we cannot confirm is labelled rather than stated.
