Nike Dunk Low Protro “Draft Pack” Wears Its Teal Away to Reveal Lakers Gold

Nike released the Dunk Low Protro “Draft Pack” on June 26, 2026 at $145, thirty years to the day after the 1996 NBA Draft. The teal on it is designed to come off. Wear the shoe and the Charlotte color rubs away to expose Lakers gold underneath, which is the trade rendered in materials instead of described in a press release. That mechanic is the reason to look at this pair, and it is the part most of the coverage left out entirely.

Start with the name, because two of them are wrong in circulation. Nike calls this the Dunk Low Protro, not the Dunk Low, and the distinction is the brand’s own. Nike’s copy puts it plainly: using the same Protro philosophy as Kobe Bryant’s signature line, it took modern tech, including the drop-in ReactX foam midsole, and put it into the Dunk Low to create the Dunk Low Protro. The Protro label came out of the Kobe line, where it means a retro rebuilt around current cushioning rather than reissued as it was, and applying it to the Dunk is a newer move. The second name problem is “Draft Day,” which is how plenty of write-ups file this pair. Draft Day is Nike’s name for the companion Kobe 4 release. The Dunk is “Draft Pack,” marketed as Chapter 3, “Charlotte to LA.”

The base is Sail rather than white, with scaled purple overlays and teal on the Swoosh, heel tab and laces. The teal is the wear-away layer and the gold sits beneath it. The heel carries an embroidered KOBE wordmark split half teal and half gold, and the Sheath logo sits on the tongue rather than the heel. Underfoot is the drop-in ReactX foam midsole Nike names in its own copy, which outlets have variously reported as React foam, a React insole and a ReactX insole. Nike says ReactX, and Nike says midsole. The colorway string reads Fierce Purple, Blue Lagoon and Sail. Those are Nike paint names, not team colors. The Charlotte Hornets played in purple and teal in 1996, and describing the franchise as wearing Fierce Purple and Blue Lagoon puts the shoe’s palette back onto the uniform it was drawn from.

The draft itself is worth getting right, because sneaker coverage rarely does. The 1996 NBA Draft was held June 26, 1996 at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Charlotte Hornets took Kobe Bryant 13th overall. He was 17 that night, born August 23, 1978, and did not turn 18 until that August, so anything describing an 18-year-old at the podium is off by a birthday. The trade to Los Angeles was agreed on draft night and completed July 11, 1996, when Charlotte received Vlade Divac. Wikipedia dates the deal to July 1 and the contemporaneous UPI wire dates it to July 11, and the gap came from Divac, who threatened to retire rather than leave the Lakers. Four Hall of Famers came out of that draft: Allen Iverson at first, Ray Allen at fifth, Bryant at 13th, Steve Nash at 15th. Ben Wallace is often counted as a fifth, and he went undrafted in 1996 before his 2021 induction, so he belongs to the class rather than the draft.

The companion release is what makes the Dunk make sense. Nike put out the Kobe 4 Protro “Draft Pack” the same day at $190, style IV6585-900, as a blind box with 14 colorways: thirteen wear-away white pairs standing in for the thirteen teams that passed on Bryant, plus a single Lakers purple and gold pair with no tear-away layer at all. The Kobe 4 executes the concept literally and puts the buyer’s money on which team shows up in the box. The Dunk runs the same idea at a lower price with the outcome already known, which makes it the entry point rather than the centerpiece of the release. Nike can run either one because the Kobe line stayed active after Bryant’s estate signed a new long-term agreement with the brand in March 2022.

At $145 the Dunk Low Protro sits $45 under the Kobe 4 and roughly where Protro-tier Dunks have landed since Nike started applying the label. The resale market has not gone along with it. StockX showed a $109 last sale against a $147 three-month average across 772 sales when checked on September 8, 2026, putting it 25 percent below retail. A shoe built on a thirty-year anniversary, with a wear-away mechanic nobody else is running, should be harder to buy than that. Anyone who wants the same silhouette pushed somewhere Bryant never actually played can look at the FC Barcelona Kobe Dunk Low Protro instead.

The Nike Dunk Low Protro “Draft Pack” released June 26, 2026 at $145 under style code IM0586-500. Lapstone & Hammer listed it at retail with a one-pair limit and has sold through most of the run. Nike’s US SNKRS page no longer resolves after the drop, and the Australian SNKRS listing is the brand page still standing.

Source: Justfreshkicks

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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.

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