Before he was a leading face of Nike Basketball, Kobe Bryant was an adidas man, signed with the Three Stripes from his rookie season in 1996 through his third NBA Championship season in 2002. His final shoe as a member of adidas Basketball was The Kobe 2, a blocky style that took the Audi TT-inspired ethos of 2001’s The Kobe and made it even more angular. Now, per a report from Sneaker News, The Kobe 2 will return in 2025, renamed, like the other models from adidas’ Kobe line, “Crazy” to avoid any trademark infringement on Kobe’s still-active deal with Nike.
The Crazy 2 or Kobe 2 — whichever you’d prefer to call it — is set to return in a handful of colorways, the first of which will be a white-and-gold “All-Star” makeup. This pair, first sported by Kobe in the 2002 NBA All-Star Game and pictured both above and below will return as part of adidas’ 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend festivities, while another “Silver Metallic” colorway is set to drop in April.
There’s currently no word on other Crazy 2 drops, but the duo of above-mentioned pairs may not even be the model’s most notable colorway. That distinction goes to the all-over-print “USA” pair, which was worn by none other than a high-school-aged LeBron James during St. Vincent-St.Mary’s memorable 2002 game against Oak Hill Academy and Carmelo Anthony. Sneaker lore has long held that Kobe Bryant despised the design of The Kobe 2, and it played a factor in him forcing his way out of his adidas contract before his famous “sneaker free agency” in 2002-03 and eventual partnership with Nike.
Look for the adidas Crazy 2 to roll out over the course of 2025, with pairs priced at $160 USD.
