UPDATE: The former Nike Kyrie 8 has been renamed the Nike Kyrie Infinity and will not take place in Kyrie’s Nike signature line.
Brooklyn Nets guard and All-NBA guard Kyrie Irving has had one of the most popular Nike Basketball signature sneaker lines in the past few years and with photos of the upcoming Nike Kyrie 8 being leaked to social media, Irving disapproved and denounced his involvement on his own signature sneaker.
Commenting on a leaked post of the Nike Kyrie Infinity (formerly Nike Kyrie 8) on @k11kicks, an Instagram account dedicated to Kyrie Irving’s signature sneaker line, saying “I have nothing to do with the design or marketing of the upcoming #Kyrie8, IMO these are trash!” He also stated that regardless of his blessing, Nike plans to release the Kyrie 8 and apologizes to sneakerheads and supporters of Kyrie.
This isn’t the first time Nike has rocked the boat by releasing sneakers without consent as Vanessa Bryant slammed Nike for pairs of the Nike Kobe 6 Protro “Mambacita” being sent to stores and Nike athletes without her knowledge.
In an upcoming book “Can’t Knock the Hustle” by Matt Sullivan, an excerpt with Senior Footwear Designer and current Nike Kyrie designer Ben Nethongkome states that the Nike Kyrie line was going to take a high performance-first route starting with the Nike Kyrie 7, stating that Kyrie wants to honor Kobe Bryant by taking his approach of performance-oriented design and bring it to the Nike Kyrie line.
With Kyrie outrightly stating he had nothing to do with the design process and disapproving the Nike Kyrie 8 altogether, we’ll be curious to see what comes next for the Nike Kyrie 8 and beyond.
UPDATE 8/3/21
In a statement tweeted by Shams Charania, Kyrie Irving stated that the KAI11 brand and Nike are restructuring and working to get things right for all parties involved. You can read the statement in full below.
