There are a handful of official crossovers between Michael Jordan’s iconic Air Jordan sneakers and Kobe Bryant’s boundary-pushing Nike Kobe line. Bryant had a number of player exclusive Air Jordans during his professional career, and the two legends even clashed on the court while both wearing Jordan’s namesake line. But a Kobe colorway has yet to find its way to a Jordan model — until now.
Images of a new Air Jordan 4 RM in “Black/University Gold” are making the rounds online, and it’s hard not to draw comparisons between the upcoming release and Kobe’s “Bruce Lee” sneakers. Like Kobe’s shoes, this Air Jordan 4 RM blends a black-and-yellow upper with small accents of red throughout.
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Famously featured on the Nike Kobe 5 and later revisited on the Kobe 9 EM Low and Kobe 11 Elite Low models, the “Bruce Lee” colorway is inspired by the outfit worn by the martial arts legend in the 1970s films The Game of Death and Enter the Dragon. The black-and-yellow colorways feature blood-like red accents and are among the most popular styles in the Kobe canon.
Bryant was a noted admirer of the actor’s legacy and practiced Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial art created by Lee.
“It seems Bruce Lee has nothing to do with basketball,” Bryant told China’s Global Times in 2010. “To me it has everything to do with basketball. There are a lot of similarities,”
While there doesn’t appear to be an explicit connection between this soon-to-be-released Air Jordan 4 RM and Bryant’s “Bruce Lee” shoes, it’s plausible the Kobe line could have inspired the new colorway.
And it’s not the only Air Jordan 4 RM that appears to take inspiration from a previous sneaker design. Also on track for a 2025 release is a “Pine Green” iteration of the model which closely resembles the popular Nike SB x Air Jordan 4 from 2023.
As of now, this “Bruce Lee” Air Jordan 4 RM is expected to be released during spring ’25 for a retail price of $150.
