*Vanessa Bryant took to social media this week to call out Nike for producing a sneaker that she designed for her late daughter Gianna without her consent.
In an Instagram statement posted on Thursday Vanessa said she “worked hard” on the black-and-white “MAMBACITA” sneakers, which, as reported by PEOPLE, are an exclusive colorway of Kobe’s iconic design.
“It was going to be called the MAMBACITA shoe as an exclusive black and white colorway on her daddy’s shoes,” she wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday. “I picked the colors in honor of her uniform, the inside pattern, Kobe and Gigi on the back in gold instead of Kobe’s signature, the inside shoe details (butterfly, wings, halo), etc.”
Gianna died in a helicopter crash along with her father Kobe Bryant and seven others in January 2020.
“The MAMBACITA shoes are NOT approved for sale,” Vanessa continued, noting that Nike has not sent her any pairs of the shoes.
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“In the 2nd photo, it appears someone already has Gigi’s MAMBACITA shoe in their possession,” she captioned the post. “If someone can share how they have these shoes in their possession, that would be great because my daughters and I don’t have any of Gigi’s MAMBACITA shoes.”
“I wanted it to be sold to honor my daughter with ALL of the proceeds benefiting [Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation] but did not re-sign the Nike contract and decided not to sell these shoes,” Vanessa explained.
“Nike has NOT sent any of these pairs to me and my girls. I do not know how someone else has their hand on shoes I designed to honor my daughter, Gigi…I hope these shoes did not get sold @nike,” she concluded.
She also shared a screenshot of a tweet from Bleacher Report Kicks that the shoes will be released later this year.
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