This project was 2 years in the making! ????
8/24 is just one of the days to celebrate one of the greatest to ever play the sport, Kobe Bryant. For Today’s project Vick and a team of creative masterminds rebuild a 1 of 1 Jordan 3 Low that was created and gifted to Kobe Bryant when he signed with Nike in 2003. Here’s the catch.. These specific sneakers were only ever seen in pictures, 2 pictures to be exact! With only 2 reference photos and only a couple Jordan 3 Lows in the world, this Dream Team was in for a week full of challenges.
To kick off the project Vick Almighty and Brian reached out to Mark Smith himself to get his insight and blessing. Mark Smith was the VP of Innovations at Nike and was the mastermind behind the legendary laser era. Mark Smith was able to give us an additional reference photo and his insight on what materials to use plus his blessing and once we had that it was off to the races for this literal “DREAM” of a project.
With the blessings from the man himself it was time to compile a team that can make this entire project possible. We recruited Jake, better known as Dank & Co, who is a master sneaker builder and customizer. Brian, who is one of the biggest sneaker collectors in the game and Julian, who is an absolute genius with graphic design and laser engraving.
The details on this sneaker are what set the whole thing apart. The detailed filigree is one of the most intricate designs that we have ever seen. Plus the 8 ball on the side to represent the number 8 that Kobe wore for the first decade of his career before switching to the legendary 24. Finally the tongue had an incredible shield to represent the warrior that Kobe was on and off the court.
7 days of work went into this build, but over 500 total hours went into planning, execution, filming and editing. This project had it’s fair share of obstacles and challenges, but it was all worth it to bring this incredible sneaker to life while working to make Mark Smith proud and to honor the legend Kobe Bryant the right way!
Overall this project was a literal dream! “My favorite part was getting to show Mark Smith and thank him for his contributions to the project. As well as thank him for inspiring me throughout my whole career.” -Vick Almighty
Vick and the team are considering this one of the biggest project of their careers. Do you think we honored Kobe Bryant?
P.S.: Stay tuned.. The next Dream Team project is already in the works
Enter to win a signed poster from our friends at Pristine Auction by clicking the link below! The giveaway ends 9/24. Don’t wait to enter
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Have you ever seen these one of one Low
top Jordan 3s that were gifted to Kobe Bryant 20 years ago when he signed with
Nike? You probably haven't there's only Three reference photos in existence,
so to recreate these is going to be a challenge. [Music]
[Music] [Music] This video is brought to you by Pristine
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you win when you use registration code Kobe. Stay Tuned for the rest of the video we're giving away
one of the sickest items we've ever given away on The channel thanks to Pristine Auction . Alright everybody the time is here we got a lot of work To go over to make this project successful for
me personally I got to start taking apart the Donor shoe, Julian I know you got a lot of work
on your end what do you got? Alright as you can Tell the shoe has a lot of engraving on it so in
order for me to do my job of the engraving we're Going to have to digitize all of these patterns
and graphics on here so that's going to be my job. Jake what are you going to be doing? So basically
we need to recreate this mythical shoe in order To do that we're going to lay tape down on each
piece pull a pattern from it and that'll give Us something to work with. Well we know you do a
great job on the pattern Jake, but when we look At this we can see how intricate the Mark Smith
filigre is and it's going to be very important Guys that we line up the artwork so that it fits
the shoe the way the original did on that Kobe so We have a lot of work to do. As well as we have
a size 11 pattern but we're going to be going To a size 12 shoe so we have to be very careful
with setting that up. To honor the Black Mamba on Kobe day we're recreating the mythical one of one
Jordan 3 low top that was gifted to Kobe Bryant When he first signed with Nike back in 2003 they were
originally created by the legendary former VP of Innovations Mark Smith this creative genius is
responsible for some of Nike's craziest project That you probably never heard of he's a Pioneer
behind Nike's laser engraving era we only have Three photos to work with making this project
extremely challenging to recreate on point. To Do this right it's taking several days of hard
work with the four man team we're really happy with How things are looking we just hope that we make
Mark Smith proud and honor Kobe Bryant the right [Music]
Way. So Julian one of the things I was trying
to figure out how we're going to achieve is the Thickness of these cut lines if if you see how
intricate that is I don't know how we're going To get that it almost looks like one line but
I don't know how we're going to get it to look Like the original. What do you think? oh yeah so
it's kind of in set a little bit I have a theory I think what we need to do is in the illustrator
I can go ahead and outline the stroke itself so In the laser engraver what it's going to do is
recognize both the inside line and the outside Line of that shape so instead of it just cutting
once for the shape it's actually going to cut The outside and then slightly on the inside a
little bit. I think that's a great idea I think It'll look just like this if we do that so both
sides of the stroke will be will be cut be cut In there, so yeah the hard part is now going to
make that match um for those steps inside cause Everything is a little bit even. Um but like
you're saying it's the double line so we're Going to have to go in there and make sure that
it's an even spread between that inside shape And then and the outside shape great let's try it
out let see how it looks. Alright et's go for It. While everybody's busy we got to start with
the insoles we are going to be using the black Pig skin that's going to go on the liner for the
insoles first we're going to be using some spray Glue and we're going to cut out the leather after
that we're going to laser engrave the eight ball. [Music] The dream team has been working non-stop
this morning so we decided to take a break and Head over to RESHOEVN8R'S go-to spot Taco Boys
they're a family-owned authentic taqueria from Sonora and this place never misses they have the
best tacos a Cabron and Arizona. I go in on the Carne Asada tacos and burritos mixed with all the delicious
salsas and unlimited bar of ingredients check out Taco Boys on Instagram, YouTube and Tik Tok at Taco boys they're open every day with several Locations in Arizona tell them RESHOEVN8R, sent
you. Towards the end of the day the homie Ballin Twin AKA Randy stopped by the studio to show us some
of his crazy unique collection he's also a good Friend of Mark Smith so of course the main stuff
he brought was all his laser engraved stuff from Mark, Chris Lundy and Maize it was unbelievable
to see everything together on one table even the Two pairs of Jordan three Lows on the dunk soles
that were created by Mark in the kitchen have Never been seen together until today . Looking
at all these shoes and geeking over them with My friends was really special these shoes are
history with stories that deserve to be shared With with the world the crazy thing is that this
is only a tiny fraction of the stuff that Mark Smith has worked on over the years. This was a fun
conversation we're going to drop the full video Soon subscribe to our channel. So basically for
this project besides padding and stiffeners and Stuff like that we basically have two different
Leathers that we're using we have a nice pig Skin here in Black that we use for the liner the
back of the tongue uh the collar and then a nice White full grain calf skin um these are beautiful
Leathers. We have here the cool thing is too that
We're using materials as closest to the original
thing as possible. This information is from Mark Smith himself he said black pig skin and some
beautiful tumble white leather I think we got that And that's thanks to District leather Supply. They
have everything you need from beautiful materials, Tools last you name it anything you need to make
a shoe they have it check out District leather Supply.com right now. Bill thank you so much for
making this project possible. Hey dudes got the Leather cut up machine's ready to go where we
at? So as you know we're trying to be as accurate As possible on all of these Engravings and since
there's not a lot of photos of this toe cap area Um in a clear angle what I'm doing is laying down
some masking tape going to do a relief etching Take that scan it in the computer put it in the
illustrator and then outline the whole thing so That way on the laser engraving itself it is as
accurate as possible. It's smart man looks really Good how do you feel about it? I'm feeling good.
Alright man let's keep it going let's [Music] Go. [Music] It's day three you guys we got all
the parts fully cut out not going to lie we're Pretty tired the last few nights we've been here
till 3:00, 4 in the morning just trying to get Everything fully cut out perfected the laser and
gra machine is not really easy to work with but at This point we finally got it I'm happy we just
made it here. We learned our lesson it's an art You're surely is so uh yeah we have everything
cut over here you know we have a pre- washed and Washed you know basically there's soot that gets
all over all these pieces and we need to clean Them off otherwise the soot gets all over all
this nice white leather that's right so the laser Engraving machine creates a lot of burn marks all
around this white leather we're going to be using Our RESHOEVN8R Essential Shoe Cleaning Kit all we
really need is our Soft Brush and our solution, We're going to go to the sink and get us good
[Music] scrub. Everything's washed fully dried Ready to go next step is assembly. Where are we at?
yeah so we got started on it off camera just to Kind of make sure everything's coming together
right we got this far I think we're ready to Start with the the other side down. That's right
so, what's the first piece we're grabbing? Yeah so The first thing we want to do is the main piece
here we want to start here um with that we want To connect the the like back half of it here okay
there's a like a hidden stitch on these Jordan 3s Just rolls over right on the medial side yeah so
we we need to Skive a lot uh we got some glue that We need to lay down and then we'll do this hidden
Stitch first and then we'll come in with with some Other pieces. Alright so it sounds like we got to
do some prepwork first I'm going to take care of the Skyving if we start sewing without doing any skyving
it's going to look bulky in some areas we don't Want that. In some areas we're going to go in with
a little xacto knife to make it nice and [Music] Thin [Music]
So Vick just got this hidden stitch on
the medial side all done. We now have The eyelets glued into place, we have the
lace stiffeners in place behind that and Then backing as well. Now we have the black
pig skin leather that we're going to put in . For the liner we need to spray adhesive
that lay it down and we can start sewing So as crude as this looks this is just a box
box, but you want to kind of contain the spray Glue and when you're laying this down you want
to kind of let it lay on its own you don't want To try to manipulate it too much cause then it'll
just lay flat as the pattern sits and then we'll Roll it. You know one funny thing to me is the that
sticks out is the word filigree never heard that Word before never going to forget that word,
but you know that was the key in this whole Thing is having Mark Smith's work and in that
work pattern that he has calls it the filigree And without that this whole thing would not be
possible we'd be able to do something on this Laser project, but it wouldn't be able to look
as detailed and put together as this without It. So we're moving along nicely uh we have
the upper made next we need to punch some Holes and then get started making the interior.
Also we have the tongue to do. That's right, so With the holes they're already there the laser
engraver created them however when you put the Liner in it kind of covered them up so with
the hole punch and Hammer we'll recreate them. We're also on to the tongues they're still
not attached yet. How do we go about this ? Yeah so with the tongues you meet them face
to face it's a compound curve Stitch so they Don't match just like this you got to kind of
curve them to make them match but once they Do they're good and it'll flip out like that
we put the padding in the back and all that. Interesting, yeah yeah without that explanation
it'll be kind of weird they don't line up you know? Yeah how would you go that exactly so once
they put together you'll see what it looks [Music] [Music] Alright we just got back from the lake
we had a great time in the RESHOEVN8R boat we did Some swimming and some surfing we're all tired
Jake's taking a nap so we're just going to get Started on these midsoles and soles. We got to
get them ready for the uppers so using a dremmel We're going to remove all the glue after that
we're going to talk about these midsoles. As I was out and About I ran into my good friend from Strap
I talked to him about the project he loved Everything about it so he hooked up the entire
team with a bunch of disposable cameras for a Hassle-free film experience check them out
at strapphotoclub.com or on Instagram at Strapphotoclub. So we got the majority of the
upper done. Now we need to move on to the interior collar and lining dude the shell looks really
good it's starting to look like the shoe This is information directly from the man himself
Mark Smith he used black pig skin leather on the original Kobe laser 3 low so we're using the
exact same stuff so for this step we got to lay
Down the sock liner. Now what's the process? For
this step Yeah so basically what we want to do Is pick out a very soft portion of this uh
pig skin if you notice some of it's kind of Thicker than other areas closer to the edges
it's a little bit thinner and flexible right And it'll stretch one away and we want to pick
that area what we'll do is we'll fold this back Tab down and then wrap it around here inside
out clip it and then we'll sew it and then We'll roll the edge in along with a counter
and padding. Sounds good let's get a nice piece [Music] Out. So we have the liner attached before we
roll it in we need to add padding and a heel Counter I think you'll take care of the counter
I'll take care of the padding both are really Important the paddings for obviously for comfort
the counter is to give the upper some [Music] Structure [Music]. So we finished the interior the liner's in now
i's time to build some tongues that's right. So You got the leather parts over there. What I
gotta do with this pattern piece and some Foam is simply trace it out cut it to give it
some structure and comfort after that you're Going to sew it right? Yeah so I'm going to join
these two together that'll get the uh the top And the bottom piece of the tongue ready to
go then we'll get the pig skin lining sew it Around the top install the padding close it all
up and then we can install the tongue into the [Music] Shoes. Well we got the tongue in and now our shoes
3D now it's time to last it that's right we got Our last right here and our lasting board the
first we're going to get it on to the last yep Nail it down tack it on wrap it around wrap it
on get some nails get some nails have down pull Tight and get it situated all nice where it looks
all even pretty straightforward but you want To do this part right if you do it wrong you can
get a wonky looking upper you know it's got to be Centered if you pull too much on this side it just
kind of makes the whole shoe weird. Yeah it look Like a sad sock puppet if you don't do it right.
This guy's the OG so we're going to let him do it. Okay [Music] prep is complete before we lay
down the glue let's take care of these midsoles. So first we're going to do some taping after
that we're going to lay down some Angelus flat Black paint while we have the airbrush
out we're going to take care of these Custom insole we laser engraved the eightball
now we want to add a gold touch the reason Why we're going with gold is to match these
custom laces. Let's go ahead and use some 18K Gold [Music]. As you can see we got the shoe all lasted
what's next? That's right it's good to go Midsole and sole is all prepped let's stick both parts
together, but first we got to do some prep work With the pen we're going to outline, exactly
where to do the prep work and a down some
Glue for this part it's going to be a two-man
team, so we want to get it all lined up make Sure everything's nice from the back side toe
tip. You want just start. Start right there? [Music] Yep we've applied glue to the
upper and the sole let it sit for a Few minutes now it's ready to be heated
and we can join the two pieces [Music] Together after 6 days of hard
work let's Stitch these toe caps. [Music] It's about that time seven days in a row
you guys I'm not even kidding we started Wednesday finished up on Tuesday every
single day we were here till like 2- 3 in the morning getting this job done this is
by far one of the craziest projects we've done . Lot of effort a lot of work went into it Julian
and Brian getting all the engraving perfected On our side getting the shoe built that was a
lot of work but I'm really really thankful for This project dude. You did a great job building
it I learned a lot from this process I hope we Made Mark Smith proud and Kobe Bryant what do
you think about this project? Dude yeah it came Out incredible um better than expected you know
which is wild cuz we knew what we were looking to Do but man it came out awesome. Jake thanks again
for helping me with this project man that's two For two now can't wait for the next one. Oh yeah!
This project is basically wrapped up but we Still have to go in and give this shoe a proper
deep clean all around just because of all the touch We did on these shoes the last 7 Days the white
leather has some scuffing and marks from the laser Engraving it's not a problem it's just surface
Grime we're going to go in with our RESHOEVN8R Essential Shoe Cleaning Kit using our solution
and our Soft Bristle Brush to give everything A nice quick Passover to get everything
cleaned up so we can lace the shoe [Music] Up. If you're interested in winning this beautiful
one of 1 Kobe Bryant signed piece then make sure You're following Pristine Auction on Instagram
and head over to their website at prestineauction.com For more details on how to win. Alright Brian
after seven long days of work what do you think ? I'm speechless, blown Away in fact I just want to
sit here and just look at them for a good hour or Two you know? Beautiful sneaker just seeing them
come to come to life after all the work that it Took to get it done and seeing it finally put
together and it looks pretty much dead on to What the original one was I know we didn't try to
completely replicate it perfectly but it just has The shape it just has the look that deep engraving
that Mark um is known for it just I I couldn't be Happier dude they came out amazing and not only
that you made a box for these. Yes I did the box Is amazing so the exact filagree pattern that's
on the shoe is on the Box on the inside got the Eightball all the details are there it's a
beautiful freaking box. Thank you I figured I Had to do something that was worthy of these shoes
and also the laser era as well as Mark I wanted to Make Mark proud well that's important of course
we needed to honor Kobe the right way honor Mark
Smith and his whole team the laser engraving era.
I also want to give a big thank you to you Brian For making this project happen, Julian for you
know being the brains of it Graphics you spent Hours and hours getting it all together Jake for
putting the shoe together Dank Customs did a great Job. All three of you guys made this project
possible well you're welcome you know what I Think the the experience of the whole project for
me was just as good as actually getting the shoes So I really appreciate that and I do thank the
guys that you thanked as well um couldn't have Been happier. What's left so well I think I'm so
happy with this I think it's important that we Jump on a zoom call with Mark the legend himself
Hedcheq, Mr Smitty and let's see what he thinks About that. Let's jump on that zoom let get on this
call. Hey Mark how you doing man ?Thanks for taking The time to join us today. Mark I just want to say
real quick man this is a surreal moment talking To you so for the last like five or six months
I've seen your picture every single day I've Done so much research on you and just
trying to get prepared for this project that we Did last week with Brian we assembled the whole
team to do this project right and I just wanted To say thank you so much for being on this call
with us right now, giving us that other image of The tongue to show us that eight Shield like all
of that stuff Mark is incredible and I just want To thank you well. Thanks man that's very very kind
of you to say I appreciate that and uh I'm sure I Look exactly the same as 15 years ago 100% just no
gu uh and by the way thanks for all the you know For the attention to um what was one of many many
projects seem to you know touch a lot of parts of The company and touch a lot of parts of the the
industry but again I keep explaining how it was Just my job it was just what I was doing and it
was just another project that came in and uh I Appreciate the attention to detail um I do look
back fondly on on on presenting to Kobe that was A very high point for me. We were going to show
you look at that thing wow look at that thing, So I'm ask you what did you use for a last? So we
used just a regular Jordan 3 last did an f8 last That thing look amazing yes it was so we used that
last that was already constructed for a Jordan 3 Last however if we had more time on the project we
wanted to slim down that toebox area to get more Of a certain shape that we wanted just like the
pair you had however it was 7 days we spent a lot Of time tinkering with the laser engraver you know
making sure the settings were on point it was a Labor of love Mark. Yeah and like on this shoe too
um we included the logo that you add that you gave Uh Brian. The logo you made for me Mark we put on
the uh oh yeah yeah that's really cool. Is it weird To you that we're actually recreating a piece
of your art? Yeah yeah it's it's it's interesting Because um I never I you know it was one of many
many things and so to have anything pulled out And you know decades later and have it inspected
investigated reproduced in any way I think that's For me it's very very cool I appreciate that and
I can't uh you know thank you guys for doing that It's it's a it's an honor and a pleasure to be
you know thought of in that way so spending your
Time and effort on something that was just my
job the honor is ours. Well we love you Mark we Appreciate all of your gifts to the laser era and to Nike and to it's inspired a lot of Us. I can't tell you how much it inspires me even
lasering boxes and doing things like that I always Think about what would Mark do. Thanks you guys
appreciate it have fun I appreciate everything Can't wait to see pictures of the thing when it's
done I'd love to you know I'd love for you guys to Share some of that stuff with the guys at Nike I
don't know how to do that or anything but the team There that worked on those would probably love to
see that stuff you know, so thanks you guys. Thank you Mark, thanks Mark all right bye guys take
care. Alright dude I'm geeking out we just talked To Mark Smith I feel like we did him proud I'm
looking forward to seeing his reaction to more of The pictures that we said we already talked about
the next one hopefully we get Mark Smith approval What do you think? Hey I'm all in after this
project I'm just like I'm so happy to be a part of It I can't wait for another one again Brian thank
you so much for this project dude. This project is Definitely my top three meeting Mark Smith, hanging
out with all these guys to do this project it was Truly a blessing. Well I think it's time for me to
take these home now let's get out of here let's go. [Music]
