In December 2008, NBA All-Star Kobe Bryant unveiled Nike‘s lightest basketball shoe to date, featuring a new low-cut design and a level of comfort capable of handling one of the most dynamic players in the world. This shoe, of course, was the Nike Zoom Kobe IV. When Kobe first approached Nike’s creative director Eric Avar with his vision, Avar immediately went to one of their latest design innovations, Flywire, which was recently used in the Hyperdunk, with its very thin and very strong nylon fibers built to provide unparalleled support. Underneath, the Zoom Kobe IV picked up LunarLite foam in the forefoot and the brand’s Zoom unit in the heel joined to a full-length Phylon midsole. Ultimately, the Zoom Kobe IV lived up to both its designers’ and its signature player’s dreams, allowing him and other players to make sharper cuts and increase responsiveness all the while Nike’s designers continued to push to build shoes with a performance architecture able to respond to basketball’s ever-evolving pace. You can see more behind-the-scenes design sketches after the jump and learn more about Nike’s “20 Designs That Changed the Game” in our RE-Fresh segment.