A purple colorway of the new Kobe A.D.’s has leaked, and it looks a little better than the original reveal

Los Angeles Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma was a fan of the new Nike signature shoe for Kobe Bryant that was revealed earlier this week, but the internet’s reaction to the latest model of Kobe A.D.’s seemed to be a bit more polarizing.

Yours truly thought the original colorway (that is rumored to be dropping on 8/24, also known as “Mamba Day”) was a little too busy, looking a bit like a child picked all their favorite colors and painted them on a shoe in a seemingly-random assault of the visual senses.

Others — including Kuzma and several of my Silver Screen and Roll compatriots — thought they were pretty great.

Whatever ones thoughts on the original, though, the new, Lakers-inspired purple colorway that leaked on Tuesday morning seems to be getting a more positive reaction:

This is definitely a step in the right direction, and as my fellow sneakerhead Matt Moreno noted on Lakers Nation’s Twitter account, very similar in color to one of the PG1 options.

Still, the random white stripe at the front of the shoe seems unnecessary, and I’m still not crazy about the look of the laces, even if they do look better on this less overly busy, more monochromatic colorway.

But like all Kobes, the detail and symbolism on these shoes is really cool, and will be a treat for dedicated collectors. Kobe’s name and the symbol on the back are a sleek look, as are his two logos on the tip of the tongue of the shoe. Also clearly visible in these new pictures are the numbers on the lacing of each shoe, 8/23/78 (Bryant’s birthday) and 33/8/24 (His jersey numbers from high school and the pros).

These are new Kobes, so they’ll surely sell like crazy no matter what, and these also surely won’t be the last colorway for this model. And they legitimately do look better than the last ones, even if this is the first Kobe A.D. model this blogger personally won’t be snatching up.

What do you think of this colorway/model? Let us know in the comments, and you can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.