When it comes to custom football boots there isn't many better than French artist Silni. Better known as @silni.art the Nice based creative has one of the most impressive back-catalogue of hand painted football boots in the game and his latest project is quite possibly his best work yet.
Commissioned by Getafe's on-loan Chelsea forward Kenedy, the adidas X 19+ has been transformed into a tribute to the legendary Kobe Bryant and his family. Drenched in the colours of the Los Angeles Lakers the boots feature a portrait of the NBA icon clutching the vest of his iconic number 24 Lakers uniform as well as further call outs to the life and legacy of the Bryant family scattered across the boots.
The portrait of Kobe Bryant features on the left boot while 'If you're afraid to fail then you're probably going to fail' adorns the entire upper of the right boot, along with Silni's signature on the instep. Rather than just keeping them as a commemorative token of Kobe's influential impaction sport, Kenedy went one step further by wearing them in his side's 2-1 defeat to Barcelona on Saturday, in front of 89,000 fans. That's some way to put them in the spotlight.
This isn't the first time Silni has designed hand-painted boots for the elite stage, he's also created custom boots for Wolves' Raul Jimenez, Michy Batshuayi, the Manchester City Women's team, and a number of other animation, cartoon and tribute artwork on everything from trainers to headphones to caps and bags.
See more of @silni.art's work by following him on Instagram.
