The Mambacita Apparel Line Honoring Kobe Bryant & Gigi Already Sold Out
Updated May 3, 2021.
Since the tragic deaths of her husband Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna Bryant, Vanessa Bryant has made her mission to secure and preserve their legacy an obvious one. From pursuing justice for theirs and the other victims of the helicopter crash that took their lives, to ensuring the creation of memorials in their name, Bryant has made a point of making sure none of the victims of the fateful crash are forgotten.
Bryant’s late daughter Gianna’s new Mambacita apparel line went on sale Saturday and was sold out by the early afternoon.
The line was launched on what would have been the teen basketball star’s 15th birthday.
Vanessa Bryant gave her Instagram followers a sneak peek of the tie-dyed Mambacita-brand sweatshirts and sweat pants on Friday. The line came out two weeks after Kobe Bryant’s estate team parted from its two-decade apparel deal with Nike.
Earlier this year, Vanessa Bryant set out to protect the ‘Mamba’ brand.
According to a recent report, an attorney for Bryant filed a trademark application for ‘Mamba’ and ‘Mambacita’ in early March.
While there’s little known about what Bryant intends to do with the brand names, the report suggests that the current agenda is to use the trademark for merchandise such as shirts, hoodies, jackets, and pants.
Kobe’s estate has filed for several trademarks related to his brand including ‘Mamba Sports Academy,’ ‘Mambacita,’ ‘Lady Mambas,’ and ‘Lil Mambas.’
The association with Bryant and the “Mamba” concept goes back to his days on the court where he was affectionately known as the Black Mamba. Bryant gave himself the nickname after a period of struggle. In a 2015 documentary called Muse, Kobe explained that he created the alter ego of Black Mamba to cope with off-the-court struggles in 2003.
“I went from a person who was at the top of his game, had everything coming, to a year later, having absolutely no idea where life is going or if you are even going to be a part of life as we all know it,” Bryant explained in the documentary. “I had to separate myself… It felt like there were so many things coming at once. It was just becoming very, very confusing. I had to organize things. So I created The Black Mamba.”
The Mamba name carried into his retirement when he left the NBA after twenty years. At the time, Bryant set out to coach and mentor younger children interested in sports at the Mamba Sports Academy, a training facility that he opened in California. Bryant’s daughter Gianna, 13, was a member of the Mambas girl’s team.
When the Bryants’ daughter Gianna began to come into her own on the basketball court, she took on the nickname “Mambacita.”
On a recent cover feature for People Magazine, Vanessa Bryant explained that she’s found motivation in her devastating loss.
During an interview for the magazine’s ‘Women Changing the World’ issue, Bryant revaled “This pain is unimaginable [but] you just have to get up and push forward. Lying in bed crying isn’t going to change the fact that my family will never be the same again. But getting out of bed and pushing forward is going to make the day better for my girls and for me. So that’s what I do.”
Bryant also recently reportedly took over Granity Studios, her husband’s multimedia company, and also relaunched Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation which is focused on “creating positive impact for underserved athletes and young women in sports” and “provides funding and sports programming for underserved athletes to enable participation in school and/or league sports that enrich socio-emotional and physical development.”
Speaking to People about her efforts, Bryant explained, “I guess the best way to describe it is that Kobe and Gigi motivate me to keep going. They inspire me to try harder and be better every day. Their love is unconditional and they motivate me in so many different ways.”
