"The Sheath" isn't a hodgepodge mix of shapes, no matter which angle you're looking at the logo from. In fact, it's meant to look like the sheath of a samurai sword, hence its name.
Speaking with Esquire for the magazine's November 2007 publication, Kobe Bryant explained that the logo represents two sides of a person's being, including his own: the innate talent and the experience of life. The outlet's Mike Sager wrote that Bryant said the sword is meant to symbolize "the raw talent," while the sheath is "the package it's kept in — everything you go through, your calluses and your baggage, what you learn."
Ostensibly, Bryant lived a life that aligned seamlessly with this idea of combining talent with experience. By his own admission in his 2015 poem "Dear Basketball," which was turned into an Oscar-winning animated short film, Bryant fell in love with basketball at just six years old. He then honed his talents and worked himself to his limits to become the best he could be — all while learning from the good and the bad life had to offer him. Per Esquire, the late sports icon would repeatedly run the same patterns on the basketball court in order to "get his cuts right for the triangle offense, running steps, running suicides, running distance." He would also stick to a meticulously crafted diet, study clips of basketball players past and present to better understand their approach to the sport, and lived by the Latin motto "Scito hoc super omnia... Tempus neminem non manet... Carpe diem," meaning "Know this above all else... Fully use every point, moment, and hour that you have. Time waits for no man... Seize the day."
It's clear to see that Bryant's success didn't come just from innate talent or a ton of determination alone. It was a result of both, and his Sheath logo encapsulates that perfectly.
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