On Tuesday, while Orange County and Los Angeles celebrate "Kobe Bryant Day," a collection of photo-NFTs (non-fungible tokens) showing the NBA legend early in his career will begin auctioning on the Cryptograph platform.
Shot by photographer Davis Factor, the collection of eight black-and-white photos shows a young Bryant posing, jumping, and blowing kisses as he kicked off his historic career.
This is the first time the public has laid eyes on the photos.
Factor, who has photographed dozens of celebrities and is behind several iconic magazine covers and spreads, hoped to capture the "everydayness of him," because he sensed that Bryant, like many famous athletes, would become less candid as his career evolved.
Cryptograph, meanwhile, has touted its model of connecting NFTs with charitable causes. Proceeds from the sale of its NFTs are handed over to select nonprofit organizations.
Founded a year ago on the Ethereum blockchain, the platform has already featured NFTs from the likes of celebrity and entrepreneur Paris Hilton, actor Jason Momoa, and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and has reported that it raised upwards of six figures for organizations such as Meals on Wheels and Save the Children.
Courtesy of Davis Factor
“We are very excited to bring our next generation of Cryptographs into the world over the coming year; it's going to be a truly iconic and historic series that we think collectors are going to love,” said Cryptograph co-founder Tommy Alastra in a press release last week.
For this collection, 100 percent of proceeds will benefit the Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation. The nonprofit was founded to honor Kobe and his daughter Gianna Bryant, who both died in a helicopter crash in 2020, and continue their legacy in supporting underserved athletes and young women in sports.
Notably, similar to how other NFTs will contractually pay the artist a percentage of all future sales, the foundation will receive a donation whenever one of the photos is transacted.
In other words, the photo collection and the foundation are connected forever, or at least as long as the photos are being bought and sold.
Nestlé has dismissed its CEO Laurent Freixe after an investigation into an undisclosed relationship with a direct subordinate. The company announced on Monday that the dismissal was effective immediately. An investigation found that Freixe violated Nestlé’s code of conduct. He had been CEO for a year. Philipp Navratil, a longtime Nestlé executive, will replace him. Chairman Paul Bulcke stated that the decision was necessary to uphold the company’s values and governance. Navratil began his career with Nestlé in 2001 and has held various roles, including CEO of Nestlé's Nespresso division since 2024.
Kraft Heinz is splitting into two companies a decade after they joined in a massive merger that created one of the biggest food companies on the planet. One of the companies will include brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese. The other will include brands like Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. When the company formed in 2015 it wanted to capitalize on its massive scale, but shifting tastes complicated those plans, with households seeking to introduce healthier options at the table. Kraft Heinz's net revenue has fallen every year since 2020.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
