I just came across this photo on the interwebs from last summer when I was invited to play pick-up basketball with LeBron James while testing out his new kicks. You can see my arm (red arrow is pointing to it) at the edge of the pic. Haha…

While in Ohio last week, Nike invited our group to LeBron James‘ high school in Akron for a special event that had me grinning ear-to-ear. Check out my walk-through of St. V-M and a little extra after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

This morning, at the Ed Davis Community Center in Akron, Ohio, Lebron James unveiled his new sneaker to a room full of local student athletes, media reps, and the rest of the world via webcast. Also present were sneaker designer Jason Petrie of Nike and the MC of the morning was one of my favorite comedians, Kenan Thompson from Saturday Night Live.

I want to jump right in and call out important design aspects of the new sneaker:

•The sneaker took 18 months from design conception to finished product.

• The most notable change from LeBron’s old models is the drastic changeover from Zoom Air to a full Air Max unit on the bottom of the shoe. This is the first time a full Air Max bag has been used in a basketball product.

• Since LeBron is a big player, his needs in a shoe require for it to be able to take a beating on court. However Nike was challenged to making the shoe more durable while simultaneously making it lighter in weight. Therefore, they employed Flywire technology, which we have seen previously in many performance products as well as a lot of the Nike Sportswear offerings in the Flymotion Cortez and Air Maxim.

• Jason Petrie wanted to focus in a day in the life of LeBron James as his inspiration. Calling from his lifestyle, be it luxury hotels, automobiles, high-end fashion, and on-court basketball references.

• The outsole has 5 flex grooves, representing the 5 players on the basketball court.

• The midsection bears 23 stripes, referencing his number.

• The outsole features a 3D decoder key which, when the shoe is rotated, displays LeBron’s credos — Passion, Fearless, Tradition, Community, Family & Loyalty

• 7 Flywire strands on the tongue reference the 7th model in his signature shoe series with Nike.

Finally, LeBron will be embarking on a 10 city world tour starting next week to promote his new sneaker in addition to a documentary about him titled, More than a Game

The sneaker itself will be released on October 24th, 2009. Check out more angles and colorways after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m headed to the land of King James to discover the life, story, and design behind this. Stay tuned to see more…