Everyone knows that the Cleveland Cavaliers organization is approaching a new era of their franchise’s existence: The Post-LeBron Blues. I guess now was as good a time as any to make some drastic changes to the teams on-court look. The timing is right and the reasons are right to re-examine things and figure out what this team is going to be about in the future. A buddy of mine writes for Ball Don’t Lie over at Yahoo! and I thought he brought up some valid points as to why he likes this new direction. I’m with him on lots of levels but I need to chime in, so here goes.

PROS:
1) Retro Colors & Faux-back look: I’m all about embracing their “Wine & Gold” colors of the past and bringing them back out. I’m a huge fan of classic, flat, varsity gold. That’s a huge plus for me.

2) Less is More: In the past few seasons, you’d see the Cavaliers on television wearing all sorts of uniforms. It got to the point to where a casual fan couldn’t identify the real HOME & ROAD uniforms from ALTERNATE 1 & ALTERNATE 2 from THROWBACK 1 or 2. It was a hot mess. I’m assuming that the Cavs will be sticking to 2 uniforms for now. One HOME jersey and one ROAD jersey. I think I read somewhere that according to NBA rules, a team must play 3 seasons with new HOME and ROAD jerseys before applying to get approval on an alternate.

CONS:
1) Inconsistency: I hate hate hate how the “C” logo on the road uniforms is gold on the jersey and white on the shorts. Why would they do that? Also, why does the sword appear locked-up with the “C” on the shorts, but not on the back of the jersey? A good logo should stay the same no matter where you put it. Between the HOME and AWAY uniforms the logo changes colors 3 times. Someone deserves a bitch-slap for that.

2) Typography: Really? That’s the best they could come up with? The CLEVELAND CAVALIERS + Adidas got together and decided to type some letters out in an arc? C’mon guys! This is the National Basketball League. The brands are GLOBAL! This is all you could crank out? This job feels rushed. Hire us and we’ll give you some typography worthy of Anderbro Varejao to wear across his chest.

Overall Score:

I realize how well the old-school Cavs jerseys have done over the years and I love the decision to make a semi-retro statement. However, I question whether these new jerseys have just created more of the same kind of graphic statement to Cavs fans who are less than enthused about possibly missing the playoffs for years to come. More crap, same colors… Anyway, I’m fine with the concept and decisions to make a new statement. However, I’m pissed-off that someone signed off on this and someone was paid to “not think”.

I stumbled upon this fan video today. The sound quality is pretty terrible, but it’s great to see that the band has brought their PROCESS gear on the road with them. Foz, one the band’s guitarists, is wearing his classic Nokahoma tee.

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.

Upon walking into the school, we were greeted with a large trophy case. As you can tell, they take their athletics very seriously at St.V-M.

This plaque of King James is displayed prominently in the trophy case.

Upon walking into the gym’s locker room, I was greeted with my own locker, jersey, and Air Max LeBron VII’s. Nike does it right!

Coach Dru Joyce II came into the locker room and instructed us to suit-up and meet him on the court for some drills and pick-up games with LeBron himself. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to bring my camera onto the court at the time. So, sorry… I don’t have any photos of LeBron dunking on me…

These core values are mounted on the wall in the locker room.

State Champ banners, including the one LeBron and his teammates won in 2003.

Retired jersey numbers hang in the gym.

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.

LeBron, Jason, & Kenan speak with the crowd and the world, via webcast

“Home” colorway

One of many alternate colorways

One of many alternate colorways

One of many alternate colorways

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