'The 15' Pop-Up & the Sneakers LeBron Allegedly Called 'F--king Incredible'
In the window of a red brick building on the corner of East 9th Street and Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland, leering out over rush hour traffic is a picture of LeBron James. His silhouette is enlarged and darkened, plastered against a faded gray background. His face is in the early stages of a scowl, and the whole thing gives you the feeling that, even though it’s just a photo, LeBron’s eyes are following you, watching you until you’ve disappeared from view.
On the other side of the window is what Nike is calling “The 15,” a pop-up shop in town for the week selling the very first pairs of LeBron’s 15th signature sneaker. More daunting images of LeBron loom inside the space. Multiple colorways of the Nike LeBron 15 line the walls. T-shirts with LeBron’s likeness hang on a rack nearby. An installation depicting pieces of ash surrounding a pair of 15s by the same name hangs from the ceiling. Much like he is on the court, LeBron is omnipresent here.
There’s a dark and serious vibe to the pop-up, but don’t let that fool you. LeBron couldn’t be in a sunnier mood about his latest pair of kicks.
“And when LeBron’s happy, we’re happy,” chuckles Tim Day, a senior product line manager for Nike, who says LeBron called the 15 “f--king incredible” the first time he laid eyes on it.
It’s been a while, perhaps since the LeBron XII, since there’s been a marketing push as coordinated as the one happening right now for a LeBron signature sneaker, and that is not by accident. Recent iterations of LeBron’s line have lost some of their luster, be it from bulky builds that turned off the casual sneaker consumer, a lack of dynamic storytelling or colorways, or a combination of both. Designer Jason Petrie and company at Nike Basketball have been percolating on the 15 for some time, hoping to usher LeBron’s signature sneaker into the modern era of up-tempo, fast-paced hoops while getting back to a design aesthetic that will make people want to rock LeBrons to parties again. They think they’ve got one.
“The idea of high function, we’ve always nailed with LeBron,” Day says. “But then there’s this idea of high fashion. We kept using the two to play off each other. If [his shoe] has those two things, then it’s hard for us to lose.”
The first images to pop up of the LeBron 15 weren’t on a basketball court, but instead on the feet of influencers who play a prominent role in shaping NBA culture. Maverick Carter, LeBron’s business partner, was spotted rocking a pair of floral print 15s while recording a podcast, complete with a zipper down the middle. That shoe was part of a collaboration between LeBron and KITH’s Ronnie Fieg, a partnership that resulted in LeBron’s participation in Fieg’s fashion show during New York Fashion Week, as the 6-foot-8, 250 pound forward brought his 15s down a runway. As a result, the buzz wasn’t about what a performance beast the shoe might be on the court, but what kind of jeans or joggers might look best with the 15s.
“You look at the product journey for this shoe, and you start in the culture,” Day says. “You put zippers on the shoe, you get one of the best in the game, Ronnie Fieg, and you let him and LeBron connect. [LeBron] has a natural connection with Mav, and you let them bring that shoe into the culture.”
Even “The 15” has the feel of a sneaker boutique, complete with dimmed lighting and Drake emanating from the speakers. On the wall to the right of the pop-up’s entrance are a series of shoes, all encased in glass, that Nike used as a basis for the LeBron 15, from the Magista Obra 1 that inspired the 15’s stretchable opening to the LeBron X, whose platform and cushioning LeBron still reveres to this day. As Day gazes up at all the influences that make up his team’s latest creation, he hints that this initial version of the LeBron 15 is only the beginning.
“We’re trying to keep the people guessing,” he says. “You talk to boutique owners, and there’s this fatigue people get. Fatigue with seeing the same thing. So trust me, there’s stuff coming. The journey will change from [the current LeBron 15], to something else.”
You can almost see the scowl on LeBron’s face in the photo slowly fade into a smile.
