Hello Fanatics!

By now we're all aware of Lebron's achievements on court and off court from being the all time Cavaliers leading scorer to being the Cavs first MVP, multiple Allstar game MVP'S, Rookie of the Year. He also hosts his annual charity bike-a-thon for the Akron community. Before all of that Lebron was a regular high school student.... well not that regular! He just happened to be one of the most coveted players in the history of high school athletics.

Throughout the history of the Cavs the players have all been unified by their matching uniforms and back in the day even the shoes matched the uniforms.

Now in the modern day of the NBA we have Nike, Converse, Reebok, Puma, And 1, Adidas, New Balance, the list goes on and on. These brands sometimes have bidding wars over these athletes. As in the case of Lebron this took place between Reebok, Adidas, and Nike before he even played a single NBA game. The negotiations were hot and heavy! It came down to Reebok and Nike and Lebron choose Nike. The deal was about $100 million.

Flash forward to Thursday May 22, 2003 around 7 p.m. It's one of those events that when it happens you know where you were!

Now let's get to the shoes!

As of this season Lebron is up to his 7th Signature shoe as well as 7 secondary. There are also 6 lowtop versions as well as several Airforce 1 versions from Nike. Here I will chronicle the journey between Nike and Lebron.

In the Sneaker World there are multiple release types.

C.W. - The color scheme or blocking of the sneakers is also know as the Colorway.

G.R. (General Release) -  Which drops at your local Athletic store and they are available to everyone.

Quickstrike - A tier of Nike shoe releases that is defined by limited numbers and availability to only exclusive stores. When a shoe company doesn't tell you the release date of a shoes until a week before it comes out.

Hyperstrike -  Is a limited edition shoe typically produced in a number of 50 or less - more typically 24 seems to be the staple amount of hyperstrikes.  They have exceptional details and intricate additions only found on Hyperstrike models.

P.E. (Player Edition) -  Which are mostly available to the players, but you can get them if you know the right peeps like friends and family member of the player, or if a High school or College is outfitted by Nike.

Samples -  Are the shoes that are never put into production.

if your lucky enough to know someone that works at a Nike factory. or if you know someone that works within Nike's with connections

Speaking of knowing the right peeps if you happen to wear a size 9 in men's or a 7 in woman's your kinda in luck those are the only sizes that sample Nike's come in.

On November 29, 2003 Lebron played his first regular season game as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers they took on the Sacramento Kings @ Arco Arena.

This is his signature dunk style known in the Sneaker world as the Dunkman

 

 

 

 

 

On his feet were

Air Zoom Generation (A.K.A Lebron 1) this was the flagship shoe from Nike to Lebron.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up the infamous First Game Air Zoom Generation

 

 

 

The Nike Zoom Generation First Game were set to be the shoes Lebron James wore in his first ever NBA game. The date 11/5/03 is stitched on the shoe lining to commemorate his first presence in NBA. Actually, LeBron James wore the 1st Games in his FOURTH game of his rookie 2003-04 season. He wanted to break them out in front of his home crowd, that’s why he waited till the 5th of November instead of wearing them at his debut in Sacramento. These shoes hit stores as a quickstrike, only 500 pairs were sold worldwide and they came in bundle with a LeBron postcard. Not only were they the most sought after as a collectors item, but many would argue that this AZG colorway was the best released.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 11/7/03 Lebron broke out the Black/White/Red colorway A.K.A. the Bred's