I keep getting asked about this… constantly… I understand why but, dang.
Seriously though, I just read on NikeLeBron.net that the reason why LeBron has been switching – then ultimately ditching – his LeBron XI’s out for the LeBron X P.S. Elite is due to some issues with the Foamposite and the toebox. Everyone is wondering how I feel about it… so lets go…
Personally, I don’t think its a good look for Nike but more importantly LeBron himself. Nike began designing the LeBron XI over a year ago. We’ve seen LeBron wearing blacked-out versions of the shoe throughout the Summer and there really is no reason for the shoe to not work for him. For those that are unaware, signature athletes today get their shoes custom made to fit their exact foot shape. No joke… their exact foot shape. The company will make a custom last (foot mold) off of the athlete’s foot and that is what they use to build their PE’s from. Not only that but certain athletes – like LeBron – have other alterations made to their shoes so they perform to their exact specifications… emphasis on exact. So, with everything essentially being tailored to the athlete’s exact specifications… whats up with LeBron?
My thoughts; his feet are too jacked up for Foamposite – even with a custom last – or that he insists on breaking out a new colorway every game which makes the molding properties of the Foamposite nonexistent and really uncomfortable to wear when there is a game that matters on the line.
For those wondering, yes… the toebox of the LeBron XI is tight. I’ve said that ever since I first tried them on. Is it a bad tight though? Not for me… I prefer that type of containment so it doesn’t bother me at all. I also don’t have my toes overlapping each other either so what do I know…
LeBron on the other hand… That dude’s toes look like they’re rebelling against one another – Game of Thrones style – so I can see how the toebox would be uncomfortable. Unless he had a custom last, which he does, thus my thoughts above still stand. I really just think he wants to wear a fresh pair every game and that just doesn’t work out too well with Foamposite.
What would I do to resolve the issue? One option would be to make a shoe without the Foamposite on the toe. You’d never know if they made it in a different material. The way things can be painted nowadays it’d literally be something you couldn’t spot. Or I would make him wear a pair until its properly broken-in… if he wants a new colorway to wear then I’d fly Mache out to repaint the damn things.
Does this have any affect on me and my overall thoughts on the LeBron XI’s performance? Simply put… no. I don’t care what an athlete wears. If he likes his own shoe or not really has no affect on how I like the shoe. Personally, its his best shoe to date. Both on and off court. It’s sort of ironic because every year I test his shoes & I personally don’t enjoy them because they are made for him and not me. Yet, the one time I love his shoe… he can’t wear it. Blasphemy!
Do I think this will affect the shoe’s sales? No… the $200 price tag has done that… not the fact that he can’t wear them.
So, overall. I don’t care what LeBron wears. If he likes his shoe or not doesn’t bother me. I’m happy that I bought them, ended up liking them & enjoyed playing in them. If he doesn’t then maybe he should have said something during the design and wear-testing process.
With all that out of the way… how do you feel?
Images Via ESPN & Photo/Jason DeCrow
now I know.. well for me IMO I still like the 10’s rather than 11’s. I like it because of its cushion.. When I wear the 11’s Its like wearing the soldiers versions of lebron.
Same thoughts as you man.
It isn’t a good look for a company who builds shoes on an athlete, literally on since what you’ve said!
On the other way I don’t understand why somebody should put any doubt about the bron’s if they work fine for him and not for LeBron himself… I mean… If they look good, cuz they are, if they play well, since they do, why so much over thinking ?!
I too believe that He should wear the same shoe for every game not change every couple of night, foam would not work well that’s obvious.
Good explanation NW, always good job for you 😉
hmm i agree he should of said something earlier during the “wear and test” sessions
Who said he didn’t?
its just one of those things that make go HHMMM…. When I buy an athletes kick, hell yeah i wanna see homeboy rockin them. Put it in perspective. Jordan kicks that he never wore in game never became that popular – be cause he never wore them for 48 minutes on saturday afternoon on channel 2. Do I really care, NO.Do i think its interseting . yes. and whats up with those arthritic toes… i love it
Lol, I feel you. I still liked the Jordan’s and team J’s that MJ didn’t wear. I understand those that want to see the athlete rock the same kicks as them but I’ve just never been like that. I wanted the shoes because the were Jordan’s not because Jordan wore them. Him wearing them just made the highlights/ memories more iconic once they began to Retro them.
This might seem like a dumb question, but does he really break them in fresh each game? Or is there a way to have that foamposite already molded to his foot? I know that a Nike store was steaming flyknits to fit each customer feet…could that be possible with the XI’s material? Good read tho!!!
Like Nightwing said, If there was something he didn’t like he had all the time in the world to tell the Designers that before it was passed out to production. This is the only Lebron’s I’ve enjoyed playing in other that the Lebron 7 P.S. (I prefer more court feel in my Bball shoes). Best LeBron’s to date in my opinion.
Maybe he did and the design/marketing guys ignored him
He’s Lebron James… i highly doubt that they ignored a personal request for HIS shoes..
Everyone who will said that they are not affected or don’t care if Lebron will wear it or not as long as it works for them is a joke. C’mon you spend your 200$ because the shoe carries his name, and we all know that they put their best technology on signature shoes. Nightwing is right it’s not good for nike itself. I think nike should start renaming the shoe not in lebron line anymore lol.
I usually hate lebrons shoes, I certainly wouldn’t buy something just because it has his name on it. I bought them because to me, they are one of the best designs to come out of any shoe conpany, ever, but hey i’m a ball player and a sneaker head, not a sycophant….
Anyway, it stands to rights they arent working for him because hes not wearing them the way hes supposed to and breaking them in. I dont care I love them.
Hello I have a question on lebron’s 11 because lebron continue during the game at 10 and I noticed that more than half the league called hyperdunki 2013 with stars as the head of Paul George Kyrie Irving, etc. So the question arises whether the Hyperdunk’s shoes are not the best in the nba? not lebron’s 11
I’ve said numerous times that the Hyperdunk is the most versatile shoe from Nike. It shows by how many different positions wear them on-court.
I agree..the Hyperdisruptor is also great on and off the court..
I think this is actually a huge bummer for Nike. I personally admire the company, and it kind of pisses me off to see a player, and I don’t care whether it’s Mike himself, Kobe, Metta, LeBron, or whatever little brat it may be, complaint about his SIGNATURE shoe?
Yeah, I called him a brat, because if there is one single contributor to what Mr James is today, it is NIKE. Not ESPN, not the NBA, not his physical abilities and level of skill. The sole contributor to His Royallty being the Diva he obviously considers himself, is actually that sporting goods company that endorsed him his first (and now, perhaps the last) contract of 90+ mill at the age of 18..
Cmon Bron, have some respect. Why is Mike the greatest athlete of all time? Nike, led by Mr Knight, has actually invented sports marketing, making Jordan not only the best bball player at the time (and of all time, later to be learned), but an actual pop-icon. Nike povided that kind of support for LeBron as well.
Last year his sales contributed to about 250 million in revenue for Nike. Therefore, I assume he’s thinking he can do whatever he wants. What about 12 years ago when that same company has invested 90+ mill into his young ass!?! He could have easily turned out Darko Milicic, or Greg Oden. What kind of investment would than be for Nike then?
But thay manged to follow through with him, investing more and more every year. To me , he is a anti-role-model to all the young players looking up to him. One wise man once said to me that our different life roles overlap with one another. It that sense, if he’s proven to a be a non-loyal beauty queen off court, sooner or later he’ll start showing his real face on court as well.
I mean, we re all witness, right…
I think they might make a lebron 11 v2
I’m going to wait for the playoffs before buying a pair. For sure they would release an elite version like before. The 11’s would be cheaper by then, and I know NW would create a performance review of the elites. Which means I have a choice the old one at a cheaper price or the new one that has some “changes” which are expensive. Keep it up NW!
Exactly what i was thinking drew. I think nike might have to go with the same treatment the eights got. The only problem was that they were upgraded to get a lighter shoe and this being his lightest shoe with foamposite they might have to do an almost complete transformation. Maybe it looks like a transformer’s foot for a reason.
This is totally off topic but I had to point it out being that I’m a fanatic of the show…dope Game of Thrones reference. Also, I couldn’t have explained this issue any better myself. Good stuff as always, Nightwing. Just curious but how do you feel about the New 52 Nightwing rocking a red symbol instead of a blue one?
same thoughts as you nw. maybe bron doesnt knw d molding process of foamposit. and still he wants to wear a fresh pair every game. and, r d picture of his toes real?!?
I had the same problem! I tried the Lebron 11 on 4 different times in the store couldn’t get a comfortable fit? The 9 was tight, the 9 1/2 felt huge and slipped! My discomfort was in the toe box. So after a little bit of walking around in Dicks I went with the 9? I wore it 2 different times playing full-court pick up game for over 2 hours straight each time, and my toes were kill’n me!! I had bad blisters on my heels too!! I had to return them!! for the $199 price point couldn’t keep a shoe for looks only! I do agree on the Lebron X loved that shoe I own 3 pairs, Wind chill or Blue diamond, the Christmas X’s and Miami nights!! I don’t wear mine on the street for chill’n. Just to hoop so…
A little off topic, guys what’s a double last? As opposed to a single last?
A Double last is when the material of the up (leather, Mesh, Fuse or in this case Foamposite) covers the side of the midsole in is stitched into the Outsole (as opposed to stitched into the top of the Midsole)
look at the Kobe 8 compared to Lebron 11. The Upper on the Kobe stops at the Midsole But the Bron goes to the sole.
Double last is where a shoe has just an upper and outsole like the lebron XI or the hyper flights. Single last is where a shoes has an upper , midsole and outsole like about 90% of hoop shoes outthere
Thanks y’all! Any idea why they called it double? No need to answer this though im just being overly curious haha thanks again!
The problem is not the shoe, is clearly his freaking toes.
I have flat feet also wide. The LeBron 11 accommodates for this great. Ya your right the foam break in period probably wasnt accounted for. Cant be switching them out every game like that. No break in for 10. Narrow tho so that sucked. Lebron 11 is a hooper and looker. Wouldnt sleep on it, I didn’t
I said it before…these shoes suck…forme at least. Ive worn mine out…wor them clean the hell out and nothing. each time kept getting worse..wore my toes to the damn bone trying to get these to break in and i couldnt. and yea Inever understood fresh pairs for every game….of any shoe really. Everyone knows shoes dont function well until broken in proerly…
I believe the whole concept behind wearing fresh pairs for every game has to do with the mental performance boost of knowing that you’ve got new shoes on.
I don’t know about you, but every time I laced up in a new pair of basketball kicks as a kid I felt like a superhero suiting up in equipment that would take my game to the next level. And it would. I’d play better knowing that my shoes were perfect.
It’s a psychological effect and it might not work for everybody, but that’s why Jordan did it.
This is how I think the process went down.
Jason: this is the new lebron XI. We got this hyper posite. I think we should use , also what do you think about using a lunar foam and zoom air setup instead of zoom Max this time around?
Bron: umm yea dog that’s cool. Whatever dog I trust your work. Just make it look like iron man. I saw the 2nd movie and I thought it was dope.
Jason: alright lebron how do they feel? Any issues?
Bron: nah dog it’s straight
Jason: oh ok. Are you sure? Nows the time to tweak anything
Bron: nah you good, just make sure we have some dope colors throughout the season that people want
…(thinks to himself) “first win this championship, plan a vacation to Europe with savannah, plan this dope ass wedding, checkout what Liverpool is doing, I got these 2 samsung commercials, holla at warren about how I can bring my net worth up, holla at Hov bout how he did his samsung commercial
Season starts
Bron: say Jason these shoes are hurting my toes. What did you do?
Jason: what? you said everything was good
Bron: you must’ve changed something dog. This ain’t the same shoe man. Give me the X elites in the meantime and rework the XI’s.
lol that’s exactly what’s going on. These designers have an hr or so with bron’s tight schedule. the man’s crazy busyyyyy.
i suspect it’s the foam panets at TOP of the toe, not the whole wrap-around that’s causing the problem. Also, midsole that’s separated WILL move around more than fixed midsole. (hence the blisters).
This dude is hilarious
Hahahaha This cracked me up, he really captured ‘Bron’s line of tought 😀
NW
I think you’re missing the significance of LBJ refusal to wear in-game his own shoe. Nike pushed something different (more a gimmick than anything) in the name of selling more shoes to people who have the X at a higher price. Bottom Line, in pursuit of sales and profit they alienated their signature athlete.
I dont feel that is significant so I dont think I’m missing anything. This is an opinion piece, my opinion is stated above. If you think its significant then I’m glad you shared that with us. My thoughts, Nike pushes product all day long. It doesnt all have LeBron’s name on it. Each product they design and manufacture is a gimmick otherwise they’d have no chance in selling. Every brand has a gimmick… its business. I was just explaining my thoughts on why LBJ might not be lacing his kicks up and how I felt about it.
NW. Sorry Didn’t want to bust your chops.
I mostly agree with you but I think in this case, with this shoe, with this athlete, it may have been a gimmick too far. Maybe it was a design decision to broaden the shoes appeal. Other brands are more than guilty of this. KOBE II with Adidas (Kobe ditched them mid season, Left the brand), Answer 1 (never had pods again, it took 3 generations for sales to rebound with the IV), Fila GH III (Sales tanked along with stock price), Jordan 2010 Window (Wade left the brand). We really won’t know the significance of this event for a while. It could just be a bump in the road for Nike
I understand and agree to a point. Those other brands arent Nike though. Nike is the leader when it comes to innovation. If any brand can screw up and still be fine its Nike. When it comes to signatures, its the athletes job to make sure the shoe is exactly what they wanted. MJ was great at this. He was VERY hands on when he was playing – he still makes final calls now but not as hands on as he once was. Thats why Wade left JB, he gave them nothing to work with so the shoe fell short each time. These guys are paid a lot of money to promote a brand. I dont think it matters if the product they are wearing has their name on it or not. As long as he wears the Swoosh then Nike is prob happy. These guys just need to be more vocal. Designers are designers, not mind readers lol.
yeah you can say wade left jb with nothing to work with when making his shoes, it may also be that they dont agree with wade. so they may not want to do a retro-ish look or feel to wades shoes even though thats what wade really wanted with jb because JB could not integrate the new with the old style wade wanted.
i think he liked to have the aj2011, the 16.5 and actually the 2010. it looked like he didnt like the new stuff.
Wade didn’t leave after the Jordan 2012 -.-
Agree 10,000%; I think lebron wants to wear a fresh PE every game…as a guy who has bought and played in posites since they were originally introduced…not smart. Hell, its a lot easier to break in posites now than the OG’s…those absolutely killed your feet for a game or 3 before they molded. The new thinner, more targeted posite is much, MUCH easier to mold.
Nike will make him whatever he wants to get him in the 11 (too much money invested). I think they’ll give him a posite free 11 with a zoom max insert. Which will be a performance beast, but not better than posite. In the 20+ years I’ve been playing bball; posites are the closet thing to a kick that becomes one with your foot I’ve ever worn
I would say engineered mesh is the closet material that molded to my foot the best when playing basketball
I assume you are talking about Kobe’s latest shoes and the like, Kobes are great shoes, but the engineeered mesh doesn’t provide near the support and lockdown of foamposite for me. It’s probably mental but I feel more “connected” to the court in posites.
But to each his own…
I think the Lebron X Elite that he’s been wearing looks the best on him of ANY shoe that he’s worn. It just seems to match his style of play and attitude. I say, if he feels best in those, go for them. Also, I’m STILL NOT SOLD ON MODULAR CUSHIONING. I don’t see why nike keeps doing this with their shoes??!! I don’t care how well that foam insert fits, it’s still NEVER going to be as solid as an integrated cushioning set up. Maybe Lebron isn’t feeling that either? Who knows.
Those toes of his are gonna haunt my dreams for days. Seriously though, I think if they’re going to make a change, it’s gonna be on the XI Elite. Maybe they’ll ditch the Posite for Mesh or Flynit maybe? NW, I think you get this question a lot because people, including myself, look up to you, and they wanna know your opinion on the situation.
if your toes are so much more pretty why dont you post them big guy
Lebron switching his shoes out made me think of two things based on Nightwing’s review and my experience with two pairs of the XIs. First, the Foamposite definitely takes a while to break in. This is not conducive to wearing a fresh pair every game – even if he tries to break them in practice. You really need 3-4 heavy wears for shoes to conform to your feet. Second, the cushioning is definitely mushy to start with. Nightwing says it gets better after multiple wears and mine are starting to firm up a little. When I wore both of my pairs for the first few times I was getting annoyed at how the cushioning was slowing down my reaction time (or at least it felt that way). I too don’t think this is conducive to wearing fresh pairs every game. Just some thoughts.
The only explanation I can come up with is that he didnt really sprint too much in his test pair. Because when you sprint the shoe will bend more and you will feel the hotspot causes by the hyperposite. Sure the hotspots go away if you break them in, but Lebron plays in a new shoe each game. I like Nightwing’s solution to remove the hyperposite material in the toebox maybe they could replace it with a protective yet flexible fuse like on the Jordan Superfly 1 and 2, but then it would remove the great protection that it provides in the toe area. My solution would be to make his toebox wider or taller height-wise, whatever fixes the issues he is having. They could just take the mold of is foot and increase the area of it especially in the toe area. I had originally suggested that Lebron’s foot mold was smaller so that it would give his shoe a tighter one-to-one fit, but since the hyperposite material is hard to break in and the toebox is snug, then this would not work well for Lebron. Since Lebron’s actual foot mold isnt working for him, they should try making the mold bigger which will help the shoe feel more comfortable during the first wear.
Or just increasing the area of the toe-box in the mold and leaving the rest of the mold the same so that there is a more contained fit in the midfoot and the front of the shoe is more comfortable for Lebron.
Definitely bad for Nike in terms of quality assurance and image, but I’m sure sales will be fine. It’s crazy to me that they didn’t figure this out sooner being that this is their flagship basketball shoe and star. Why wouldn’t they put the same test hours into this shoe as JB did w/ the XX8?
In terms of my personal experience with the XI, I find the shoe really fun to play in. After breaking them in for the past 3 weeks, my pinky and 4th toes are feeling great. Once the lunarlon/zoom mid/insole broke in and firmed up a bit, I was able to fit my custom orthotics in on top for even better support and responsiveness. I’m currently rotating these with my 2 pairs of XX8s. I’m having reservations about doubling up on the XI for hoops (really digging those TWs) because I don’t feel like breaking in another pair. I still like my X Elite as well and ball in those occasionally, but I prefer to fit into a shoe (LBJ XI, XX8, Kobe 8) rather than on top.
Altogether, I’m curious if and how the XIs are going to change w/ the Elite models. Could this bump up the Lebron XI Elite release w/ James’ specifications before the playoffs to get him back in the XI, or will they introduce a Lebron XI v2 as they did w/ the 8? I’m thinking that they’re just going to modify the XI for Lebron, and pretend nothing ever went wrong.
Those toes tho…Wowsers! Lol! I am wearing mine in the house doing cuts and jump rope to free them up some. It seems to be working but only a good test run on the court will really let me know if I am successful. As for Nike’s market… I said this before, maybe not in this website’s forums, but I do believe that perception is key. I felt the same way when Melo kept wearing the M8 advance instead of the M9. It may not have hurt sales (We’ll never really know) but when people start to whisper about it then it can’t be a good thing.
By the way, I’ve enjoyed all of the shoes that I mentioned as long as I had the right size and broke them in.
Why you downing the dude’s feet. you play ball as much as he does yours will be jacked too. So if your toes are such “wowers” better than lebron wny dont you post a pic.
It’s the end of the world, him changing his shoes. HOW COULD YOU DO IT BRON BRON? Nah I don’t give a damn, glad I got them. Jury is out of if I like the X’s more, haven’t broken in the Xi’s yet. Like you said the price tag did the damage, combine that with the people the always have to have the “newest” stuff and bam nice 1-2 combo for NIKE to swallow. Hell the first release was in my size still on nike.com till yesterday.
This shoe has outlet potential and I’m happy with that 🙂 So bring on the elites NIKE…let me see them at the outlets like those bum as KD’s from last year. MY WALLET THANKS YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!
Why make it out of foamposite if he has trouble with it??!! What’s the point of testing? He is an elite HEAVY athlete. Look at those muscular club like feet! Years of training and jamming into shoes. The thick muscle in his foot is not normal. The toe box is smaller on the XI. Its more of a performance shoe (by far) than the X. But Lebron’s feet would fit the wide X. As I said many many many times….A performance shoe does not sell. 99% or more of Lebron shoe sales will never hit the court! I was right. The $200 price tag has nothing to do with it. Stupid Nike strategy. The shoe does not look as good as the X and that’s why sales are down. The X didn’t have all those hard materials. On court I’d take the XI 100 times over the X. Morons at Nike. The Hyperdunk should have been this. What I love is Lebron has to wear the XIs now for MARKETING. 🙂
I like how you bring out statistics without backing em up. How do you know 99% or more of Lebron’s shoes will never hit the court? I bought these precisely because I was looking for a great performance shoe that looks good. Believe it or not, Nike does have their marketing department that probably has a better pulse on the shoe market than you do. I think it’s fine for everyone to voice their opinions, but I do think it crosses the line when you make up your own conclusions backed up by non-existent statistics and tout them as if they’re the truth. You do not become as successful as Nike by being stupid and morons.
Melo is also wearing the M9s instead of the M10s. Not sure if you touched on this before but what are your thoughts on this?
Thanks,
Alan
M10’s havent released nor have they been officially unveiled by Jordan Brand so I wouldnt expect to see him wearing them until possibly Xmas.
Would it be possible to heat up the foamposite with an oven on low heat similar to the same process with molding hockey skates or ski boots? That might help the material mold to his toes as it cools down and allow them pound out the toe box while it is still warm.
I did that with a pair of my foamposite pros. They definitely broke in and molded to my feet faster than my first pair. But if the toe box of the shoe is simply too tight for his messed up toes, I don’t think it would help much.
Maybe it is just me but has anyone seen videos released by Nike featuring the discussions between Lebron and the designer of his signature shoes about inspiration, design process and tech specs? Call me naive but when I was watching the videos of Kobe, KD and Chris Paul talking about their signature shoes with their designers and the processes of designing/building one, I got the impression that those superstars were heavily involved in designing their signature model and tried to make the “tailor-made” shoes regardless how true those videos are. E.g. the Kobe 7 and KD 4, they were a bit of a disappointment for some of the general public but they fitted Kobe’s and KD’s needs…Not seeing the similar videos of the Lebron’s make me wonder how involved Lebron was or how well Lebron communicated with Nike and vice versa on the design/build process.
I know that Kobe is very involved. KD not so much, its more of a phone call once in a while to get their input. LeBron… I’d assume would be more involved due to his status with Nike but who knows.
Yeah only those involved in the design process know how the communications and design processes went…
From a manufacturing and Brand stand point, I doubt that LeBron and Nike didn’t notice the fit problem with LeBron before the season began. The shape of the toe box could be a limitation of the Hyperposite materials, and they were too long into development to make such a drastic design change.
You have to ask yourself, what’s more important to Nike. The comfort of the people buying their shoe or the star athlete who’s marketing it?
I think it came down to a business decision that Nike and LeBron made together. Deliver a flagship shoe on time, that fits people with “regular” feet. And with Hyperposite molding to your feet overtime, the narrow toe box is a non issue for consumers. So what would be good for LeBron might not be as good for us regular folks.
Having LeBron change shoes mid game and eventually wear an extremely customized LeBron, in my mind would be much cheaper and less time consuming than going back to the drawing board and or delaying the product launch.
But year seriously, Nike should come up with a way to break in LeBron’s 11s and all foamposite based shoes particularly. A lot of players like to wear fresh pairs, especially LeBron with the amount of PE colorways he get.
I like how melo basically did the same thing last year with the melo m8 advance when the m9 was out and nobody really cared to much haha
Oh a few of us noticed, and that’s why I cleaned up at the outlet mall, hoping the bron brons get there.
As a consumer, doesn’t matter. I think the X’s are terrible shoes to play in anyways (I hate sitting that high up).
For LeBron, I’m sure they’ll figure it out pretty quickly. Maybe widen the shoe a bit, or insert a lower profile midsole (Kobe 8 anyone?) to solve the problem. There are too many LeBron XIs sitting around for a total remodel.
I’m gonna say this once lebron a toes look like they are playing leap frog hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Lil Wayne teeth look better than lebron toes
The west side connection
Doesn’t seem to be affecting the rate these shoes flying are off the shelves. All released colorways are out of stock where I live. I had to hold my pair of King’s pride online to get one.
LeBron’s problem could also be due to the fact you can’t wear orthopedic insoles on top of that huge Lunar/Zoom insole. It also takes a good week of playing to break in the shoe.
so nike doesnt know the needs of its biggest star?! shouldnt the shoe be built to the exact anatomical specifications of Lebron’s messed up feet? speaks volumes about this company. they dont care about lebron enough to make HIS shoe fit his foot. all they care about is making money. quality means nothing
If Nike were to make these shoes to the exact specifications you describe that end up not working for anyone but him (LeBron 7 & 9 perhaps) then would you say the same thing saying Nike only does what they do for the athletes and not the people that buy and wear/ support their products? Its not Nike’s fault that the guy didnt speak up and say they were uncomfortable for him. Both parties can make mistakes…
This is very interesting especially when you see the XI commercials during the heat games, and Lebron isn’t even wearing them in the game.
Honestly, the issue here is not the shoes, it’s LeBron’s feet. Unfortunately, he has some serious issues going on. He left foot has a nice sized bunion, he has “hammer toes” on the three middle toes. The pinkie toe is just plain messed up and resting on the 4th toe. Look at how tight the tendons are in his left foot. I think the aforementioned are the reason LeBron often wears sandals when he is casual.
In my opinion, going forward, his deformed toes will be a major topic for years to come. I don’t think any shoe will ever fit LeBron properly with the deformities he has. Yes, Nike will make corrections as needed but LeBron’s feet will be the story. Also, when you have bad feet you often get alignment issues with the spine leading to muscle tightness, spasms and back pain.
The fact that Lebron plays so many minutes per game on that big frame is frankly taking a toll on his feet. Clearly, the body of LeBron is anatomically showing all the many years of competitive basketball.
Mother nature may become LeBron’s biggest competitor in the years to come.
Finally, I also have hammer toes on 2 toes (nothing like LeBron) so yes the LeBron XI is quite uncomfortable to wear. If you think about where the toes actually sit in the shoe you quickly
realize the XI is an issue for LeBron.
Overall, it’s a great performance shoe hands down but if you have some toe issues you might reconsider the XI.
An intelligent and thoughtful response to the situation about Lebron’s toes. If he could sit out for six month’s to a year to have the corrective surgeries and rehab to fix his feet it would help him in the long run, but he may not do that now until he retires.
I forgot what interview stated that lebron has an entourage of people that go in and tell nike they want a super flashy and crazy shoe.
Another note, i found it hilarious that he made some kind of agreement with some children’s’ foundation stating that if they hit the books and study he would write “I PROMISE” on his in game shoes(to demonstrate he will try his best on court), like this years ring ceremony.
What does the kid watching tv and doesn’t see his commitment lol
Maybe they’ll redo the shoe and make it more Lebron specific with the elite release in the Playoffs.
personally, im really a fan of his shoes, but aesthetically they look good. but as with the 11’s i think they are great, they fit well for me, but damn, im sorry, but does lebron have weird looking toes or what?
So Lebron basically lied about having a big input in making the Xl’s, otherwise he would wear them all the time, instead he is like – man those are terrible.
Nike needs to sell their stock of Lebron 10s that were not purchased, so Lebron had to rock them.
I’m in the same boat as you. This is the first lebron I actually enjoy playing in and of course its the shoe he has issues with. I personally think its the best basketball shoe to date taking everything in to account . I think its funny how big of a deal this has been though. People just finding a way to bash lebron or nike, it’s ridiculous.
I will say however, Ive also had an issue near the toe box the first 3-4 times i’ve played in these. No idea if its the same issue he had but the outside of my foot near the pinky toe would get irritated and chafe. But I havnt had any problems since so no reason to be concerned.
Most of today’s shoes are designed at wrong principles that in a long therm will deform your toes. Kobe 8 traction silhouette is anatomically most correct so far. It would be interesting to see Lebron wearing Kobe’s 🙂 Rounded toe-tips are the absolute toe killers. The designers just try to design amazing looking shoe these days. As an industrial designer I would kick Jason really bad and reserve a bullet for most of the basketball-shoe designers out there.
I have worn the lebron 11s on & off court, to me, they are some of the most comfortable shoes ever, I work standing up for hours at a time moving constantly in some “work shoes” and after a 7hr shift, my dogs be howling, I put my 11s on one day after such a shift working to do something as mundane as running to c heck the mail and literally went from discomfort to foot heaven, only other shoe to give my poor feet this level of comfort after being abused by work shoes is my jordan 8s & 13s
I was just revisiting an old video of yours that linked to this article. Now that the 12s are out, it looks like you were completely right about the issue. The foamposite is still on the sides but not in the toebox area at all on the Lebron 12s.