LeBron's shoe: Fit for a King
By Homer D. Sayson
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 25 Aug 2012
ACCORDING to a census website, there are approximately seven billion people currently inhabiting this planet. But only so few of those humans can say they've had a much better summer than NBA megastar LeBron James.
James, the hybrid Miami Heat power forward, snatched his first NBA title and NBA Finals MVP trophy last June before collecting a basketball gold medal -- the second in his illustrious career-- in the recently-concluded 2012 London Olympics.
Sure, LeBron still has his haters, such as those jilted Cleveland fans whose Cavaliers James spurned so he could hook up with fellow All-Stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. Infamously known as The Decision, James' free agency migration in the summer of 2010 played out like sappy, badly produced telenovela that instantly drew universal scorn.
But the world loves winners and sports fans are a notoriosuly forgiving tribe. And so now that James has finally scaled the NBA's Mt. Everest and delivered the promise of his potential, the 27-year old prodigy is embraced more than he has ever been before.
Dislike the man if you must, but you have to respect his achievements and appreciate the beauty of his all-around game. A complete player, LeBron is carving his niche as one of the best to ever play the game.
Walking on sunshine and smelling like a blooming rose, James could sell anything right this minute and his hordes of adoring followers will willingly fall in line to purchase it. And that's exactly what shoe giant Nike is doing when it announced the release of the LeBron X Nike Plus basketball shoe this coming fall.
James wore the LeBron X in the London Games last August 12 when Team USA tripped Pau Gasol and Spain,107-100, in the gold medal game. The shoe has a golden swoosh and is embedded with motion sensors that will measure how high the player wearing it actually jumped.
Unfortunately, the LeBron X Nike Plus will be a huge minus in your bank account as it retails for $315, although some analysts speculate that the slow US economy could drag the price down to $290.
According to Matt Powell, an analyst for SportsOneSource, Nike will make 50,000 pairs of LeBron X. A cheaper version of the LeBron X will be sold at $175 but the estimated 200,000 to 300,000 pairs of those shoes won't be equipped with the fancy motion sensors.
In a perfect universe, Nike would sell the LeBron X shoe for a price that won't burn a hole in consumers' pockets. It would make tons and tons of LeBron X products fly out of shoe shelves like bats out a tunnel. But Nike just can't do it because the company is paying James and other superstar athletes endorsement dollars the size of a third world economy.
In the mid to late 90s, almost every kid who loved basketball wanted to be like Mike (Michael Jordan), defy gravity, win NBA titles and scoop all the fame and fortune along the way.
These days, majority of kids have Miami Heat fever. They wanna be like LeBron. But they can't because they're not 6-foot-8 inches tall. They are not 250 pounds large. They can't run like a gazelle and shoot the dimpled Spalding basketball with fantastic ease.
But with the LeBron X, those dreamers can step into the shoes of their idol James and feel like a million dollars. And by fueling that dream, Nike - again -- takes the gold medal in marketing savvy and merchandising.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Homer D. Sayson.
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