LeBron’s Laker heat has been stupendous since arriving in Los Angeles. Last season might’ve been a let down, but the Lake-show is poised to bounce back big time. Anthony Davis officially signed with L.A. last night, the roster has been completely revamped and a new coaching staff has been implemented; so anything less than championship contention is unacceptable.
Injuries limited LBJ to 55 games played in the 2018-19 season, but he’s had a full off season to chill, rehabilitate, and get right for nightly on-court domination once the NBA season kicks off in October. This weekend we saw LeBron court-side in Las Vegas at the NBA Summer League and he’s looking healthy; but more importantly, he snapped necks with some dummy kicks. James broke out a pair of mismatch Nike Zoom LeBron 3 Retros with perfect color blocking.
LeBron’s Laker heat captured the sneaker world’s attention last weekend, but it’s not the first time he’s pulled out exclusive Los Angeles themed LeBron retros. Last season King James rocked a pair of all purple suede Nike Air Zoom Generations that were surely tied to his signing with the Lakers.
Seeing these Lakers PEs inspired us to take a look back at our favorite kicks LeBron laced up on-court for Los Angeles. His Nike LeBron 15 lent itself well to Lakers’ hues of purple & gold with new, gorgeous, PEs rocked nightly. Here are our top-5!
Lakers Away – Worn VS. Washington
Sometimes super simple is super good, and these LeBron 15 ‘Lakers Away’ PEs are the definition of good. The shoe’s main feature are located on the heels – a plastic 3D lion (LeBron’s animal, logo?) surrounded by synthetic leather. Few LeBron 15 PEs from last season had a 3D lion on them and this pair utilized the detail flawlessly. Purple and gold add pops of color too. Clean, cleeeean.
Away Purple Fade – Worn VS. Chicago
We can’t quite put our finger on why these look so good – they just do (it) for us. A gradient purple fade on the Air Zoom Max units hit all the right hues. Purple ice comes to mind, purple crystal even…
Synthetic leather, carbon fiber print and a truculent outsole gives these dominantly black kicks a fantastic sense of depth. There’s nothing basic about these black kicks. LeBron was on his stealth ninja tip with these joints!
Yellow Leopard – Worn VS. Portland
Throughout the 2018-19 season LeBron laced three different versions of leopard kicks: red, purple and gold. The gold joints made our list due to their ability to pop – that yellow stands out and plays off of the leopard heel flawlessly. Accompanying details were clean and simple too. Shoes with gaudy prints need balance, and these ‘Yellow Leopard’ LeBron 15 PEs added extra swag without being extra. Fire.
Lakers Mismatch – Worn VS. Memphis
Mismatch started this conversation so we needed to include a pair of Laker themed, mismatched, LeBron 15s. Two main details on these puppies catch our eyes:
- the heels independently mismatch; the purple had stripes and the white says “I’m King”
- the Flyknit upper, outsole and midsole follow no specific mismatch themes… they’re just different.
It’s so cool to see a pair of mismatched shoes executed like this – Nike do THIS more often.
LeBron 15 x Kobe x Jordan 3 – Worn VS. Denver
Nike’s storytelling level was over 9,000 on these MJ and Kobe inspired LeBron 15 PEs. For those of you that don’t know, between Kobe Bryant’s adidas contract ending and his Nike contract starting a pair of Air Jordan 3s in Lakers’ colors were created in an attempt to lure Bryant to Jordan Brand. Bryant famously wore the 3s when he dunked all over Yao Ming’s fact. Rarity elevated the shoes to mythological levels, so when LeBron hooped in these the sneaker world went nuts. Three legends on one shoe; what’s better than that? Nothing.