2010 Nike LeBron 8

by Ben Felderstein

LeBron James was coming off of what many people consider to be the strongest model in his arsenal, the Nike LeBron 7. On top of that, he was fresh off the single-biggest free agency decision in the history of sports, when he chose to take his talents to South Beach and form what would be known as the “Big Three” with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade.

Pressure was mounting to follow up on the success of the LeBron 7, as well as live up to the hype of his infamous “Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven . . .” championship-promising speech. Ultimately, in 2011, James delivered, making the All-NBA and All-Defensive first teams, leading the Miami Heat to the NBA Finals, and rolling out the LeBron 8.

The shoe, among the best of the models bearing James’s name, changed basketball footwear forever.

“We just wanted to create a silhouette that, on the shelf, didn’t look like anything else,” designer Jason Petrie said. “You can notice it from one hundred yards away just because of that. You needed a silhouette and an outline that stood proud, above the rest of the stuff out there.”

With the arrival of the 8 came the release of the very first of James’s “South Beach” sneakers. It also marked the first “Pre-Heat” drop in Nike’s history. “Pre-Heat,” a launch method to bring out a bold colorway before the proper debut of a signature model in a tamer, usually team-based palette, was a new term to the sneaker world back then.

Released on October 16, 2010, the Nike LeBron 8 “South Beach” was a departure from the status quo. The Heat’s uniforms were black, white, and red, but this new sneaker was teal and pink. It completely shifted the idea of what a basketball sneaker could look like. While James never actually wore this pair on the court, we now see wildly colored sneakers on a nightly basis.

“LeBron, to his credit, was like, ‘Okay, man, let’s roll,’” Petrie said. “And I do remember saying to LeBron, ‘I feel like this is our opportunity. I’ve been waiting for this my whole life.’ You’re at this point in your career where everything’s going nuts.”

2010 was a perfect year for James and Petrie to release a teal and pink sneaker. Adding to the hype “The Decision” created, James and Nike filmed a ninety-second “Rise” commercial that further leaned into the “heel” character that he was becoming to the rest of the league.

“Overall, to the sneaker community globally, it’s a huge sneaker,” said Jaron Kanfer, now the CEO of UNKNWN, the Miami sneaker store James opened with Kanfer and Frankie Walker Jr., both high school friends. “All the Heat fans were excited to be in Miami. The city was on fire. This was the first [LeBron] colorway dedicated to the city of Miami, so I think it was special to the city.”

Beyond changing the way that designers look at colorways, the “South Beach” 8s sent the industry into a brand-new era. On-court footwear became more of a focal point, the sneaker resale market began to rise, and sneaker culture in Miami was forever changed.

“The ‘South Beach’ was the shoe that really took [basketball sneakers] and ignited this, I don’t know if you want to call it a ‘culture 2.0 or 3.0’—it just started that next wave of stuff,” Petrie said. “We knew we were onto something because you could just see it if you check the sneaker news and you just see kids in the street and you just hear people with these resale values and hear about these mob scenes at the malls.”

James debuted the iconic sneaker at a Foot Locker launch event, wearing a teal Florida Marlins hat and a black “Witness” Nike T-shirt. It was the perfect introduction for James to Miami fans. He was repping the hometown baseball team, and he was rolling out a sneaker that was a true tribute to his new city, paying homage to the TV series Miami Vice.

“You could just see there’s going to be a ton of kids that are going to want to do exactly what he’s doing with them,” Petrie said of the outfit James wore to debut the “South Beach” 8s. “He sold it that day to me—that’s where the pictures came from. Somebody wearing it. He had it before anybody. Fit was crazy.”

Even today, the “South Beach” 8s have a measurable impact on the game. The league’s defending sneaker king, P. J. Tucker, wore them on court during a 2018 game against James and the Lakers and claims that the shoes are one of the most memorable pairs of all time.

“It was a basketball shoe that was super limited and a dope colorway for LeBron being in Miami and going to the Heat at the time,” Tucker said. “There was so much heat behind the sneaker, and that was during that crazy time where people were really starting to go crazy about sneakers. It was something outside of a Jordan, which was big during that time. It’s one of the most iconic shoes ever.”

While the “South Beach” colorway is certainly the most notable footprint in a long line of LeBron 8 memories, it’s still only one part of the sneaker’s impressive history. With the 7 having been such a success, abandoning the design entirely would not have been a wise decision. Petrie carried over a Flywire chassis for stability and lockdown, as well as another 360-degree Air Max bag for comfort and protection on the court.

Unlike the 7, though, the 8 featured a menacing lion head on its tongue with piercing eyes to represent James’s “King” moniker. An “828” stamp denoting the 82 games in the NBA’s regular season and the maximum of 28 it takes to win an NBA championship also appeared on the sneaker.

“I do think that shift to Air Max had something to do with helping him stay on court a little longer,” Petrie said. “We did that because of his insight. It’s not like our genius led to the advance. ‘Protect me from myself.’ He was saying it from day one.”

The transition period between the 7—Petrie’s first sneaker with James—and the 8 was important for his and James’s relationship, Petrie said, as he began to get closer to the player’s inner circle, learning more about his preferences and predilections. He wanted to “craft something that was going to fit into his world” and develop a sneaker that was perfect for all aspects of James’s life.

One of Petrie’s most innovative design concepts was to adjust the sneaker as the year went on. While a sneaker has to sell, it also has to stand the test of time for one of the hardest-working athletes in the world.

“We realized that his body changes, his mindset changes, the game changes,” Petrie said. “December games are not the same as they are in October or in March, right? So there’s different levels of intensity, different climates. Teammates change, you know? Game plan changes. So we wanted to kind of have fun and iterate those changes in his shoe. So we figured, let’s bring him these new benefits through changing the shoe with him as the season goes.”

With that came the V1, V2, and V3 versions of the 8. The key differences between the first two versions of the sneaker included a more exposed set of Flywire in the second iteration, providing a slightly more breathable shoe. While the design alterations were made with function in mind, aesthetically, the V1 seems a bit more premium, done up in high-end leathers and even suede textiles. Finally, just in time for another deep playoff run, Petrie and Nike shaved off another ounce for the V3, or the P.S. (for postseason), to give James the lightest and smoothest on-court ride yet.

Now, some ten years later, James’s impact on the world of basketball sneakers is that much clearer. His signature series changed it irrevocably, combining performance with style. In 2020, the basketball sneaker conversation begins with James, with Petrie at his side.

“I’m looking at it as, like, a young Tinker-and-Mike situation with the whole world here—everything’s set for us,” Petrie said. “And that’s what I promised to do. I know you’re going to do what you need to do, and he’s always said, ‘Don’t worry about me. You guys do what you’re supposed to do; I’ll take care of things on the court.’ Obviously he’s done that. We’re just trying to keep up ever since.”

Honorable Mention
Nike Zoom Kobe 6

by Riley Jones

Before Nike debuted Kobe Bryant’s sixth signature sneaker in 2010, the player’s “Black Mamba” moniker was just a nickname. But with the Zoom Kobe 6, Nike Basketball and designer Eric Avar brought Bryant’s alias to life, delivering an on-the-nose interpretation of the late NBA legend’s defining qualities on the court. From a distance, the Kobe 6 wasn’t a radical departure from the Kobe 4 and Kobe 5. The 6 used a similar lightweight low-top silhouette, as well as Zoom Air cushioning, both of which came to be staples of Bryant’s signature line.

A closer look, however, revealed that the model was unlike any that came before it. Its three-layer upper was covered on the outside by what Nike described as polyurethane “islands,” resulting in a snakeskin-like texture all over the shoe. Beyond being striking, the scaly pattern provided a performance advantage. According to Nike, the scales were strategically positioned across the upper, increasing and decreasing in size in areas where durability was most needed.

“The Kobe 6 is a very character-driven shoe, with the alter ego of the Black Mamba prominently featured,” Bryant said in a press release during the shoe’s 2010 rollout. “We continue to evolve the technology to make it a performance-based shoe, but aesthetically you haven’t seen a shoe pop like this before. It brings to life what drives me.”

The Kobe 6 stuck with the low-to-the-ground, responsive feel of Bryant’s two preceding models, but carried the concept further by improving its fit through the use of a dual-layer memory foam sockliner. To drive the point home, the insole was literally printed with a request from Bryant: “I want a shoe that molds to my foot.”

“The Black Mamba to Kobe means being one of the deadliest predators on the planet,” Avar said in the same press release. “That’s his approach to every game. He’s very calculated, and he’s very quick.” With that in mind, Nike also coined the word “venomenon”—seen on the sneaker’s toe—in further reference to Bryant’s nickname.

The Kobe 6 was also notable for its range of memorable colorways, including Christmastime “Grinch” and soccer-inspired “Barcelona” makeups that have gone on to become some of Bryant’s most coveted sneakers. Releases like these represented a new storytelling trend in sneakers that Nike Basketball capitalized on to great effect in the last decade. It was selling you shoes, sure, but it was also selling you the narratives around them.