Nike officially introduces LeBron James’ 23rd signature shoe and ‘Forever King’ collection

As LeBron James enters his record-breaking 23rd NBA season, a fitting coronation has been bestowed upon the 40-year-old Los Angeles Lakers superstar.

After first signing him in 2003 as an 18-year-old phenom nicknamed “King James,” Nike is now officially crowning the four-time NBA champion as the “Forever King” with his latest signature shoe, the Lebron XXIII, which the global sportswear company unveiled on Wednesday, ahead of the shoe’s Oct. 3 global release.

“The LeBron XXIII reflects the deep partnership I have with Nike, pushing the limits of design and innovation to create a new signature shoe that powers my game and tells the story of my career,” James said in a statement released by Nike. “Over two decades later, we’re still going strong, inspiring the next generation with a shoe that’s made for greatness.”

Earlier this week, Nike teased the announcement with a video in which a shirtless James raised a gold crown to his head. The 32-second spot, which doesn’t feature the new shoe, is set to a narration from a child, proclaiming:

“They called him ‘The Chosen One.’ He carried the weight on every expectation on his shoulders. But he never broke. We were all witnesses. Every rival was defeated. Every idol was destroyed. He took the crown and kept it. Behold the greatness. He is the Forever King.”

Nike will roll out 23 different colorways, telling 23 different stories from James’ journey to the silhouette he’ll lace up throughout his upcoming history-making season. Each colorway will be accompanied by a matching graphic T-shirt from the “Forever King” apparel collection.

The sneaker and apparel storytelling traces back to James’ high school days, when, as a freshman at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, he first earned the nickname “King James” — before the world, and global footwear companies, took notice of his generational talent.

In 2003, an 18-year-old James agreed to a landmark seven-year, $87 million footwear and apparel endorsement deal with Nike, turning down Adidas and a massive offer from Reebok, to sign with the Swoosh on the richest rookie shoe deal ever signed by a basketball player.

“Twenty-three years ago, Nike and LeBron set out to change the game,” Karrie Conner, vice president and general manager of Nike’s global men’s basketball, said virtually in late August from the LeBron James Innovation Center of Nike’s Beaverton, Oregon, headquarters. “There’s no version of sneaker history that doesn’t spend a chapter or two, or even three, on LeBron’s line, his iconic colorways and his industry-challenging innovation.”

No one in basketball history has laced up more numbered signature silhouettes while actively playing than James, whose 23 Nike LeBron models trail only Michael Jordan’s 40 Air Jordans for the most ever.  

On Oct. 29, 2023, James debuted his signature line in his first regular-season NBA game as the No. 1 overall pick of the Cleveland Cavaliers. James’ first shoe, the Nike Air Zoom Generation, notably didn’t feature his name — which, as the story goes, was a personal request of the young King to designers. Yet early sketches and sample pairs of the AZG feature “KING” etching that ultimately was swapped for “NIKE” on the final product.

More than two decades after the Air Zoom Generation, Nike and James took a definitively different approach for the branding of the LeBron XXIII.

“The ‘Forever King’ tagline was something that the team wanted to be really bullish about, making sure that this was legacy-defining, regardless of if this was his last year, that this could stand the test of time,” Jarrett Mann, senior director of Nike Basketball footwear, told Andscape ahead of the announcement. ‘Forever King’ was born out of this goal, this ambition to make sure his legacy was stamped on the court. We felt like ‘Forever King’ was the perfect tag to bring that to life.”

Throughout the Nike LeBron XIII, the crown iconography is the marquee motif — or, as Nike decrees, “a LeBron-only symbol.” The teaser visuals and the shoe’s official imagery play off one of James’ trademark on-court celebrations — of raising an imaginary crown to his head, which he broke out on a whim in 2003.

James’ design team, led by Nike Basketball senior footwear design director Ross Klein, incorporated his decades-old signature crown logo into the cushioning system of the LeBron XXIII, which features, for the first time on his shoe, a full-length ZoomX drop-in midsole.

“The crown becomes a cradle of everything that’s inside this shoe and innovation we’ve packed in for such an athlete like LeBron,” Klein said. “It’s not only an icon, but it’s also an area for functionality. What we see in the forefoot is about flexibility, where it dips low, it rises higher into the midfoot for stability, and comes back into the heel to cradle for support. This takes every moment, from all the sheer force applied, to the elevation, to coming down and landing, that really supports an athlete like that.

“When we work with LeBron, we also work with Bryce and Bronny,” Klein continued. “And some of the things, in terms of the next generation of athletes, is about pushing us forward, making sure that we’re putting in the greatest and latest innovation for the agility and speed of future athletes.”

It took Nike some time and a collective effort across multiple teams, including apparel, design, footwear, marketing and merchandising, to hone in on the storytelling for the LeBron XXIII.

“I just remember in the conference room, we must’ve had over 50 stories,” said Nike Basketball senior director of apparel design Will Green. “If you think back to LeBron’s career, how many moments — how many legacy-defining moments — has he had? I just remember going in the conference room, and we’re just debating, adding in, pulling things off. To edit down to those 23 was so difficult because he’s had so many amazing moments in his career.”

Of course, Nike’s newly crowned “Forever King” had the final sign-off on all 23 of the new silhouette’s colorways, and the stories behind them.

“I think the magic really came together as the team started to sweat every detail,” Mann said. “We pulled up the footage, we relived all these moments. But the ultimate test was bringing these 40-45 stories to LeBron himself, and him being able to actually dissect and pull apart each of the stories that mattered to him. There were moments that he absolutely knew had to be a part of this collection.”

The Nike LeBron XXIII arrives — first in China on Sept. 25, then Oct. 3 globally — in the “Uncharted” launch colorway, nodding to the March 2, 2024 game in which James became the first player in NBA history to score 40,000 career points.

Soon, James will become the first-ever NBA player to take the court for a 23^rd season, in a signature shoe under the same number. It isn’t lost upon Nike that the King’s basketball reign is near its end. Yet until then, in the LeBron XXXIII, James still has his crown.

“A statement like ‘Forever King’ is something powerful,” Mann said. “We wanted to make sure that LeBron could sustain greatness on the court. And whatever date that can no longer happen, we wanted to make sure that we were leaving a statement — that every time he stepped on the court, there was an icon, there was a symbol that maintained his greatness. It was a statement to the world that every time LeBron stepped on the court, he was breaking a new barrier or new record.”