SOLE COLLECTOR: Sneakers

words_Nick DePaula

Though it was at times a challenge just to get by for the James family as they traveled from apartment to apartment throughout Akron during young LeBron’s earliest years, it’s safe to say things have panned out pretty well for King James and his mother Gloria. Since LeBron’s first season in the NBA and his first signature shoe, the Air Zoom Generation, every year Nike has made a special promo version of his shoe in white/pink exclusively for his mom. While production numbers have varied all over the place from model to model, the “Gloria” Zoom LeBron IV is the rarest of the set, with only around twenty pairs produced.

With a bright white Foamposite upper and white synthetic leather ankle collar, it’s the pink accents along the shoe that give it that “Glo” feel. There’s a translucent pink outsole, pink Swoosh outline and pink bordering along the ankle strap, with ‘Believe’ written vertically down the heel strip. It’s tough to imagine Gloria breaking these out in a casual setting, as the shoe looks awkwardly bulky in any size, but it sure must be nice to at least have that lasting reminder that they made it out from hardships and onto better, more trivial things, like a collectible sneaker.