LeBron James’ solitary streak of a thousand-plus 10+ point performances came to a close in year 23, the latest signal that the future Hall of Famer’s career is waning in some real regards. Likely only the man himself knows whether this will mark his final year in the league that’s defined more than half of his life. Yet again, he and Nike’s choice to use this year as a retrospective on his signature line is proving a cogent one.
For the few that may be picking up this storyline in medias res, we’ll remind you that twenty-three narrative-charged versions of the Nike LeBron 23 will be released, celebrating definitional career moments from his draft night to his record-breaking 38,388th point. The Nike LeBron 23 “Out For Redemption,” now surfacing via some in-hand imagery, takes things back to 2008, when he suited up on the international stage. He and his Team USA peers, later dubbed the “Redeem Team,” avenged their 2004 predecessors, who had failed to take home the ultimate prize. To that end, this colorway is steeped in patriotic “University Red” and “Midnight Navy,” with key nods to their gold medals embedded in the forefoot Swoosh and woven into the laces.
The Nike LeBron 23 has generally played with textures on its top/bottom split throughout the colorways we’ve seen so far, but this specific tooling appears to nod to the run of tattoo-like Zoom Soldier II colorways he sported during the Beijing games. Though not a one-to-one replication, this does align with the dense Chinese characters and lion imagery that appeared in those various game-worn editions.
The Nike LeBron 23 “Out For Redemption” releases on January 30th, expected to retail for $210. Catch a brief preview below and watch our Sneaker Release Dates page for more updates as they come.
