NIKE MAX LEBRON VII - CHICAGO SHOE

Check out these sweet kicks designed by Chicago artist Jeff Zimmermann...




Lebron James was in Chicago yesterday promoting his new Nike Max Lebron VII's, in conjunction with his new documentary coming out, called "More than a Game". And as part of the promotional tour, Lebron is also preaching community based activities, which is definitely great. Along with that, James Lebron will receive a custom pair of his shoes designed by a local artist, at each of the 10 stops on his World Tour. And that is where artist Jeff Zimmermann comes into the picture.

Zimmermann put his skills to work and designed the pair you see above. The shoes are pretty sick, so I had to post this.

Also, here is a little bit more behind how Zimmermann came up with the design itself...

"The shoes have a very bright, dynamic color to reflect this positive endeavor," Zimmermann said. "Beyond that, there's the Chicago flag and other Chicago motifs.

"It's sort of like a passage of a day. There's a dawn and abstract nighttime to represent the value of every day. Every day is a gift that we should take advantage of."

Zimmermann also featured an item closely associated with Chicago.

"There's a Chicago hot dog, our unique food source," he said. "It's also tongue in cheek about how it's fun to be a hot dog on the court.

"I sewed in some Nike swooshes from my old Nike cleats, along with some eight-year-old laces, falling apart. I wanted to put some used, worn-in Nike collages onto these Nikes to symbolize that practice and hard work get you to where you want to be. I wanted to use something from like used shoes from practice."

Zimmermann painted "fidelitas" across the front of both shoes.

"It's Latin meaning loyalty," he said. "Every city he's going to has a theme, and loyalty is one of them. For LeBron, it shows that he's loyal to where he came from.

"And lastly, it looks like he's been walking through gold, but raised up. It's like there are hidden risers below the shoes so they're floating in the air. That's after I did my homework on LeBron and saw how successful he is, and how despite all of his success, he rises above it and strives to achieve higher goals. That's the most important part.

- NOTE - I was not able to attend the event. I was able to get this information from a story featured on ESPNChicago today...