Chicago Bull’s guard Derrick Rose tore his ACL in the last-minute of the game against the 76ers on Saturday. The Bulls won that game 103-91 but lost Rose. As of today MVP Rose will be out for the rest of the season. Bulls Coach Tom Thibodeau(just try pronouncing it) is getting shit for playing Rose when the Bulls were leading by 12 with 1:20 left in the game. Rose was plagued by other injuries this season so playing without him is not a new thing for the Bulls. Without Rose the Bulls were 18-9. That means they still have a chance in the playoffs.

The poor Olympic team is definitely struggling losing Rose. Adidas was sponsoring Rose and man are they bummed about not having him in the Olympics. The only person that is celebrating is Nike senior designer, Jason Petrie, who apparently tweeted the injury wouldn’t have happened if he were wearing Nike shoes. Of course Nike has apologized for the designer’s comments. It is kind of funny that Adidas’ other athletes were Magic’s Dwight Howard and Clipper’s Chauncey Billups who are also out due to injury. Poor Adidas is already the small fish in the shoe pond next to Nike. Now Nike will dominate even more being the only shoe presence at the Olympics.

-M

Nike shoe designer Jason Petrie apparently has nno buffer, bragging that Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose, who tore his ACL in the waning moments of Saturday’s Game 1 win against the Philadelphia 76ers, should have signed with Nike instead of addidas.

“You got one guy only getting stronger, and one guy breaking down before our very eyes,” Petrie tweeted, later using the hashtag “#shouldasignedwithNike.

Funny how nobody from Nike had much to say when Stephen Curry couldn’t go five minutes without turning his ankle. Either way, only one hashtag truly makes sense for Petrie:

#jerk

The creative mind/designer behind the Lebron sneaker[Jason Petrie] took a couple of shots from his office not only showing us snow but some goodies in Lebron sample footwear. You can see a ‘Miami Dolphins’ colorway of the Nike LeBron 8 V/2 Low, the LeBron VII Cleats on the far left, a trio of ‘Volt’-ed out LeBrons, and a blazing-hot orange/blue at the very top.

~Signing Off~
AGE

So with this all in mind, I see a perfect opportunity to come up with a shirt to engage in this milestone.
What colors will I use? Well it seems Mr. Jason Petrie had Broken Bank in mind when he designed the Chinas for Lebron because the colors are so close to my logo. So we’ll start there and see where my pen and or computer lead me.
Oh yeah China let me know if you can take a personal request and make it Year Of The Pig again…

Sorry Kobe I didn’t show you any love, maybe next animal year will be a snake…

If you want to read more on the NB ML574 just click KickOnFire

Recently, Jason Petrie unveiled to the world this Nike Air Max LeBron VII “Fortune 25″ sample and what could’ve been. The design is inspired by the Fortune 25 magazine and will unfortunately not be available to retailers. With it’s vibrant colors, I’m sure any fan of the Nike LeBron line would have loved to get their hands on a pair of these. Hit the jump for an additional photo.

Pics via Jason Petrie

Nov 17 · Sneaker News Talks Nike LeBron 9 & More With Designer Jason Petrie

If Jason Petrie wasn’t designing LeBron’s sneakers for Nike, there’s a good chance he’d be on a computer somewhere surfing the sneaker sites for a look at the latest kicks, just like you. As a matter of fact, Jason is still doing that anyway, because unlike many of his trailblazing design predecessors at Nike, he has grown up living and breathing not only design, but also the history and culture surrounding the sneaker game. When Bruce Kilgore was drafting up the Air Force 1 and Tinker Hatfield was designing just about every other classic Nike shoe you love, there really was no tangible sneaker culture, no such word as “sneakerhead” and nowhere near the exchange of information that we see today in the internet age. Those pioneers created shoes that attracted a ravenous fanbase of Swoosh-crazed consumers, and as a result, paved the way for a new wave of creative forces that are now rising to prominence in the sneaker industry. Jason Petrie is one of the leaders of this bold new generation of Nike designers, equipped with not only the necessary technical skills, but just as important, an understanding of the game and an impassioned reverence for the sneaker masterpieces that came before them. Shoes for the people, by the people.

Evolution and Transformation through the Nike LeBron 8, hosted by the designer Jason Petrie.

Was at Sneaker Con this past Saturday and unbeknownst to me a photog for Freshness snapped a shot of my Nike LeBron VII P.S.’s. Glad I had on clean socks. Check my coverage of kicks at DrJays.com. Below, the designer (Jason Petrie) of the first new age sneaker from retro-happy Nike I’ve really liked in a good minute speaks on its design. Sorry LeBron, but the Celtics got this.

This is a public service announcement…

The Nike Air Max LeBron VIIs are the hottest basketball sneakers in the game right now!

With the seventh release of the LeBron James signature shoe, I have to admit that it sounds a little cliché to list the latest shoe as the greatest shoe but it’s true. There no other way to explain it because it’s clearly the best of the bunch.

“The New LeBron VII takes my signature line to a new level of innovation,” LeBron James said on www.nikebasketball.com.

Nearly every aspect of the shoe is beautiful which forms to make the product an overall masterpiece. Not only is the shoe eye candy for sneakerheads, it also provides maximum comfort and stability to the foot while still managing to pay homage to a few the King’s best personality traits.

Ditching the Zoom technology that was incorporated in the previous six sneakers and replacing it with the new Max Air 360 unit, James quickly shows that he’s willing to improve every aspect of his sneaker’s on-court performance. This unit contains 80 percent more air than the previous full-length unit and I can tell you from personal experience that it makes a hell of a lot of difference. This unit provides that walking-on-pillows feel and makes you forget that you’re even wearing a shoe at times.

Nike also decided to incorporate the Flywire technology into the product as well (a la Nike Hyperdunk/Hypermax) which drastically decreases the weight of the shoe. LeBron’s shoes have generally become known for heaviness and bulkiness, but this shoe is very lightweight.

The difference between the Flywire used in this sneaker than it was in previous Nike products is that a double-layer of the technology is crafted into the shoe. The double-layer Flywire is great for managing harder cuts because it makes the shoe stiffer and more durable to hold the inner beast of King James or anyone else for that matter.

“When designing the Air Max LeBron VII, we envisioned a shoe that was both strong and comfortable,” Nike Footwear Designer, Jason Petrie said on nike.com. “We delivered a shoe that is a perfect combination of superior performance and luxurious style, embodying LeBron himself.”

Paying homage to the legendary of LeBron James, as with all of the others, was also a theme of the shoe as several hints are placed throughout the shoe to remind you just whose shoes you are wearing. These include his symbol obviously, his autograph on the tongue, as well a few of his favorite punchlines (Passion, Fearless, Tradition, Community, Family, Loyalty) in several parts of the shoe.

Outside of all the technological details that went with the creation of the product, it’s just very stylish. You can rock the shoe with jeans or sweatpants and still look hot while doing so.

After purchasing the shoe, I decided to wear the shoe to a step-show on our campus and one of the security guards asked me if they were Michael Jordan’s? This is the ultimate complement for a basketball sneaker.

Despite all of the innovative qualities with the production of the shoe, it doesn’t come at a cheap price. The suggested retail is a hefty $160.

For a struggling college student like myself, satisfying that passion for flashin’ is pretty expensive for this product, but I truly believe that the Nike Air Max LeBron VIIs are worth the investment.

Pros: Quality, Style, Comfort

Cons: $160 Price Tag

Verdict: Must Have!

*This post can also be viewed at slamonline.com!

That all changed this August when I got a sneak peek at the upcoming Air Max LeBron VII posted as part of Freshness’ ongoing coverage of the latest ‘Bron releases.

Nike Air Max Lebron James VII "Red Carpet" colorway

Hold the phone–now there’s a basketball shoe I can really sink my feet into.

Designed by sneakerhead-cum-footwear-designer Jason Petrie, LeBron’s latest signature shoe features a few new technological innovations that really inform the gestalt of the sneaker. (Petrie waxes specific on these technical novelties and the lifestyle cues used as inspiration for his shoe in a video from KixandtheCity, on site at the LeBron VII launch and media summit.) In brief, the LeBron VII boasts a redesigned and basketball-specific 360º Air Max unit (now with 80% more air!) visible inside the length of the midsole, in addition to the incorporation Nike’s Flywire composite material in the upper for tensile yet lightweight support on most models.

LeBron puts his design priorities plainly in the above Nike-produced video, stating that “the first thing is, I want it to look good.” Not playing basketball myself, I can’t agree more. Recently, SneakerNews published some detailed shots of the much-hyped Red Carpet colorway (drawing its material inspirations from LeBron’s “red carpet” lifestyle), and after a closer look, I can imagine LeBron was mighty satisfied with the final manifestation of this, his seventh signature shoe:

The simplistic silhouette and organic curves of the form provide a soothing visual counterpart to the anxious, futuristic technology of materials on display. In profile, the sneaker’s surface area is broken up into several horizontal passages of texture and color that gently transition visually and anatomically from weightless, translucent midsole, to heel and toe swathed in pebble grain leather, up through the body of the sneaker executed in a woven textile (that’s tactily and aesthetically superior to the mutant skin of Flywire), and finally at the top, a Mowabb-inspired soft ankle cuff.

Design Predecessor: Air Max 97

Part of the appeal of the LeBron VII is the full-length Air Max unit.  It’s what perpetually draws me back to Air Max 97s no matter how badly Nike designers may disgrace their iconic form with garish colorways and materials,

Design Predecessor: Air Terra 90

it’s the design feature that most attracted me to the Air Max Terra Humara (even when nobody else felt ‘em and they were on clearance shelves),

Design Predecessor: Air Total Max Uptempo

and it’s what lured me to almost cop a pair of Air Total Max Uptempos a few months back.

In this model, the Air Unit is seamless, flush with the midsole, smooth and streamlined.  Its full-length visibility, unfettered by incursions of the foam surround, flatters and flaunts the shoe’s singular profile. A squishy bubble of air sitting sensuously beneath the simplistically designed but technically advanced basketball upper feels like a natural and harmonious hybridization of Nike’s design innovations, both aesthetic and athletic. In fact, it’s such an effortless marriage of forms, I almost wonder what took them so long.

I’ve chosen to focus on the so-called ‘Red Carpet’ colorway since after this summer, when turquoise proved to be the official hue of the season, I’m just such a sucker for any and all applications of Nike’s ‘Fresh Water’ treatment. Thus far, none of the 6 or so colorways that have been previewed have held my attention…well, except maybe the black/neon green variation pictured on the right (again with the Air Total Max Uptempo reference.)

Another distinction held by the Red Carpet release is its NFW (that’s No Flywire) construction that instead employs a Woven-esque material on the body of the sneaker and an embroidered swoosh outline.  This subtle touch, both tactile and visual, helps humanize the shoe’s futuristic composition by adding this whimsical, “archaic” quirk.

I feel the Red Carpet colorway could definitely have benefitted from a little patent leather love, a luxury not spared on the other versions shown above. Pebble grain leather feels so matte and dull on this otherwise forward-looking design, and patent might have been better suited for this secular, street-oriented NFW colorway.

Overscaled LeBron logo = too much

Both Petrie and James cite the shoe’s detailing as one of its design strengths.  Naturally, a signature shoe should feature some LeBron branding, but both designer and namesake went a little overboard with the application, demonstrated in the gaudy, overscaled LeBron logo on the medial heel.

Ok, ok, we get it.

Another minor design misstep was the “Twenty Three” text detailing on the already clumsy toe bumper.  Not only is the piquant red text jarring against all that serene blue (although I suppose there needed to be some red in the “Red Carpet” colorway), but hasn’t Michael Jordan culturally secured lifetime exclusive rights to emblazoning the numerals 23 on a basketball shoe?

Tongue section

Smaller LeBron logo and incised script detailing.

Generally, the detailing concentrated on the tongue, and rear portion of the sneaker is successful.  Small swatches of black patent leather in both sections provide a teasing touch of luxury,  while the perforated mesh tongue creates a material link to the woven textile body. The smaller LeBron logos on the external heel tastefully convey the identity of the shoe’s patron, as do the subtle, incised “L” and “J” on the white foam of the left and right heel, respectively.

My last gripe with Petrie’s design of the new LeBron VII concerns the sole of the sneaker.  The quadrisected planes of turquoise and black radiating from a central LeBron-branded medallion disrupt the established horizontality of the rest of the sneaker.  Petrie may have done better to leave it uniformly black and abandon the sort of spiderweb motif suggested by the concentric circles and radiating diagonals. (Not pictured are the even worse variations on sole treatment I saw on other colorways of this model.)

Sole

To make it clear, I’m solidly impressed with the beautiful industrial design of this sneaker.  I think Petrie, James and Nike have managed to craft a basketball shoe with a broad aesthetic appeal that caught the eye of even staunch running/lifestyle sneaker devotees like myself.   In my estimation, the real success lies in the execution of the artfully-designed sneaker that surpasses its specialized function/market appeal to unite different camps of sneaker consumers and enthusiasts under the universal recognition of good design.

Select colorways of the Nike Air Max Lebron VII are scheduled for release today, Saturday, October 24th, however there is some confusion about the availability and release date of the Red Carpet edition concerned in this review.

flick: KixandTheCity.com

With the change in the calendar, that also means that the NBA season is in full swing. That also means that the Nike basketball athletes are flipping their kicks to the mid-season replacements.

So, what’s the big deal behind this shoe?

Well, this one was designed by Jason “AlphaProject” Petrie, who hooked atypicalLIVING up with the first ever cuneiforms article back in 2005 and a tour of the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton. So, we always got love for our homies that are doing their thing.

As far as the shoe goes, this shoe is part of the HyperFlight family of sneakers and, besides the funky strap system, features a zoom air pocket riding shotgun in the heel.

The shoe is hot and definitely looks like its built for your small, quick guards, ala Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, or Tony Parker.

Look for these to hit store shelves this month, with the Player Exclusive editions hitting the House of Hoops on 1/19.