12 Days of LeBron 12 – Cleveland Colorways a.k.a. CLEVEways

By: Josh Luber and Larry Luk

My daughter just turned two years old. Last week she said to me, and I quote: “I really wish I had been around for LeBron’s first “Decision” because my friends at daycare are still talking about the impact of his return to Cleveland.”

Her saying this was significant for two reasons: First, it was her longest sentence to date, narrowly beating her previous three-word string, “Daddy bye bye”. More importantly, it confirmed that everyone in the world knows both that LeBron is heading home, and that his move will have far-reaching social, economic and athletic implications.

Those implications are sure to be felt in the sneaker industry, but the impact may not be what you’d expect. LeBron’s signature line is one of Nike’s flagship products, but over the past four years the reliance on Miami-themed colorways has reached an all-time high.

Miami-Themed LeBron Colorways

This past year there were eight LeBron 11s with a Miami or Florida theme – and that doesn’t include Home, Away, All-Star, Playoffs or What The. That’s 19%, or almost one out of every five LeBron 11s. In total, there have been twenty different Miami-themed sneakers released since The Decision.

8: South Beach; Miami Nights (low)

9: Floridians (low); Freegums; Miami Hurricanes; Miami Nights; South Beach (Elite); (Honorable Mention: LeBronald Palmer)

10: Citrus (low); Dolphins; Floridian; Miami Dade (Elite); Reptile/Everglades (low)

11: Akron v Miami; Biscayne (low); Everglades; Floridian (low); King of Miami (lifestyle); Miami Nights; Miami Vice (lifestyle); South Beach

Many of these are amongst the most iconic and most popular LeBrons ever, including the LeBron 8 South Beach, which now sells for $950, according to Campless. Other colorways, such as Miami Nights and the Floridian, have become yearly staples.

With such a large portion of its LeBron portfolio becoming obsolete, the only logical option for Nike is a deep-dive into Cleveland colorways. Are you listening, Jason Petrie?

Cleveland-Themed Colorways a.k.a. “CLEVEways”

We’re not just talking about Home and Away or recycling low-hanging fruit like Ohio State and SVSM themes. This time around, LeBron needs an honest-to-goodness, heart-of-Cleveland, even-Rachel-Phelps-would-want-to-live-here stable of authentic kicks. So with the help of a few native Clevelanders, and the support of Finish Line, we’ve come up with twelve CLEVEways* for the LeBron 12.

*Yes, “CLEVEways” was partly named after the 30 Rock episode, “Flee to the Cleve”.

At this stage of the game, Mr. Petrie probably doesn’t have time to take our designs under consideration, so it’s unlikely you’ll get to see these in production. However, with such an amazing list of potential CLEVEways in our bag, we owe it to every pierogi-eating, Flats-hanging, hard-hat-and-flannel-wearing, mustache-sporting, Larry Nance fan out there to show the goods.

We’ve teamed up with celebrated digital sneaker artist Larry Luk to bring every LBJ Cleveland colorway to life. Larry and Campless have been working together for a while now, having collaborated on the Color of Sneaker Money and Sneaker Math Textbook infographics.

For Day 1, we’ll start easy. This is one that Nike might actually be planning. Regardless, we couldn’t do a CLEVEway list without paying respect to our favorite Cav ever. True story: I had this poster on my wall growing up. Campless and Larry Luk are proud to present:

LeBron 12 “Mark Price”

Over the next 11 days, Campless and Larry Luk will unveil one LBJ 12 CLEVEway design per day, culminating on October 11, the day Nike starts selling theirs.

Play Along

Every day we’ll give you a hint as to what CLEVEway is coming next. And every day you have a chance to guess the right answer on social media.

Tomorrow’s hint: California Penal League

Find Finish Line’s LeBron 12 “Mark Price” post on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and comment with your answer to see if you can guess tomorrow’s CLEVEway.

Good luck!

Josh Luber is the founder of Campless, a sneakerhead data company. Larry Luk is a designer and illustrator at Son&Sons agency in Atlanta, Georgia.