From the AZG to the LeBron 24: Every Chapter of Nike’s Longest Signature Run

LeBron James opens a record 24th NBA season in Philadelphia this fall, and the LeBron 24 arrives right behind him.

The count lines up almost too neatly. LeBron James is 41, he signed with the Philadelphia 76ers in July on a two-year veteran minimum deal after nearly retiring, and he enters the 2026-27 season as the first player to reach a 24th NBA campaign. His Nike line keeps the same pace. The LeBron 24 is the 24th flagship model in a franchise that began before he had played a single NBA minute.

Signal. What happened: LeBron James previewed the Nike LeBron 24, his 24th sig shoe, ahead of his first season with Philadelphia. Exact object: the Nike LeBron 24, built around a new knit upper Nike calls KingKnit. When and where: Fall 2026 via Nike and select retailers, with the “Shooting Star” colorway (IO8204-400) reportedly first on November 17 at $200. Source: James’s own August preview posts, with his signing confirmed by NBA.com and ESPN. Why it matters: no active sig line in basketball has run this long, and this may be the last model James wears as a player.

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The story starts in 2003. Nike signed James, then 18, to a seven-year deal worth roughly $90 million on the eve of the NBA lottery, beating offers from Reebok and adidas. It was the largest athlete deal Nike had ever done at the time.

His first shoe did not carry his name. The Air Zoom Generation, designed by a team that included Tinker Hatfield, Aaron Cooper and Eric Avar, took cues from the Hummer H2 James drove in high school and debuted with him in Sacramento during his rookie year with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He scored 25 points that night, a record for a player jumping straight from high school, and became only the sixth player in league history to start his career in his own signature shoe. Ken Link then led the line from the LeBron 2 through the LeBron 6. That stretch produced the removable strap of the 2, the sculpted full-length Zoom of the 3, the Foamposite-heavy LeBron 4 (still the heaviest shoe in the series), and the Air Force 1-inspired LeBron 6, a rare model that has never been retroed.

 

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Jason Petrie became lead designer with the LeBron 7 in 2009 and has shaped the line ever since. The 7 swapped Zoom for a visible 360-degree Max Air unit. The LeBron 8 arrived with James’s move to the Miami Heat, and its “South Beach” colorway became one of the defining sneakers of the decade.

The LeBron 9 paired Hyperfuse with Flywire and was on his feet for his first championship in 2012. From there the line turned into a test bed for new materials: Hyperposite on the LeBron 11, hexagonal Zoom pods on the 12, and a return of the midfoot strap on the LeBron 14, which debuted on Christmas Day 2016 against Golden State.

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In December 2015, with the LeBron 13 on shelves, Nike made James the first athlete in company history to sign a lifetime deal. Nike did not disclose the figure, though ESPN reported it was the largest single-athlete guarantee the company had made. By then, Nike had made more versions of his shoe than for any athlete other than Michael Jordan, and annual sales for the line were estimated at more than $400 million.

Knit uppers defined the next run. The LeBron 15 introduced BattleKnit, and James’s mismatched “Equality” pairs from 2017 later entered the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Knitposite followed on the 17 and 18, the latter arriving in the year of his 2020 title with the Los Angeles Lakers. The LeBron 19 premiered on screen in Space Jam: A New Legacy.

In 2021, Nike also opened the LeBron James Innovation Center in Beaverton, a 750,000-square-foot building that houses the Nike Sport Research Lab, including 400 motion-capture cameras and 97 force plates. His shot attempts on the way to 30,000 career points are mapped across the lobby floor.

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The LeBron 20 in 2022 was the first mainline model to launch only as a low-top, and Nike framed it partly around his sons Bronny and Bryce. It launched in September 2022 in the “Time Machine” and “Pink Diamond” colorways. The 21 took inspiration from his daughter Zhuri. Ross Klein joined Petrie on the LeBron 22, and the LeBron 23 closed the Lakers era with a run of 23 colorways, starting with “Uncharted,” which marked James becoming the first player to pass 40,000 career points.

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James previewed the LeBron 24 himself in August, weeks after choosing Philadelphia. The key change is KingKnit, used in two different weights across the upper, alongside carbon fiber at the midfoot and a slimmer sole than recent models. Early reporting describes it as the lightest shoe in his signature history. Official specs are still limited, and Nike has not published a full launch schedule.

On paper, the 76ers roster around him includes Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and the newly acquired Jaylen Brown. James called the move his “last decision” and wrote that he still loves the game and has “more to give.” His contract carries a player option for a 25th season in 2027-28. Whether a LeBron 25 follows depends on that decision.

The flagship count also understates the catalog. Alongside the numbered models, Nike ran the LeBron Soldier and LeBron Ambassador lines for more than a decade each, and the lower-priced LeBron Witness continues today. Few athletes in any sport have had that much product carry their name.