Author: Sneaker Blogger

During his tenure down in Orlando for the NBA’s bubble postseason in 2020, LeBron James busted out an array of new Nike kicks on the hardwood. Among them was this Dodgers-inspired makeup of the LeBron 7 that the Swoosh has officially dubbed the “Baseball Blue” colorway.For this court-ready installment, Beaverton’s design teams bring a handful of Los Angeles-inspired elements to life. LA Dodgers’ team colors are the most prominent here as the white leather overlays and Flywire-constructed side walls are lent a clean white hue, while the mudguards and midsoles are covered in royal blue. Red accents, which are sprinkled across the LeBron branding throughout the shoe as well as the the tongue/heel embroidery have dual meaning here as they align with the Dodgers’ uniform trim as well as the stitches found on an actual baseball. If you take a gander at the mudguards, one can also point out the tonal, all-over tree patterns which is likely emblematic of the year-round sunny weather down in Southern California.Due to the fact that both the LA Lakers and the LA Dodgers won championships in 2020, this release and homage makes total sense.If interested in copping, you can purchase the pair via Nike Japan on February 22 for ￥24,200 (approx. $229 USD). A stateside launch will likely follow after.If interested in more footwear news, first images of the 2021 Nike Air Max 90 “Bacon” have appeared.

Today, adidas announced plans to formally divest from Reebok as part of a forthcoming five-year strategy, which will include reporting adidas as a “discontinued operation” starting with the first quarter of 2021. The company will reveal further details about this plan alongside its 2020 yearly results on March 10. “Reebok and adidas will be able to significantly better realize their growth potential independently of each other,” adidas CEO Kaspar Rorsted said in a statement acquired by Reuters.In 2006, the German sportswear company acquired Reebok for $3.8 billion USD, and in the years since has focused on bolstering sales performance, shuttering underperforming outposts and cutting expenses in an effort to turn around the Boston-based brand. However, Reuters’ banking source estimates that Reebok is currently worth about €1 billion EUR ($1.2 billion USD).This lackluster performance has led to recent rumblings that adidas may cut ties with the Boston-based brand. Reports of unhappy investors and Reebok’s potential sale emerged in October 2020, following the release of adidas’s Q2 2020 earnings that revealed Reebok-generated revenue was down 42 percent and sales fell as much as 44 percent. Rumors of adidas’s newly announced five-year strategy emerged in December, alongside reports that Rorsted was looking to sell Reebok for $2.4 billion USD; possible buyers at the time included private equity firms Permira and Triton as well as VF Corp. But in spite of the turbulence, Reebok releases have continued to come down the pipeline, notably with a recent rework of the 1985 Club C silhouette.