{"id":788533,"date":"2023-11-15T12:56:45","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T17:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?p=788533"},"modified":"2023-11-15T12:56:47","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T17:56:47","slug":"zhuri-james-and-a-very-unexpected-source-inspired-the-nike-lebron-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/kicks\/zhuri-james-and-a-very-unexpected-source-inspired-the-nike-lebron-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Zhuri James and a Very Unexpected Source Inspired the Nike LeBron 21"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Pearls lie not on the seashore. A dive is required to find the prize. Time is necessary. And nothing is guaranteed. Some oysters don\u2019t contain any jewels. But some do. Some hold the secret of precious beauty. Only after journeying into the unknown can the mystery get revealed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is mystery under the water. There is mystery above the water, even far away from the water. Parenthood is a mystery. Nothing is guaranteed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LeBron James found himself a pearl through diving into parenthood. His daughter Zhuri is the precious treasure that he guards as if he were an oyster.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zhuri, along with the idea of an oyster hiding a pearl, serve as the inspiration for the Nike LeBron 21. Longtime lead LeBron designer Jason Petrie worked together with the King to develop the idea of protection being the 21\u2019s main theme. With that knowledge in mind, oysters and pearls begin to visibly break through the design language of the latest silhouette for number 23.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like those pearls that hide deep under the water, the 21 has a pearl detailing that hides under the outsole. The center of the outsole is carved out to reveal the shank plate that helps with torsional rigidity. And what\u2019s on the shank plate? A pearl design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 21\u2019s overall design is playing off the pearl idea, too. Materials have varied from colorway to colorway, but the heel is uniform\u2014its line are shaped like an oyster.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"864\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1080x1350-Watermark-Photos-Black-Top-Left-copfy-864x1080.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-788536\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1080x1350-Watermark-Photos-Black-Top-Left-copfy-864x1080.jpg 864w, https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1080x1350-Watermark-Photos-Black-Top-Left-copfy-720x900.jpg 720w, https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1080x1350-Watermark-Photos-Black-Top-Left-copfy-120x150.jpg 120w, https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1080x1350-Watermark-Photos-Black-Top-Left-copfy-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1080x1350-Watermark-Photos-Black-Top-Left-copfy.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Functionally, the 21 has Zoom Air units in both the forefoot and the heel. But there is a difference from the front of the sneaker to the back of it. The Cushlon carrier foams have different densities from heel to forefoot, meaning that there is firmer foam in the heel and softer foam in the forefoot. Each heel strike in the 21 contains a progression from the firmer foam to the softer foam.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Colorways of the 21 have also been related to different pearls and oysters. Nike has so far revealed the \u201cAbalone,\u201d the \u201cTahitian,\u201d the \u201cFreshwater, the \u201cAkoya\u201d and the \u201cDragon Pearl\u201d editions. Other colorways currently lay hidden. Let\u2019s dive into the unknown to find more.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pearls lie not on the seashore. A dive is required to find the prize. Time is necessary. And nothing is guaranteed. Some oysters don\u2019t contain any jewels. But some do. Some hold the secret of precious beauty. Only after journeying into the unknown can the mystery get revealed.&nbsp; There is mystery under the water. There [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":187,"featured_media":788534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[62525,13004],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-788533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kicks","tag-feature-1","tag-lebron-james"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/187"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788533"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":788537,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788533\/revisions\/788537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788533"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=788533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}