Designer Ashley Payne brings us the next creative concept in our LeBron James Lifestyle Design series, with a casual boot model called the “LeBron TROOPER“. As we initially announced here, the next generation of designers at Project Bluefoot were recently tasked with the design challenge of creating a Lifestyle-themed footwear product for LeBron James. We have teamed up exclusively with Project Bluefoot to allow each designer to essentially “takeover” the Counter Kicks shoe silhouette logo with their Lifestyle LeBron concept and provide the backstory to it. Look for more new unveilings in the coming weeks. Continue reading to see Ashley Payne’s 3 design boards and full backstory.
The Lebron TROOPER
My lifestyle design for Lebron James is a casual boot inspired by Jay-Z’s latest Blueprint 3 album cover by Dan Tobin Smith. Lebron James and Jay-Z are close friends and two widely recognized public figures who dominate the NBA and Hip Hop world respectively. With Jay-Z being somewhat of an older brother and mentor for Lebron, I decided to model the design aesthetic of the shoe after Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3 album cover, which I would describe as a Bold Matrix. The 3 horizontal, red bars are attention grabbing, and lead the viewer to discover the complexity behind the lines.
My inspiration to design a casual boot came from the “Run this Town” track on the Blueprint 3 album because of the track’s chaotic military march beats. The essence of the track screams dominance, and a combative military-like tone.
The Lebron Trooper is a casual boot that is definitive of a Bold Matrix with its eye-catching blue and black colorway with red accents. Its matrical design is made up of a hybrid of various shoe characteristics. The boot has a boat shoe toe-down, a boot outsole, with a high-top strap basketball or lifestyle shoe essence. Altogether the shoe is a design matrix that is subdued by the dominant blue upper, much like the approach of the album cover. Adding to the matrix quality of the shoe, the upper is comprised of smooth suede and textured leather upper for a sophisticated and casual touch.
Lebron James is already known to run his court. He can now Run his Town in his Lebron Troopers.
-Ashley Payne
Images courtesy of Counter Kicks Footwear Design Division: Project Bluefoot.com
View all the LeBron Lifestyle Design Concepts here:
Love the concept! I could get with these if the right color pops were there! Congrats on getting posted up
sweet design, keep up the good work