#11 Jason Petrie - LeBron Footwear Lead Designer

Woah, why is this in English? Well, because we have an English
speaking guest in this episode and subtitles don't work on audio.


If you know anything about basketball shoes, you
know Jason Petrie. The man responsible for all
LeBron signature shoes since the LeBron 7 tells
us in this very special episode how he started drawing
basketball shoes as a child and what inspires him today
in his job as Nike Senior Footwear Designer. His
close collaboration with NBA superstar LeBron
James is a topic in our conversation, as well as Jason's
attitude towards new technologies and materials
and the difficult balance between on-court
performance and off-court style. Of
course, we also asked Jason for his personal LeBron Top
5, and his no. 1 was kinda surprising... Enjoy this one.
It was a blast!


The intro of this episode is in German, as always. But
starting at 8:11 our conversation with Jason is in
English. The recap at the end is in German again.
Shoutout to all our bilingual listeners - We switchin' back and
forth!


Episode Guide:


00:00 - 06:50 // Rob's & Phil's Sneaker Love (German)


06:51 - 08:10 // Introducing Jason Petrie (German)


(English from now on)


08:11 - 12:17 // Beginnings and earliest memories of drawing
shoes


12:18 - 13:37 // Pushing the game, shoes & style forward


13:38 - 15:00 // The different steps of designing a shoe


15:01 - 17:12 // Working with LeBron James


17:13 - 18:51 // LeBron's change of taste throughout the years


18:52 - 20:30 // Using new technologies & materials in
LeBron's shoes


20:31 - 24:55 // Biggest challenge in designing the new LeBron 20


24:56 - 27:15 // Balance between on-court performance &
function and off-court appeal & fashion


27:16 - 29:38 // Working ahead of time & LeBron 21


29:39 - 30:34 // Serving at the pleasure of the King


30:35 - 32:19 // Jason's personal Top 5 LeBron shoes


32:20 - 33:22 // Nerding out about LeBrons


33:23 - 34:12 // Farewell & big thanks


Switching back to German


34:13 - 42:05 // Recap (in German)


If you are interested in more sneaker talk, you might want to
check out our episode #7 with Amadeus Thüner. We drafted 90s
basketball shoes y'all. That conversation was in German though.