Sole Collector x Nike Zoom LeBron Soldier Sole Bar Los Angeles 2007 collaboration sneaker, photo 1

Sole Collector x Nike LeBron Soldier ‘Sole Bar’

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This is the one where the SC logo finally landed on the upper of a shoe, and the story of how it got there is almost better than the shoe itself.

Sole Collector x Nike Zoom LeBron Soldier Sole Bar Los Angeles 2007 collaboration sneaker, photo 2

It was built for the 7.7.7 event in Los Angeles, July 7th of 2007, and it almost did not happen at all. The idea got pitched to the Nike Basketball team less than three months before hundreds of people were set to show up in LA. Three months is nowhere near enough time to build a hyperstrike with premium materials and new textures, so the answer was a polite no guarantees, and the team walked out already cooking up backup plans, assuming it was dead.

Sole Collector x Nike Zoom LeBron Soldier Sole Bar Los Angeles 2007 collaboration sneaker, photo 3

Then, about five weeks later, during a completely different meeting on campus, the Nike folks behind it walked in with a sample held behind their backs. Out came a black leather Zoom Soldier I with lasered camouflage and red accents, and every eye in the room went straight to the strap. There it was, placed perfectly, the word SOLE. Nothing to change. The soldier uniform theme, the lasering, the color placement, all of it just worked the moment it appeared.

Sole Collector x Nike Zoom LeBron Soldier Sole Bar Los Angeles 2007 collaboration sneaker, photo 4

Timing stayed tight all the way to the end. The hope was 150 pairs, reality landed at 72, and the shoes had to be built in Asia and flown to LA on a crunch. The launch was set for noon. The FedEx box of 72 pairs showed up that morning at 10:30. An hour and a half of cushion on a shoe that almost never existed.

Sole Collector x Nike Zoom LeBron Soldier Sole Bar Los Angeles 2007 collaboration sneaker, photo 5

That is what makes this one special beyond the design. It was the first shoe to carry the entire SOLE bar logo, the moment the community mark graduated from the packaging and the events onto the shoe itself. Seeing your own logo lasered onto a strap, on the Nike Basketball floor no less, is the kind of milestone you do not quite believe while it is happening.

Seventy two pairs, one strap, one logo, and a marker that the community had crossed into territory that used to feel out of reach.

Were you at a Sole Bar event, and do you remember the first time you saw the SC logo sitting on the upper of a shoe?

Gallery

Sole Collector x Nike Zoom LeBron Soldier Sole Bar Los Angeles 2007 collaboration sneaker, photo 6
Sole Collector x Nike Zoom LeBron Soldier Sole Bar Los Angeles 2007 collaboration sneaker, photo 7

Photos by Nick DePaula

Part of The Complete Guide to Sole Collector Collaborations

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