LeBron James is giving a warm welcome to Deion Sanders who is back under the Nike umbrella, posting and praising some new cleats.
The new head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes football program, Sanders, had to switch back over to Nike after years with Under Armour as part of his deal to come to Boulder. Under that agreement, it looks like Prime’s iconic Air Diamond Turfs are back with some new colorways and in a throwback style to the 1990s. That has the NBA star James wanting a little Nike for Nike swap. James has a lifetime contract with Nike and his many shoes from the Zoom Soldiers to Air Zooms to the Zoom LeBrons, to the Witness line have been some of the best sneakers of the last 20 years.
Lebron is a fan of the new Prime Colorado cleats 👑 pic.twitter.com/vdErfBPOmq
— Barstool Colorado (@CUBarstool) August 24, 2023
The Buffs have long been one of Nike’s closest partners, designated as one of the company’s test schools. Part of this is due to CU’s historic football success but it’s also due to the school’s successes in sports like cross country, track and skiing.
So it was a must for Sanders to correct his relationship with Nike to become part of the herd.
“We welcome Deion Sanders back to the Nike family,” the company said in a statement in July.
Sanders had said recently that he would “never” work with Nike again, and he had been with rival Under Armour since 2009.
“Under Armour had a longstanding partnership with Deion Sanders for more than a decade and we are proud of what we accomplished together,” a statement to USA Today said in July. “Now that he has gone on to Colorado, we can’t wait to see him continue to positively impact the game and look forward to watching him find continued success with his new partners, athletes, and expanded communities.
When Prime was hired at Jackson State in Mississippi in 2020, the school then was Nike-sponsored until Sanders changed that by bringing in Under Armour there. Sanders is a friend of UA founder Kevin Plank.
Sanders initially signed an endorsement deal with Nike in 1992 and was a commercial star for the company. He helped design Nike’s signature cleats to look like Lamborghinis, and it’s those contributions that had him sour about money.
That’s why I’m upset with them right now,” he told Joe La Puma of Complex. “We created these together, but they don’t want to seed me. They don’t want to direct deposit.”
“Do you think you’ll maybe work with Nike again?” La Puma asked in 2017. “Never,” Sanders replied. “I’m an Under Armour guy.”
Sanders also had issues with Nike not funding his youth sports leagues whereas Under Armour stepped up.
“You’ve got to be careful how you treat people because you never know,” Sanders said.
Prime has said he never met Nike’s big boss Phil Knight, “I thought that was kind of offensive,” he said about not meeting Knight.
“Will you ever wear those old (Nike) shoes from back in the day?” Sanders was asked in 2019
“Never,” Sanders said. “Never.”
Never has come, because those classic Nikes are back and they look better than ever— now with a black and gold insert featuring one of Sanders’ classic mottos. The shoes were shown on his son’s vlog earlier this week and James hit up IG on Thursday to comment about them.
New Prime X Nike cleats 👀 pic.twitter.com/seo7Z0zcuc
— Barstool Colorado (@CUBarstool) August 23, 2023
Sanders first game as coach of the Colorado Buffaloes is a little more than a week away, as they debut in Texas against TCU next Saturday.
Meanwhile if James son can get healthy, he’ll be playing at USC this winter and matching up with the No. 1 recruit in the country, Cody Williams, who will be playing for Tad Boyle’s Buffs.
