On Tuesday, one day after the 40th observation of the federal holiday honouring Martin Luther King Jr., Nike is planning an unusual tribute to the civil rights icon: a sneaker in a shade of teal inspired by the site of his assassination.
The colour of the sneaker — a special “Honor the King” edition of Nike’s popular LeBron XXIII basketball shoe — nods to the exterior of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where King was killed in 1968. The assassination represents a painful chapter in history. In 1991, the motel was reopened as the National Civil Rights Museum.
LeBron James, the NBA superstar after whom the shoes are named, debuted the sneakers during a game on Jan. 2, when his Los Angeles Lakers took on the Memphis Grizzlies. The “Honour the King” sneaker is part of a string of releases that are meant to pay homage to James’ 23 years in the league, according to Nike.
The decision to have the shoe’s colour palette mimic the aqua signage and detailing of the Lorraine Motel was swiftly met with negative feedback after images of the shoes were posted online. But according to a company spokesperson, that was perhaps to be expected.
“Design is so subjective, and some people the design will resonate with, and others maybe less so, and obviously that becomes a little bit more charged when you have bigger principles at play,” John Jowers, Nike’s vice president for communications, said in an interview. “I think the intent, though, was really to pay homage to Dr. King, his life and his legacy.”
This is not the first time that Nike has turned to Black history for inspiration. In 2020, the company created Martin Luther King Jr. on-court jerseys for the Atlanta Hawks, Jowers said. And in 2018, Nike released an all-black Air Force One sneaker with the word “EQUALITY” printed on the heel for Black History Month. But neither of those alluded to the tragic ending of King’s life.
“We believe that our track record of support in this area kind of speaks for itself,” Jowers said.
Some sneakerheads, like photographer Randy Singleton, 32, found the design to be in poor taste.
“Who is this shoe for?” Singleton, who learned about the shoes from a Sneaker News post on Instagram, asked during a phone interview. “Out of all the things to relate back to Dr. King Jr., the motel where his life was taken as inspiration for the shoe is outrageous.”
According to Russell Wigginton, the president of the National Civil Rights Museum, the museum learned about the shoe a few days ago, just as everyone else did.
“We certainly don’t mind people recognizing and appreciating the work that we do and what happened here,” Wigginton said Thursday. “But we have not been a part of any aspect of that, of the sneaker coming out.”
Nike’s brightly colored commemoration of King’s legacy comes a month after the Trump administration announced that the National Park Service would no longer offer free admission on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, two holidays honouring Black history.
The New York Times