#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.