Nostalgia galore: The Nike LeBron 12 EXT “Wheat”

Eleven years ago this past Friday, LeBron James suited up in one of the most start-studded Rookie Challenges to ever grace an All-Star weekend. The sophomore team was headlined by San Antonio’s Manu Ginbobili, Phoenix’ Amare Stoudemire and then Cavaliers power forward Carlos Boozer. The rookies, as you may have guessed, were represented by the 2003 NBA Draft class of Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and a kid from Akron named LeBron James.

James’ squad went on to lose that contest (thanks to 25 points in 21 minutes from Flip Murray), but the Cavs’ forward scored 33 points in addition to five rebounds, six assists and three steals. At the time, LeBron was wearing a special “Wheat” colorway of his Air Zoom Generation.¹

Eleven years later, this colorway is still a hit amongst the nostalgic, and will be featured in an upcoming version of the LeBron 12 EXT.

Where non-EXT versions of the 12 are designed specifically for on-court use, this one is more of the more subdued lifestyle variety despite the Hyperfuse, Hyperpostie and Flywire technology. It comes with a wheat nubuck upper and metalic gold accents. As a nod to the 2004 Rookie Challenge, the date 02.13.04 is inscribed into the pull-tab. Classic signature-based LeBron branding on the tongue, tab and sockliner tie back to the original Air Zoom Generation.

There’s no word on a release date or price, but it’s safe to assume that we can expect to see these (and hopefully the “Rubber City” 12s) in the not-so-distant future. Stay tuned for more details.

1. Fun fact: The shoe was actually designed for LeBron to wear during the 2004 Slam Dunk Contest. [↩]