Commentary: The Relevance Of The Nike Zoom Soldier 7 “Power Couple”

VIA: Today will see the release of the Nike Zoom Soldier 7 “Power Couple”, a tribute colorway for the recently married LeBron James to his longtime girlfriend Savannah Brinson. The “Power Couple” takes its cues from the popular art deco style of the Miami – more specifically South Beach – nightlife. Other special features on the “Power Couple” include a minty fresh translucent outsole, speckled midsole and a slightly iridescent upper (a Zoom Soldier 7 staple). It’s a pretty cool look all things considered and will probably garner more than its share of fans when it becomes available.

Here’s the $125 (the retail price of the Zoom Soldier 7) question, though: Really? The Zoom Soldier? Why not the $200 Nike LeBron 11?

Here’s the honest to goodness truth about these kicks and any other Zoom Soldier release: Nike could have just easily dropped this colorway without any advance notice and it probably would have sat on shelves. But now that it has a nickname attached to it that comes with Nike’s blessing (and Insider blog post), it becomes a sneaker of interest to that fun (and by fun, I mean, mind-numbingly annoying) intersection of sneakerhead, hypebeast and LeBron fan. There is buzz for the Zoom Soldier that you haven’t seen on a Zoom Soldier in well, ever. Sure, there was Sole Collector’s collaboration on the Zoom Soldier 1 and the various Dunkman releases, but those colorways came out before the pre-hype, pre-Instagram era. We’re in a brave new world of sneakers where everything is the greatest thing ever until next week comes along. And the talk for the Zoom Soldier is kind of high at the moment.

So this will turn out to be an interesting test case for Nike. It doesn’t need to sell out necessarily, but if it is a hit, we can expect to see more themed colorways of the Zoom Soldier in the future because now they know that the value of a co-sign of any sort works beyond just signature sneakers. Sneakerheads on a budget can also benefit because now they can afford to buy special edition LeBrons without having to splurge for the expensive signature version. LeBron fans have another tribute to their hero in their collection as they probably know about Savannah as much as they do Gloria, Maverick and other members of LeBron’s “family”. I won’t talk about how hypebeasts benefit, because well, whatever, they’re just going to take a pic of their pair on Instagram and move on to the next thing the following week.

It’s a strategy that Jordan Brand employs all the time with their themed releases. Sure, there’s the super desirable Air Jordan retro with the “Bel-Air” name attached to it, but they extend the branding by putting out similarly themed kicks for the Jordan CP3.VII, Jordan 6 Rings and even the Air Jordan XX8 SE. To sneakerheads, you might not be buying the “Bel-Air” Jordans per se, but to everybody else that isn’t as involved in the sneaker culture (that’s a lot of people), it’s damn close. Apply that to this LeBron release and while snooty purists might turn their nose up on you for not wearing the signature kicks, everybody else will see the LeBron logo and the unique art deco styling and think that’s a pretty interesting pair of kicks. And if you buy these kicks for that reason whereas you wouldn’t have without the “Power Couple” name? That’s pretty good for Nike’s bottom line.
So what do you think about the Nike Zoom Soldier 7 “Power Couple” and Nike’s curious strategy for them? Let us know in the comments below.