Nike Air Max LeBron VIII V2

While we're trying to catch up on shoes we slept on over the last month before February is upon us, the Nike LeBron VIII V2 is an excellent sequel...an 'Army of Darkness' rather than a 'Scorpion King' in the follow-up stakes, even if it is a sequel to a sequel...or something like that. Like the Kobe VI, the eighth LeBron is comfortingly familiar, but innovative enough to live up to the hype. 360 Max Air is always welcome. We loved the quality of leather on the debut version, so when we heard that it was getting lighter and significantly more synthetic as the big man's first season at Miami hit the New Year, we weren't too optimistic—then we got to handle a pair and understood the purpose of the alterations. It's all about the performance, but when a shoe looks grounded enough to pass the denim test, we're doubly sold.

Implementing a light mesh and Flywire combo on the upper strips weight to the bare minimum, but trims the width a little too. The glossy applied paneling offers reinforcement where it's necessary and follows the Jordan XI and LeBron VII dress shoe formula, but this one's more formidable than it is formal. The lion face is still present—something that still amuses us in its total design indulgence, simply because it genuinely works on this design. Who else could pull off something that audacious on their signature shoe? And hell, we don't know why there's a transparent section on the outsole, but it sure is pretty. Branding still nicely tweaked but it's notable that it's on both sides of the shoe this time, rather than confined to the lateral side. Seeing as this is part of a trilogy, V3 drops shortly with something that looks even more warm weather friendly, implementing Hyperfuse. Having said that, V2 is hardly a cold or wet weather pick, but at least—unlike V1—you don't need to be 6 ft 8 in to wear this shoe with shorts. This model's a modern basketball classic. Just wait and see.