Maybe relevant, maybe not, but a similar thing that is happening with LeBron and the XI, has happened with a rather prominent (and big time brand pusher) Nike athlete in the past, and the solution by Nike was quite interesting (and sneaky).
Some may not know or care, but Roger Federer has his own signature tennis shoe, the Nike Vapor Tour, which sells quite well in the tennis world (now up to the Vapor Tour 10). In between the Vapor 5 and Vapor 6, Roger did not like the Vapor 6 on court, hated the outsole, the tread pattern and certain features that raised the shoe off the ground a little more than previous. Now we all know that every major Nike athlete has "custom" tailored versions of their signature model to play in, but in this situation Nike actually designed a custom version for Roger that was shaped like the Vapor 5 with the same outsole, same tread pattern on the bottom, but aesthetically looked like the Vapor 6 on court. Tennis fans caught on to the tread on the bottom being different but it obviously didn't cause much of an uproar with Nike, because this is tennis after all.
But Nike's solution was basically to slightly alter the sole and portions of the pieces around the sole and "paint" the shoe to look like the new signature shoe on top of the old signature shoe's pieces. Which worked because the Vapor 5 and 6 weren't much different aesthetically in size and shape. They were decently convincing on court, and Nike attempted to say they were new model even though everyone knew better.
Not saying Nike will try this with LeBron, or that they will try to alter the X or X elite to look like an XI, just food for thought of what Nike has done before when a signature model was not "well received" by one of it's "big dogs," and Nike scrambled to cover the problem and keep up sales.
With Federer it worked for a year (a season) then they got it right on the next model, and haven't had to do this since.
. Who else do you know that guarded Jordan and played EVERY minute of the TRIPLE OVERTIME game in the 1993 NBA FINALS (TOP 3 FINALS OF ALL TIME) and walked out with a WIN in Chicago. Or dunks on 7 footers and sits on their shoulders (keep in mind KJ is only 6'1" if that) or dunks on Hakeem the Dream with the ball behind his head or has 50% FG percentage for his career and these are just a few things. Came up in the Jordan era, but that doesn't mean MJ was or had to be my favorite player, or Magic and etc. Back to the Lebron 11, I hope he just has his pair fixed and he starts wearing his shoes.
