Nike LeBron Soldier IV St Vincent St Mary

If you read my Spring Most Wanted post from the other week you'll remember that I'm hunting for a pair of St Vincent St Mary LeBron IV's. Of course this involves checking through ebay most days in the vain hope that a pair has been listed in my size, and it was during one of those ebay sessions last week that I found a deadstock pair of SVSM Nike LeBron Soldier IV's at a great price that I couldn't resist bidding on.

The Soldier line of shoes is LeBrons team shoe line. Featuring less of the tech that goes into the main signature line, and at a lower price point they're worn by a lot of Nikes second tier sponsored players and the various schools that Nike & LeBron supply kit to.

St Vincent St Mary was LeBrons high school, and like all the SVSM shoes it comes in Deep Forest green with gold details. I especially love the oversized gold lion head on the tongue. They also feature the Irish logo on the heel (the SVSM team name) and some smart LeBron logo detailing.

This is the third pair of SVSM Soldier shoes in my collection. and while a lot of the SVSM shoes are available only to players this version was released to the general public as a House of Hoops exclusive back in 2010. Hopefully I'll be able to find a pair of the SVSM IV's from the main LeBron line to add to the collection sometime in the future.

                                                                      Soldier IV's, VI's and III's.

Brave the Cold.

Yesterday morning I went for a run at Queen Elizabeth Park in Hampshire. When I lived in Portsmouth I used to run there quite regularly and as my new years resolution is to get outside and do some adventuring I thought I'd head down there this weekend. It has a really good 5 mile route with a nice mix of hills and terrain, and some great stretches through the woods. When its cold I normally run in a thermal base layer with a regular cotton t-shirt over the top, which has kept me nice and warm even when its been snowing out. However I figured getting something a little more substantial would make the run all the more enjoyable and would certainly get plenty of wear while it stays cold.

So I swung by Nike Town after work on Friday and picked up a Nike Element Half Zip running top. Its in a really soft Nike Dri-Fit fabric with enough weight to give some real warmth. The turquoise & orange colour combination is very cool, and as always I love anything in a marled fabric.  I particularly like that it has thumb holes, so you can hook the cuffs over your hands for when its cold but you don't want to wear gloves. I wore it to run on Friday night and on Saturday morning and I would definitely recommend it if you do any winter running. I had a great run in the woods, although it was a little on the muddy side, but that's half the fun.

                                                           My Nike Lunarwoods, post run.

P.E Kit

For Christmas I received a couple of bits of new basketball gear. Its been a couple of years since I'd picked up anything new, and as I have a weekly game now I thought it was time to freshen up my kit.

Every time I see the Cavaliers bench this season I think how good their warm-up shirts look, so it was an easy choice to add it to my Christmas list. It's made of Adidas Climalite material, so should be great to play in, and I love the heathered blue colour. Plus it goes great with my new LeBron 12 ID's.

I also recieved a pair of Nike Elite Drifit basketball shorts in red. Throw in some Nike Elite socks that I already have and I should be looking good for the this weeks game.

Most Wanted Spring 2015

With the New Year firmly underway it seems like a good time to have a look at some of the bits and pieces I want to add to my wardrobe for Spring 2015.

1. The first entry is a carry over from my Fall/Winter most wanted back at the end of August. I haven't been able to find a well priced varsity jacket that I've liked, but I'm definitely still on the look out. I'm going to New York at the end of March so I'm thinking it'll be the perfect chance to find a great jacket.

2. One of my new years resolutions is to get outdoors and do more walking and running in the country. I did some canoeing for a friends stag-do last year and I'd love to do another canoe trip at some point this year. Combine that with my love of the Cabela hunting games and I'm thinking a bit of a hunting look might be good for spring. I've always really liked the Realtree camouflage designs, and its a great fresh take on regular camouflage which is always everywhere in streetwear. Under Armour make some awesome jackets that I might look at when I do some actual adventuring, but for now I think a crew neck sweat would look really smart for everyday wear.

3. If you've been a professional wrestling fan at any point of your life you should definitely check out Stone Cold Steve Austins podcast. Austin still has all the awesome character and attitude that you remember from when he was WWE champion, and his shows are a great mixture of interviews with wrestlers, nostalgia for his days in the ring and hilarious stories of Austins current life on the Broken Skull Ranch. So I'm thinking a classic Austin 3:16 shirt is the perfect way to celebrate the good old days of the attitude era.

4. I visited the British Museum last year with a friend and we spent a bunch of time looking at the watches and clock displays. I was blown away by the design and craftsmanship of some of the pocket watches that were made over a hundred years ago. Ever since I've been thinking of getting a skeleton watch, something that reflects the style of some of the watches I saw where you can see the mechanisms and the details that go into a watch movement.

5. Now this is a bit of a long shot, and I'm planning on writing a whole post on these, but I'm looking to try and get a pair of the St Vincent St Marys LeBron IV's. Never released to the public and 8 years old its going to be really hard to find my size. Plus I need to save some pennies as they're going to be super expensive. But its something to aim for, and something special for my LeBron collection.

Christmas Comes Early

On Friday my early Christmas present to myself arrived, my Nike ID LeBron 12's. Its been a long time since I've used the ID service, and it still kind of amazes me that you can custom design your own shoes. I've considered it on a number of models over the last few years but was never able to make a design that was quite right. However the great design and excellent colour options available for the LeBron 12 were finally too good to resist.

I'm really pleased with how they came out. The bonded part of the upper is a little shinier than I expected, but the Team Red is a great maroon/wine colour. I think my favourite part of the shoe is the hits of royal blue which really sets of the other colours. As I mentioned in my previous post I wanted to take the basic design of the Heart of a Lion shoe and give it a proper Cavs colourway, and I think its really worked.

The only part of the shoe that didn't come out quite how I expected was the white-on-white paint splatter. As you can see from the pictures it doesn't really show that well, and I was expecting it to be more raised, and in a contrasting finish. However I quite like that it's a subtle detail that you only see up close. Overall the quality is really good, there's a few glue marks around the edges of the posite, but no more than on a normal Nike shoe.

I was really impressed by how quick they got them to me as as it only took three and a half weeks to make and ship, which was a a week and a half quicker than they originally estimated.

I especially love how the new hexagonal zoom air system looks, the coloured pods and the clear sole give the shoe an awesome futuristic look. You can read a great write up on the tech behind it at Design Boom, and I'm really excited to see how it performs on the court.

Basketball Diaries

Adidas T-Mac 3.

Quality Goods.

Way back at the end of August I had a Filson bag on my list of most wanted stuff for the Fall season, and after a couple of really rainy days I decided it was finally time to put away my Carhartt tote and get something a bit more suited to wintry weather.

I've been considering a Filson bag for a couple of years as I've been really impressed with the great materials, craftsmanship and style of there bags. I'd actually reserved this exact bag at the Filson store over a year ago, but at the time decided it was a little on the large size so passed on it. However after using my tote bag all Summer I've come around to having a slightly bigger bag so finally pulled the trigger. Unfortunately the Filson store haven't had the navy colour in stock for the last month or so, so I ordered mine from endclothing.co.uk.

Filson bags are made in the USA, based out of Seattle. The zip tote I got is made of paraffin treated 22oz Cotton Twill with bridle leather straps. All Filson products come with a guarantee for the liftime of the product, and they have a reputation for being almost indestructible. So considering it just has to survive my commute to work each morning it should last me for the foreseeable future.

Its a great practical everyday bag. The main body has a zip closure, and it has two large side pockets that are ideal for shoving some papers or a magazine in. It also has two smaller end pockets that are great for keys etc. The straps are also a great length for when you want both hands free and need to throw it over your shoulder.

Can I see some ID please

As any regular readers to my blog know, I'm a big fan of LeBron and his Nike shoe line. But If I'm honest I wasn't that impressed when I first saw the LeBron 12. The 'NSRL' version was the first that leaked and I wasn't really feeling the shape and colour blocking. However I changed my mind when I saw the 'Heart of a Lion' colour-way. The solid red upper and white posite work really well and give the shoe a completely different feel. I was all set to get a pair, and then they announced the Nike ID release.

Heart of a Lion LeBron 12 (Photo from Nike.com)

I'd resisted making an ID pair of the LeBron 11, but the availability of Cavaliers colours for the 12 really sold it too me. So I took the parts I liked fron the 'Heart of the Lion'  and switched in some Cavs colours. I went with the solid upper, in a maroon, with the white posite and a gold/yellow swoosh (see the ID render at the top). To give them a bit of pop I added some blue details. I've always liked when the Cavs use blue (see here), and although it still features in the logo I think its under used at the moment.

I got an email to say they started making the shoe yesterday, so hopefully they'll arrive before Christmas. Now if the Cavs could just win some games.