Nike Printed LeBron’s Pennywise Costume on the LeBron 24, Then Called It Perseverance

Nike opens SNKRS entries for the LeBron 24 “Storm Drain” on October 31, in a mottled grey KingKnit upper with gym red Swooshes and a shaggy alternate lace set. The mottling is not an abstract print. It is a photograph, faded almost to the point of vanishing into the knit, of LeBron James in the Pennywise costume he wore for Halloween in 2017. Nike’s own product copy does not mention any of that.

The 24 is the newest shoe in a signature line that has run since James’s rookie season, and it is the one Nike built around a change of audience. This site covered the launch on October 5, when Nike called it the lightest game shoe James has ever had and aimed it at players who were not alive for most of his career. The build is a three-layer KingKnit upper over a full-length React drop-in midsole, with Air Zoom units embedded in the forefoot and the heel and a midfoot shank for lateral stability. For a line that spent two decades solving containment for one of the heaviest players ever to carry a signature model, going light is the entire argument.

Storm Drain is the detail version of that shoe. The costume print runs across the upper in Pure Platinum and Iron Grey, kept deliberately low in contrast so the image only resolves when the light is right. Gym red carries the Swooshes, the laces and the crown on the tongue, which is the character’s palette rather than anything from James’s own teams. The laces are the loudest piece, a thick shaggy cord in off white with red tips, shipped as a second set alongside a normal pair. Under the tongue there is an embroidered patch, an eye set inside a diamond, and the shoe’s name points at the place in the film where the character does his waiting.

The 2017 costume is worth recalling for how complete it was. James went as Pennywise that Halloween and the makeup covered his face thoroughly enough that the photographs needed a caption to identify him. He posted them himself. Nine years is a long gap between a costume and a signature shoe, and the choice says something about how Nike is handling a player deep into the late stretch of a career. The launch story for the 24 was about who comes next. Storm Drain goes the other way and reaches back into James’s own archive for something with nothing to do with basketball at all.

The gap between the shoe and the copy is what makes this one worth reading about. Nike’s product description for Storm Drain says the colorway channels perseverance through moments of adversity and the dominance James still has over the game. Nothing about a clown, a film or a costume. That is almost certainly a licensing question rather than coyness, because the character belongs to a studio and this is not a licensed collaboration. The result is a release that outlets can describe accurately and the brand cannot, and a buyer who has to be told what they are looking at by somebody other than the company selling it.

It also puts the shoe in an odd spot inside Nike’s Halloween basketball run, which this year has included a jack-o’-lantern hidden in the Witness X, an alien on the heel of the G.T. Cut 4 and an Oogie Boogie mask inside the Book 2. Those are all general-purpose spooky. This one is a specific person on a specific night nine years ago, which is a much narrower joke and a much better one if you were following James off the court at the time.

Retail is $200, the LeBron line’s current number, which sits under the Air Jordan 41 at $205 and over the KD19 at $170. Across the whole Halloween basketball board the 24 is the most expensive shoe in the group and the only flagship signature model in it. Storm Drain is a general release rather than a numbered one, so the figure to watch is not resale. It is whether a $200 basketball shoe wearing a costume photograph sells to players who want the lightest LeBron ever made, or only to the people who got the reference.

The Nike LeBron 24 “Storm Drain” releases October 31 in Pure Platinum, Dark Team Red, Iron Grey and Gym Red, style code IX5103-001, at $200. Entries open on SNKRS at 7 a.m. PT, with wider availability expected at Nike.com and Foot Locker. The date is worth checking twice. Sneaker Bar Detroit lists October 30, and House of Heat says October 30 in its copy while its own release header reads October 31. Nike’s launch board carries October 31, and the brand’s board is the one to trust.

Written by

The Sneakers Team

The Sneakers Team is the editorial desk behind becausesneakers, founded and edited by Nick Engvall. Nick has spent more than two decades in the sneaker industry. He built the original Eastbay Blog, led the first dedicated sneaker team at Complex, ran the first UGC and seeding programs at Finish Line, was employee number nine at StockX, and served as Senior Director at Stadium Goods. He hosts the Sneaker History podcast, and his first book, Small Luxuries: Sneakers, arrives in October 2026 from Motorbooks. Release details on this site are checked against the brand's own product information before publication, and anything we cannot confirm is labelled rather than stated.

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