In January, during a homecoming game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Bronny James (the son of basketball legend LeBron James) stepped out onto the shiny basketball court and introduced the world to his very own Nike logo on his first player-exclusive sneaker. And it didn’t take long for the internet to react.
Everyone on social media had strong opinions about the Los Angeles Lakers guard’s Nike logo – which is basically an Old English-style lowercase “b” stamped with a white-on-black No. 9. According to reports, Nike has already trademarked the design and, on the 2nd of March, they dropped the Nike LeBron Witness 9 “Bronny James” to the public for $115.
“Has anyone else that has averaged 1.9 points a game, gotten their own logo?,” asked X user @IamVinnyG. “They making the Bench James 1’s,” joked @L_ALL_DAY100. Another user, @OnlyCharizard, questioned the business move: “The smart move would been for him to trademark all of his branding himself and then license it to Nike.”
But before you get too excited, this isn’t actually a full-blown signature sneaker just yet. For now, it’s just a player-exclusive colorway of the Witness 9. But it’s all clearly meant to get attention.
The PE Bronny James’ Pink LeBron Witness 9 has a Desert Pink and Pink Rise upper, with Black and white reverse Swooshes across the sneaker. LeBron’s logo sits on the tongue, but Bronny’s name is stitched across the toe box in the same Old English-style as his logo. And of course the new “b/9” logo sits on the heel of the sneaker.
But it’s not just all about the looks. It actually has some pretty cool tech too, including a full-length ReactX midsole, a synthetic upper and a durable rubber outsole to grip the floor.
LeBron James, on the other hand, continues to wear a new colorway of the Nike LeBron 23 each night during the game. He just recently extended his partnership with Nike, which began with a 7-year, $87 million deal in May 2003 and turned into a reported $1 billion lifetime contract in 2015.
Bronny has a long way to go to catch up to those figures. In fact, he has a long way to catch up with his dad’s numbers, too. Bronny’s G League numbers with the South Bay Lakers in 2025-26 sit at 9.5 points in 30.9 minutes, a big dip from his rookie year.
But Nike is clearly playing the long game here. If he becomes anything remotely close to his dad, he’ll be selling sneakers for years to come.
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