LeBron XA holiday 2012 launch planned colorway by colorway

What it is

The LeBron X was the tenth signature shoe for LeBron James, sold under the story of a diamond anniversary. It came in a standard version at $180 and in two Nike+ versions built for digital tracking, called enabled and sport pack. The sport pack was priced at $270 to $290.

The shoe launched as a sequence. A calendar dated August 2012 shows 2,000 pairs of a USA Basketball colorway on September 29, the Blue Diamond on October 4, the Away on November 2, then China Jade, Green Diamond, Floridians, Black Diamond and Lava through December 8, with a Christmas release on December 26. Factory deliveries were late across the season. The category's business review recorded that late tracking deliveries kept changing launch strategies and forced heavy use of air freight, which cut margin.

What Jimmy did

• Wrote the holiday 2012 LeBron quick strike brief in January 2012. A quick strike is a limited release outside the regular seasonal order book. The brief set out the business first: holiday 2011 had booked 163,000 pairs and $14.6M, and the holiday 2012 forecast stood at 153,500 pairs and $17.4M across eight colorways against nine.
• Proposed one added colorway in that brief, the White Diamond, at 10,000 pairs and $1.6M. It would take the season to 163,500 pairs and $19.0M, flat in units and up $4.4M, or 30.1%, in revenue.
• Logged the request on the holiday 2012 product request sheet as an added energy color. The sheet records a possible resolution through the Floridians story or a bundled version.
• Planned every colorway on the Signature Launch Calendar. Version 12, dated November 25, 2012, carries the LeBron X entries beside the prior year's LeBron 9.
• Kept the fiscal 2013 LeBron launch calendar and door plan. Each colorway has a launch date, price, quantity and revenue. The sport pack page sets door counts by account and by door level, from bronze to gold.
• Worked the trade between launch date and air freight. The launch plan revised on November 9, 2012 marks colorways with the question "Push launch date to save $$?" and records each answer: approved for air freight, launch moved to March 23, or pushed to May 18.
• Worked the allocation of the first sport pack, the Crown Jewel, in September 2012. The allocation sheet carries his name. The proposed distribution was five House of Hoops doors and four Nike stores.

Results

• The category's business review called the launch extremely successful and recorded the LeBron X as the top selling footwear style of the quarter. Sell-through on the LeBron X+ was 63%.
• China Jade, launched November 10, reached 74% sell-through by November 24, with 13,530 pairs on the review's count. Blue Diamond in the Nike+ version reached 62%, with 5,236 pairs.
• The Crown Jewel sport pack sold through 100% of its 324 pairs.
• A special packaging release of 105 pairs on November 2 sold out within the first hours of trade.
• At House of Hoops the LeBron X+ sold through 66% and the LeBron X 51% in the quarter. At Eastbay the enabled version reached 87%.
• LeBron footwear was up 52% on the prior year in the second quarter of fiscal 2013.
• Not every colorway moved. By November 24 the Away had sold 39%, Floridians 19% and Green Diamond 12%, the last two after three days on sale.
• The review also recorded what went wrong around the launch: marketing materials arrived late at retail, and $2.5M of paid television time in November and December went unused because the LeBron spot was not delivered.