LeBron James' Signature Shoes Are Best-Seller In NBA

LeBron James' signature Nike sneakers were once again the best-selling shoes among all NBA players in 2017, according to Forbes. However, NPD Group analyst Matt Powell notes that the entire performance basketball category has seen sales steadily decline, including a 13.6% drop in the last year.

LeBron's former teammate, and fellow Nike ambassador, Kyrie Irving had the second best-selling performance basketball shoe for the second straight year, and was the only one of the top five players to see an increase in his signature shoe sales in 2017. 

“Irving moving out from under the shadow of LeBron has raised his personal star,” says Powell, according to Forbes. “He’s also still new enough with the signature shoe that fans are coming out and buying.”

Kevin Durant's Nike shoes were the third best-selling, followed by Stephen Curry's Under Armour line. Rounding out the top five was Michael Jordan, but that's only counting signature performance basketball shoes and not retro versions.

According to Forbes, Retro is more than three times the size of performance basketball with sales at $3 billion last year. Jordan had a 65% share of retro basketball in 2017, according to NPD Group, followed by Nike (23%), Adidas (9.3%) and Puma (2.3%).

Houston Rockets All-Star James Harden, who is currently playing in his second signature shoe with Adidas, has not yet cracked the top-5 in performance basketball sneaker sales.