Xbox is teaming up with Nike to commemorate Space Jam: A New Legacy with a new controller and matching sneakers thanks to Nike’s app. The LeBron James-focused follow-up to the 1996 Michael Jordan vehicle is set to hit big screens later this month, and a side-scrolling beat-em-up tie-in game isn't too far behind.
In fact, big-screen co-stars LeBron James and Bugs Bunny once partnered with Xbox to announced this new game, during which fans could pitch their own ideas for its genre and gameplay. Xbox even produced a line of Space Jam-themed Series X/S controllers to go along with the colorful indie title, but its latest collaboration with Nike has a pair of shoes along for the ride.
According to GameInformer, Xbox is joining forces with Nike to produce a new Xbox Series X/S controller and matching pair of LeBron 18 Basketball sneakers, patterned after the classic rivalry between Looney Tunes mainstays and archrivals Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote in honor of Space Jam: A New Legacy. To that end, one of the shoes is a sky-blue color and the other an earthly brown, with the controller having a two-sided paint scheme to match. This tie-in is available through Nike’s SNKRS app, and Xbox principal designer Elliot Hsu and Nike Basketball senior designer Jason Petrie recently showed off the bundle in the YouTube video below, courtesy of Xbox:
Taking place a good two decades after Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes first hit the court in 1996, Space Jam: A New Legacy features LeBron James join forces with the classic cartoon icons to rescue his son from a sinister AI program (played by Don Cheadle of MCU fame) and a gang of super-beings called the Goon Squad. Aside from the usual Looney Tunes antics and zany basketball action, A New Legacy promises plenty of cameos thanks to the vast virtual world the titular game is set in, as well as some unexpected surprises like Porky Pig rapping.
Nike sneakers with a matching Xbox controller is an unusual concept for a movie promotion, but there’s no doubt that the team behind this latest collaboration was dedicated to bringing the iconic feud between Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote to life. Both the shoes and controller feature plenty of clever details, like the Nike logo on the Road Runner shoe resembling his classic dust trail or the D-Pad on the controller being modeled after an ACME bomb. It might not be the most practical way to celebrate Space Jam: A New Legacy’s impending arrival on the big screen (given how rare and expensive the set is), but the new Xbox/Nike crossover might be a fun and stylish addition to any controller or sneaker aficionado’s collection.
Source: GameInformer, Xbox/YouTube