Nike NBA Star Kicks Glow Intergalactic for All-Star Game in Orlando

The NBA season may only be 66 games this season, but Nike is not missing an opportunity to sell more shoes. At the start of February, three of its big-name endorsers — Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, the Miami Heat’s LeBron James, and Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder — lent their names to Black History Month-themed sneakers on store shelves.

Now the talented trio will all be taking the court for the NBA All-Star Game in Orlando on Feb. 26 and Nike isn't missing a beat. The sports shoe giant is releasing space-themed shoes for each player to sell in honor of the city’s relationship with space travel, according to Fox News. (It’s only an hour west of Kennedy Space Center.) As Fox News reports, the Nike shoes will feature graphics that "pay homage to the supernova — arguably the most powerful force in the universe." The outsoles of the shoes will glow in the dark and show will have individual “mission patches,” just the way astronaut uniforms do.

The limited edition LeBron 9 "Galaxy" sneaker (above), which drops Feb. 24th for $170, is orange like the suits worn by shuttle astronauts upon takeoff and landing, while his patch shows a lion shooting through space, a reference to the company’s claim in other LeBron-related marketing that James has the “heart of a lion.”

Meanwhile, Durant’s Zoom KD IV (above) will feature a mission patch that has a horse on it, since Durant has been a major competitor at past All-Star weekend H-O-R-S-E battles. (Don't know the game? One player makes a basket. The next has to make the same shot. You miss, you add a letter. Spell “horse” and you’re out.)

Finally, Bryant's Nike Zoom Kobe VII System boasts a mamba snake on its patch (see below) because Bryant is nicknamed “The Mamba” — one of the world’s nastiest snakes, and also a theme in Nike Basketball's 2011 campaign for the Lakers star.

Nike Sportswear “is introducing a collection of styles inspired by central Florida's association with space exploration” before All-Star Weekend gets underway, Fox reports. These guys are leaving no moon rock unturned.