Cleveland sneaker shop a hallowed museum for rare LeBron James kicks

CLEVELAND - Joe Wisniewski has combined two of his passions to create one of the most hallowed sneaker collections the NBA has ever seen.

The 22-year-old is the store manager of The Restock Cleveland, a popular consignment sneaker shop owned by NFL cornerback Joe Haden, located just steps from Quicken Loans Arena.

Wisniewski started following LeBron James' career when he was in the third grade, monitoring the phenom since he was a student at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio.

"I don't look up to anyone but my parents," Wisniewski told theScore. "But LeBron has always been a role model."

Just a few years later, Wisniewski also fell in love with James' sneaker line when the LeBron 5 made its debut - around the same time Wisniewski first discovered what sneakers were. The pair that started it all: a navy and white colorway of the LeBron 4s.

And from those grew a now expansive collection of LeBron sneakers, as Wisniewski built up a lot of connections in the community along the way and used those contacts to enhance his assortment of rare, exclusive LeBron kicks, from player exclusives to sample pairs which were never released to the public.

One particular pair, the LeBron 7 "All Black Everything," holds a special place. The shoes, a friends-and-family exclusive designed for Jay-Z, was one of his most memorable sneaker journeys. The inner sole of the shoe laid out all of Jay-Z's accomplishments. The original friends-and-family version had an Alcantara suede, and then there was a more rare version with a woven suede.

"To my knowledge, I've seen three people in the world with it, and I had two of those pairs at one point," Wisniewski said.

Wisniewski said tracking down a pair was one of the most impossible things he's done. He reached out to his connections, and eventually, someone in Pennsylvania had access to a pair, which cost him over $7,000. A few years ago, he received an offer he couldn't refuse and sold each pair for $10,000. Today, a size 13 of the shoe can be found on the resale market for $5,500.

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

The market for LeBron sneakers has fluctuated in recent years. Wisniewski was holding onto exclusive LeBron shoes, which he invested around $20,000 into, and ended up selling most of them.

"For the longest time, Nike never missed," Wisniewski said. "Everyone liked all of LeBron's shoes up to the 11. To this day, the 10 is a lot of people's favorite shoe. And then, the 11 came out, and everyone hated it, as well as the 12, and 13. Most people didn't like the 14, and then the 15 is where Nike got back in."

The LeBron 15 has been an on-court success this season. James has debuted a series of player-exclusive models during the regular season and throughout the playoffs, and some of them have been made available for purchase to the general public, which has created a buzz around his sneaker line once again.

That is especially true in Cleveland, where all things LeBron, especially his sneakers, hold a special meaning to people in the city. Recently, Wisniewski has seen a renewed interest in the LeBron line, especially with the retro releases of models including the St. Vincent-St. Mary colorway of the Nike Air Zoom Generation and the LeBron Soldier 1, which he wore when he scored the Cavalier's final 25 points to lead them to a win over the Detroit Pistons in Game 5 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals.

"What's bringing the LeBron line back is the nostalgia factor," Wisniewski said. "Which is the biggest thing Jordan Brand has going for it."

When James retires, Wisniewski believes his sneaker line will have a lasting legacy.

"The sneakers are going to do just about as good as you could hope for in comparison to Jordans," Wisniewski said. "We're never going to see anything like Jordans again, but I think LeBron is going to get as close to that. We also haven't seen an athlete anywhere close to Jordan since now in LeBron."

In a recent visit to The Restock Cleveland, Wisniewski shared five of his favorite LeBron sneakers and the stories behind them:

LeBron 6 "MVP"

"This was the shoe he wore when he won his first Most Valuable Player award during the 2008-09 season. The 'Witness' campaign is still my favorite thing with an athlete ever, and they reference it on the toe box of the shoe. The LeBron Dunkman is in there. 'MVP' was on the side, the gold flakes are on the sole. Just the attention to detail on this shoe, and the fact it was only released here in Cleveland, it's my favorite LeBron 6 that isn't a sample. Just all the history and detail of this shoe makes it my favorite of his that he's ever wore on court."

LeBron 7 "All-Star"

"My personal favorite of his All-Star shoes, from 2009 when the game was held in Phoenix, Ariz. The LeBron 7 has always been my favorite model. I'm a huge fan of the air bubble on the shoe; that was my main complaint with the LeBron 11 to the 14 when they took the air bubble off. This is the No. 1 shoe in terms of being the best basketball shoe performance wise, and as far as casual wear, too, it works like a Jordan 3 or a Jordan 4."

LeBron 10 Celebration Pack "Championship"

"This is from his championship pack in 2013. He wore this shoe at the championship parade when they were in Miami. Again, the detail that went into this shoe, the carbon fiber on the upper, the 'King's Pride' that's on the crown on the sole of the shoe, the lace lock, they put 'Two-Time Champion' on the insole and it came in a huge box with dust bags. I'm a sucker for red and gold shoes, which was very big at the time - around the same time when Nike released the Air Yeezy 2 'Red October.'"

LeBron 10 Premium "What The MVP"

"This is the shoe he wore when he won another MVP award in Miami. This was the first 'What The LeBron' that was released, and to be honest, their last good one. It just brings different LeBrons together. Each part of the shoe is different. My favorite part of it, personally, is the inner part of the shoe, which is from the LeBron 10 'Area 72.' The pull-tab says 'MVP' on the side. This shoe has never dipped in value. No one ever did the 'What The' to a shoe to this magnitude, and everyone loved it. Tons of kids still love this shoe. The LeBron 10 was really popular because it was so well done."

LeBron 15 "Equality"

"He wore a mismatched pair of these 15s, one black and one white, in a game against the Washington Wizards in D.C. earlier this season. Nike made 100 pairs of the black and white, and you had to donate $20 to the SNKRS app to enter a raffle to win a pair. The goal for me was to get a black and a white set, and that's what we ended up doing. We have a store pair, and I have my personal mismatched pair at home. The message is the most important, especially with the times we've got going on in our country, trying to keep everyone as close as possible and to grow together as much as possible. LeBron has been amazing in his effort to use his voice as a positive message to everyone, and not only using his voice, and using his branding, and what he's wearing on his feet to show that as well."

Alex Wong is an NBA freelance writer whose work has appeared in GQ, The New Yorker, Vice Sports, and Complex, among other publications.