SNEAKER PREVIEW LEBRON JAMES' NIKES OUT TODAY.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

In high school, rising basketball star LeBron James wore the signature shoe of his icon, Michael Jordan.

Today, James, the No. 1 draft pick of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, is being compared to his idol - right down to his sneakers.

When Nike launches the LeBron James shoe today, store managers nationwide are expecting teenagers to sleep outside - as they did in the past with launches of the Air Jordan line.

``I'd stand in line,'' said Taryaa Henderson, a junior at Canoga Park High School, who was wearing $130 Timberland boots Friday but also owns a pair of $200 Air Jordan 17s.

``I'm going to ask for it (for Christmas),'' said freshman Octavian Hughes. ``It's about LeBron James, but the shoe's got to be tight,'' he said, referring to the style, not the size.

With Michael Jordan retiring two years ago, the world's largest sneaker manufacturer is now hoping to capitalize on the NBA's latest talent, just as it did a generation ago with Jordan.

Parents are ambivalent about the launch of the $110 must-have shoe.

``Once he gets wind of it, he's definitely going to want it,'' said Sonya Johnson, an executive at Health Net in Woodland Hills, referring to her 16-year-old son, Frankie, a basketball player.

The shoe was scheduled to launch in 2,225 stores nationwide, starting at 12:01 a.m. today, when New York City's Foot Action opened its doors.

Analysts struggle to capture the shoe's popularity in words. ``You could call it the Harry Potter of sneakers,'' said Jamelah Leddy, a sportswear analyst with McAdams Wright Ragen Inc. in Seattle.

The hype has spilled from TV talk shows into Web sites, from Craigs List to the personal chat rooms of sneaker collectors. On eBay, where 54 of the embargoed pairs are selling, bids for the shoe were nearing the $200 threshold. In November, when Portland's Niketown offered a limited edition of the shoe, the sneaker sold out in 18 minutes, leaving a line of teenagers still waiting outside.

It's an insight which is most potent behind the locked doors of Nike's ``Innovation Kitchen'' in Portland, Ore., where, in a room stuffed with easels, designers struggled to graft LeBron's star appeal onto a sneaker.

``This is a watershed project,'' said Tinkle Hatfield, Nike's chief designer, who created the Air Jordan prototype. ``We're taking everything we learned and applying it.''

Two decades ago, Hatfield learned how to infuse leather with the style of Michael Jordan. The panther he loved, the fighter jet he admired, even his Ferrari - all became design elements, translated into color schemes and lines.

The shoe, first launched in 1984, became so popular that, by 1998, Nike agreed to move launch dates to Saturdays after fielding complaints that kids would skip school to line up at stores as soon as a new generation was out.

Last year, Hatfield met with James in Akron, Ohio. The 51-year-old former pole vaulter-turned-designer played a game of cards with a teenager who was already at the center of a bidding war between international corporations while still in high school.

``We told jokes. We talked about girlfriends,'' said Hatfield, who was accompanied by two of his junior designers.

It would be another six months before James would sign a reported $90 million endorsement deal with Nike - ending a two-year battle with archrivals Adidas and Reebok for his name.

But Hatfield and the other two Nike designers were already trying to figure out how the personality of LeBron James could be sewn into a shoe - and, in 2002, a $50,000 Hummer was mostly on the young player's mind.

For the designers, the car instantly became synonymous with his image.

``The original Hummer is pure utilitarianism. Pure function. No luxury - like his game,'' said 35-year-old Eric Avar, one of the two other designers.

``At 6 foot 8, he's a football player on a basketball court. He's all about power,'' Avar said. ``But it's a beautiful aggression. The Hummer is a good analogy for that.''

Back behind the locked doors of Nike's Innovation Kitchen, the designers made more than 100 sketches.

The Hummer appears as the metaphor throughout - from the metallic lace holes, which mirror the shape of the vehicle's wheel, to the chevron sole, a reference to the Hummer's tire tread. The mesh on the shoe's side is the Hummer's door, while a red band around the back alludes to the Hummer's taillights.

After all that work and attention to detail, it really doesn't matter what the shoe looks like, say analysts and basketball fans alike.

``Everything that has to do with LeBron is popular - it's not just the shoe,'' said Romain Rousseau, co-founder of www.basket-ball.com, who says the player's name has been the most popular keyword on his Web site since the NBA draft.

For Kevin ``Strugglin'' Taksar, 23, of Columbus, Ohio, who has been trading Air Jordans on eBay since 1999, the shoes are a status symbol.

``You're outside and somebody says, 'Are those the new Jordans?''' said Taksar, who has more than 200 pairs of Air Jordans in his collection. James, he adds, taps into a deeper source of inspiration with teens, now that Jordan is retired.

``He's only 18. He's got all that - and he's the same age as them,'' said Taksar.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Melissa Trejo, manager of the Footaction USA store in the Montclair Plaza Mall, holds a pair of the new LeBron James Nikes that are scheduled to be released today.

Therese Tran/Staff Photographer

(2 -- color) Cleveland Cavaliers rookie LeBron James modeled his new line of sneakers in a Philadelphia store on Thursday.

Mike Mergen/Associated Press