AKRON, Ohio — LeBron James and his childhood friends gave their old stomping grounds at the Summit Lake Community Center the star treatment with a renovation of two rooms at the center.
James and his friend Frankie Walker and Jaron Kanfer, who together launched UNKNWN a Miami-based designer clothing and sneaker retailer, took the recent All-Star Weekend to give back to the facility that helped shaped their childhood.
“We all grew up there, played [basketball] our whole youth there,” Walker said to the Akron Beacon Journal. “It’s always been a special place for us.”
In partnership with Nike, UNKNWN renovated the student lounge, one of the spaces that is utilized by the after-school enrichment program Students With A Goal (SWAG), with a fresh coat of paint, new equipment, a foosball table, couches and two PlayStation gaming consoles.
"It's just overwhelming the amount of sacrifice and love that's been given to our students through this redesigning," said Edward Smith, executive director of SWAG.
In addition to the improved spaces at the center, UNKNWN and Nike stocked a vending machine full of free products for the community, including special edition Nike socks and shirts, feminine products, shampoo and gift cards to local laundromats.
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