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LeBron James has always been one to be ahead of the curve when it came to being tech and brand-savvy. The King and Samsung Gear VR have released a 12-minute virtual reality video that looks to revolutionize the virtual experience.
Via Sport Techie
Striving for Greatness: An Uninterrupted Original, is available on the Samsung Gear VR, the $99 virtual reality headset that was released last month. As the Gear VR is powered by the virtual reality company Oculus, LeBron’s video is available for download both on the Oculus Store and on Samsung Milk VR (Samsung’s service that provides its VR users with free 360-degree videos).
This 3D video builds upon LeBron’s Striving For Greatness video series: starting this September; he had a series of five Facebook 360 videos that documented the beginnings of his season. Now, Samsung has helped improve upon this with its 3D installment.
While the video is not 3D in the sense that you can walk around through its scenes unhindered, it still lets users spin their heads around to see everything around them.
As Samsung describes it, “Striving for Greatness is an immersive 360º virtual reality film that invites you to follow LeBron as he trains for his journey to greatness.” In addition, they made a teaser that came out on Christmas to promote the new video and Gear VR.
The 3D video was made in partnership with Uninterrupted, an athlete-supported video website that LeBron James and sports news site Bleacher Report created this year. The unique site lets fans watch videos directly from their favorite athletes, and it just secured a $15.8 million financing round earlier this month. Warner Bros, which led the financing,said, “The additional capital will allow the growing athlete point-of-view platform to develop exclusive content, elevate the brand, expand to additional platforms, and further engage potential partners.”
This video represents a big marketing move for James, who consistently displays how he is one of the most tech and brand-savvy athletes today. Whether you love or hate the King, you can’t deny that this video is worth checking out if you have Samsung’s Gear VR.
** LeBron’s “Striving for Greatness” video series can also be viewed via Facebook **
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