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LeBron James was sixth on Forbes' highest-paid athletes list in 2015 with an income of $64.8 million, and he just signed a colossal lifetime deal with Nike that will ensure he's one of the richest athletes in the world for decades to come.

ESPN first reported Monday that James agreed to a lifetime endorsement deal with Nike that "easily surpasses" Kevin Durant's recent 10-year, $300 million deal.

In 2003, James signed a 7-year, $90-million deal with Nike one month before the Cleveland Cavaliers selected James with the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, and then signed a new deal with the company in 2010. The numbers are gaudy, but James is clearly worth it. In a 12-month span from 2015, Nike sold $340 million worth of LeBron shoes.

James' lifetime contract is the largest guaranteed deal in Nike history.

Nike confirmed the deal in a statement.

"We can confirm that we have agreed to a lifetime relationship with LeBron that provides significant value to our business, brand and shareholders. We have already built a strong LeBron business over the past 12 years, and we see the potential for this to continue to grow throughout his playing career and beyond."

So what does this mean for LeBron long-term? Well, Michael Jordan made more money ($90 million) in 2013 than every single athlete other than Floyd Mayweather, and in 2015 earned more than he did over his entire NBA career.

It also means we'll have a lifetime supply of awesome LeBron commercials.

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LeBron James signs record-breaking lifetime endorsement deal with Nike

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LeBron James was sixth on Forbes' highest-paid athletes list in 2015 with an income of $64.8 million, and he just signed a colossal lifetime deal with Nike that will ensure he's one of the richest athletes in the world for decades to come.

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Nike's competitors are gaining on the athletic apparel giant.

The brand is facing unprecedented headwinds spurred by Adidas and Under Armour making progress, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley.

"Adidas' resurgence, Under Armour's basketball gains, and the weak US athletic apparel environment remain headwinds for Nike," the analysts write.

Nike's earnings per share growth has stalled. Inventories are starting to pile up, indicating that Nike isn't clearing out all the merchandise it is making.

Meanwhile, Nike's competitors are gaining share. During the Olympics, Adidas and Under Armour shares rose far more than Nike stock.

While Nike's $30 billion in annual revenues far surpasses Adidas ($18 billion) and Under Armour ($3.96 billion), this chart from Morgan Stanley illustrates how Nike is losing share in footwear and clothing.

In Adidas' most recent quarter, sales soared 21% from the same time a year earlier.

Adidas has put itself back on the map by reviving its classic Stan Smith, Superstar, and Gazelle sneakers. The buzz around Adidas has resulted in more customers buying the brand's running shoes, too.

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Under Armour is also gaining in the basketball shoe category, thanks to an endorsement from NBA MVP Steph Curry.

The company's net revenue from footwear for the second quarter grew 58% in a year, led by the Steph Curry line.

In addition to making strides in footwear, Adidas and Under Armour are doubling down on apparel investments.

Under Armour hired designer Tim Coppens to craft a luxury athleisure line. Adidas is also launching a new clothing line.

While both brands have a long way to go before catching up to Nike, it seems clear they are a growing threat.

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Adidas and Under Armour are challenging Nike like never before

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Nike's competitors are gaining on the athletic apparel giant. The brand is facing unprecedented headwinds spurred by Adidas and Under Armour making progress, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley. "Adidas' resurgence, Under Armour's basketball gains, and the weak US athletic apparel environment remain headwinds for Nike," the analysts write.

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Earlier today, Nike CEO Mark Parker sat down with CNBC for a video interview to discuss his company exiting wearable hardware, Fitbit's IPO, fitness software, a partnership with Apple, and the Apple Watch. Asked where the Nike and Apple partnership goes from here, Parker said "it continues," and that "we are excited about the potential that the Apple/Nike relationship has."

Parker noted that Nike already offers the Nike+ app on the Apple Watch and that Nike has over 60 million digital fitness software users. Parker said Nike is "working with Apple" on new software and experiences. He ended by saying there is "more" coming from Apple and Nike. Apple and Nike are already close for HealthKit as well. partners

Apple and Nike's relationship dates back nearly a decade with Apple releasing a special chip for Nike shoes that talked to early generations of the iPod for steps tracking. The pair of companies enhanced this partnership by installing step tracking sensors in the second-generation iPod touch and iPhone 3GS last decade.

Additionally, as is well known, Apple CEO Tim Cook is a Nike fan and sits on the fitness and sports company's Board of Directors. Last year, Nike shuttered its FuelBand business to focus on fitness software. Apple has also poached multiple former FuelBand engineers to work on the Apple Watch, we reported in the months leading up to the product's introduction last fall.

The full video interview can be watched below:

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Nike CEO discusses future of Apple partnership, exiting wearables, & Apple Watch (Video)

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Earlier today, Nike CEO Mark Parker sat down with CNBC for a video interview to discuss his company exiting wearable hardware, Fitbit's IPO, fitness software, a partnership with Apple, and the Apple Watch. Asked where the Nike and Apple partnership goes from here, Parker said "it continues," and that "we are excited about the potential that the Apple/Nike relationship has."

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At Nike's press event on Tuesday, the company introduced a new version of the FuelBand, claimed that making more friends on its social network will probably make you live longer, called itself the Twitter of fitness, and had Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley get up and declare that Nike's data-tracking ways were one of the original inspirations for his company.

And all the while representatives from Nike insisted, sometimes without prompting, that Nike is not a technology company. It seems like a strange thing to harp on when everyone from multinational banks to kids running lemonade stands wants to claim some sort of Silicon Valley pedigree. But, whatever. The company's new wrist-based computers look pretty cool.

Nike's making some incremental changes to its FuelBand SE to keep up with competing devices from Fitbit and Jawbone. It will remind users to get up and walk around periodically, allow them to measure specific workouts, and give them ways to measure activity when they do exercises like yoga or bicycling, which the wristband had trouble with before. As Fitbit trackers have been able to do, the new FuelBand also measures sleep. Nike's device will be available on Nov. 6 for $150; the company will continue to sell the older model at a lower price.

Stefan Olander, Nike's vice president for digital sport, also stressed the importance of NikeFuel, the mysterious and proprietary statistic for keeping track of your activity level. The company won't divulge how the metric is calculated, although this much is clear: Unlike actual fuel, Fuel increases the more you exercise. Nike+ users set goals based in Fuel, which Olander describes as a "true universal metric that measures and motivates."

Nike increasingly wants other fitness technology products to do the same. Earlier this year the company ran a program that provided funding and assistance to small companies that were building applications that integrate into Nike+. On Tuesday, Olander said Nike will look to establish another round of partnerships, this time with more-established companies.

The more people measure their activity with Fuel, the more locked in they'll be to the Nike+ ecosystem-and the harder it will be to switch to other wearable computing devices. There's no way to get credit for all those Fuel points you've accrued if you suddenly decide you prefer the looks of Fitbit's new wristband. It also keeps people coming back to Nike's own website and apps.

The biggest prize for Nike may have come last week, when Apple said its new iPhone would have sensors allowing people to use their phones to keep track of their Fuel points. Apple's oft-predicted, never-confirmed smartwatch would presumably be a major threat to the FuelBand, but the two companies seem pretty cozy right now. Nike said on Tuesday that it still has no plans to make a Nike+ app for Android, and Olander indicated there are too many devices on the Android operating system to offer a consistent user experience. (He didn't mention anything about Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook's presence on Nike's board.)

There is one way in which Nike's flirtation with the digital world absolutely does not resemble self-identifying technology companies: The shoe giant says it won't try to leverage the information it has about your workout routine to help advertisers show you targeted ads. "The model Nike is not around monetizing data," Olander said.

Besides that, Nike's opposition to being described as a technology company seems to be based mainly on not being compared to mediocre ones. "When people think about technology companies, they think about gadgets and gizmos," said Olander. But Nike is building cool-looking devices that closely connect to its own software. It's all about serving one particular kind of customer: the athlete.

Of course, this sounds a lot like what many tech companies are trying to to do nowadays. The appeal of the combination of distinctive hardware and branded software was the reason Microsoft bought Nokia, and why Amazon is widely expected to make a smartphone. It's how Apple shot its way to the top of the mobile world.

So Nike doesn't want to be called a tech company, but would it acknowledge that the plan it lays out makes the company sound a lot like an athletic version of Apple? Olander doesn't object to the comparison.

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At Nike's press event on Tuesday, the company introduced a new version of the FuelBand, claimed that making more friends on its social network will probably make you live longer, called itself the Twitter of fitness, and had Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley get up and declare that Nike's data-tracking ways were one of the original inspirations for his company.