LeBron James is a two-suitcase kind of guy—one of the hazards, he explains, of having big feet. “I'm a size 15, 16 shoe, so I've got to be very efficient with how I pack,” he says over the phone. “I've got one bag that's just dedicated to my shoes, because my shoes take up so much space,” he says. From there, things are easy: “I have a travel look, a game look, and I pack my essentials in my room, like my toiletries, my candles, my Beats Pill, my iPad, my game film, all of that stuff.”

Hang on—candles? “Candles!” LeBron James says joyfully, because LeBron James is a candle-packing traveler. “I have to light a candle in my room on every road trip while I'm in my room. It has a lot to do with the energy of the universe. I'm very high on that—I actually get that from my wife,” he explains. “But I also just love the smell of candles. You know, hotel rooms can have a stagnant smell. I think a candle gives it a fresher smell. I can bring some home with me, it makes me very comfortable. So the energy, the essence, behind a candle, and also the smell quality of just keeping me as comfortable away as I am when I'm home,” all of that means that LeBron’s second bag—the one not carrying his shoes—is going to have a candle in it.

With 16 all-galaxy NBA seasons under his belt, it's safe to say that LeBron has the energy-of-the-universe thing straightened out. He's got the packing thing down to a science. And now he's got even more good luggage to put all that stuff in: along with Dior designer Kim Jones and pianist Yuja Wang, James is one of the faces of hyper-luxury luggage brand Rimowa’s new ad campaign, with short films set to launch between now and June.

He'll get to the luggage stuff, eventually—but we’re about halfway through our allotted ten minutes, and LeBron is willing to indulge my further questions about his candle preferences. “Diptyque is one of my favorite brands. I love all their ranges of candles. I carry those,” he says. (His publicist clarifies that LeBron prefers that brand’s Baies scent.) And if disaster strikes? “If I run out of candles, I'll actually walk down to the gift shop at the hotel and see if they have good ones. Any time I'm staying at the Four Seasons—I don't know the brand that they work with, but they have great selections of candles, and I will pick from them.”

While he’s a face of Rimowa’s newest campaign, he and the brand had been on each other’s radar for years, notes Alexandre Arnault, the brand’s 27-year-old CEO. “Every week we receive an email from all of our stores stating extraordinary facts: there was a leak, or we sold that many pieces to a Saudi prince, blah blah blah,” Arnault says in a phone call. “One week, it was literally: LeBron James came into the store in Toronto, bought two suitcases, and flew back to—I think it was still Cleveland—after having played in Toronto.”