The year 2016 will be remembered for many things, but one of them is the explosion of over-the-top custom cleats.
Baseball players, led by the Cubs’ Javy Baez, embraced crazy cleats during the postseason, but football players have taken it to the next level. They’ve worn custom cleats to celebrate Halloween and Veterans Day, to raise awareness for good causes, to celebrate a Super Bowl ring and to honor a fallen friend or celebrity,
So naturally NFL players were going to go crazy for Christmas. The NFL has strict rules for what footwear is acceptable during games, but in warmups anything goes.
The New York Giants got this started Thursday night, with Odell Beckham wearing… a lot of cleats.
https://twitter.com/FootbaIl_Tweets/status/811951293958942721
ICYMI: Odell's Grinch cleats (with candy cane bottoms) and socks in pregame tonight (📷 @AndyMills_NJ). pic.twitter.com/hoJysjCgps
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) December 23, 2016
.@OBJ_3's cleats for tonight, complete with grass from his high school field in them. (via @darrenrovell) pic.twitter.com/lVwF5o570h
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 22, 2016
Beckham’s quarterback, Eli Manning, did not necessarily embrace the Christmas theme, but he did get in on the “turf-from-his-high-school-field” thing.
Eli Manning wearing @Nike cleats tonight that include grass taken from his high school football field. #GiantsPride pic.twitter.com/F9z9mhkpUN
— New York Giants (@Giants) December 22, 2016
Antonio Brown’s cleats, which he’ll wear Sunday when the Steelers play the Ravens, are as cool as you’d expect.
.@AntonioBrown's christmas cleats are BOOMIN'. (via Corey Pane) pic.twitter.com/CMsDZXQkCJ
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) December 24, 2016
But the Cleats of the Holiday award goes to Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph, who will wear these cleats Saturday for Christmas Eve:
My guy @MACHE275 killed these custom @nike cleats for Christmas Eve!! #rudolph #customcleats #uniswag #vikings pic.twitter.com/35qiBR6UcQ
— Kyle Rudolph (@KyleRudolph) December 22, 2016
His name’s Rudolph… and those cleats have an image of Rudolph. Get it?
Anyway, you’ve got to love the creativity. Hopefully the custom-cleat trend will continue into 2017.
