With over 200 MLB players owning a pair of converted sneakers from Custom Cleats, Guthrie and his company are taking over the diamond with a grassroots and personal touch.
For decade-long starting MLB pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, it didn’t take long for him to bring his collection of coveted kicks to the field.
Back in 2011, while with the Baltimore Orioles, he wanted to shake up the simple black-and-white cleats worn by most players on the diamond. So he grabbed a pair of “Max Orange” Jordan 1s that matched his team’s colors and found an upstart company in New York to help turn the shoes into pro-level cleats.
The company’s original founder, Anthony Ambrosini, and his brother Dominick were playing for the Montreal Expos minor-league system during the early 2000s when they had their first revelation.
“Listen, I can’t play in these cleats — they’re killing my feet and I’m getting shin splints,” Dominick had said. “If I could just play baseball in my regular shoes, I’d be fine.”
Right then, Anthony peeled off a plate from an older pair of cleats and glued it onto a pair of sneakers for his brother. Dominick loved them, and in 2006, their company, Custom Cleats, was born.
As Guthrie made his way through a World Series-winning career that saw him pitch in Cleveland, Baltimore, Colorado, and Kansas City, he also established himself among the sneakerhead community throughout the 2010s. His growing Instagram presence as the platform first launched followed a formula featuring his family, his faith, and his footwear.
Photos of his Custom Cleats were notable, like the grey and gleaming blue Foamposites he rocked in 2014 that perfectly matched his Royals uniform, as they were ushering in a new era of style for the league.
Guthrie was also most known for his “sneaker vault” — highlighted in a legendary Nice Kicks “Sneak Peek” episode — which included a literal bank vault at his offseason house that unlocked to unveil his extensive collection of rare pairs, game-worn collectibles, and PEs.
Just as his career was winding down, the Ashland, Oregon, native and Swoosh-sponsored athlete had naturally considered a future career at Nike’s headquarters. He also was interested in the notion of teaming up with another company that had helped to fuel his footwear throughout his career.
After striking an initial minority equity investment deal with Custom Cleats in 2015, just last year, Guthrie acquired the company in full. He has since sought to overhaul Custom Cleats’ logos and branding while also building more personal connections with players and equipment managers in MLB clubhouses around the country.
“They all say, ‘This is perfect for you,’” relays Guthrie. “I’m a sneakerhead by nature, been wearing unique cleats and shoes forever, so it’s like the perfect job.”
When pitcher Michael Lorenzen laced up a pair of converted white Vans on the mound for his Phillies home debut, Custom Cleats soon found itself a part of baseball history.
“We’re in the Hall of Fame now,” beamed Guthrie. “Last year, Michael threw a no-hitter in a pair of Vans, the Ultra Range EXO. That was huge, and now the Custom Cleats Vans conversion shoe that we worked on is on display in the Baseball Hall of Fame.”
The company has worked with Adidas, Under Armour, and Vans in an official capacity, building out cleated footwear for some of the league’s biggest stars. Guthrie estimates that more than 200 of the league’s 950 players own a pair of converted Custom Cleats.
Custom Cleats and Vans have even officially offered a converted version of the Ultra Range model worn by Lorenzen.
Ahead of the 2024 MLB All-Star Weekend, Custom Cleats has also created converted “Elkins” Travis Scott Jordan 1 Lows for Atlanta Braves slugger Marcell Ozuna to wear in the Home Run Derby and given Orioles All-Star starting shortstop and Under Armour endorser Gunnar Henderson a batch of converted pairs.
As Custom Cleats continues to see sudden growth in baseball over the last year, Boardroom caught up this week with Guthrie to hear all about his post-career ambitions with the company, an upcoming expansion into golf, and the biggest highlights to date.
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Nick DePaula: After wearing Custom Cleats for years, when did you look into being involved with the ownership side of the company?
Jeremy Guthrie: I purchased 25% of the company upfront in 2015, during the World Series. I actually signed the documents at Citi Field before Game 4; we won the World Series in Game 5. Last year in 2023, I bought the remaining 75% of the company.
When I invested, the total for 2015 was around 450 conversions for the whole year. I told the owner, I think we can do 2,000 within three years. Three years later, we did 1,400.
We’re right there in that 2,000 range now. To have 2,000 done out of the millions of the athletes that play the six sports that we service, our potential to really grow is out there. Every athlete in America that plays a cleated sport should have at least one pair of Custom Cleats.
NDP: How does the “conversion” process work?
JG: I pitched in them throughout my career and always felt great in them. We don’t switch anything up with the existing performance or upper of the shoe. The shoe is the shoe, and it feels exactly the same. We carve in on the outsole and glue two proprietary cleat plates on in the forefoot and heel to add the traction. When you place an order, you have two choices: What cleat bottom? What color?
We have six different colors in baseball and two colors for golf. They’re all the exact same mold shape, and then we have a spike for golf, molded plastic or molded metal for baseball, a turf field option for football or lacrosse, and then we also have a rounded soccer-style cleat that we use.
In general, if you like the way it feels as a shoe, then you’re going to like the way it feels on the field. Customers will send their shoes to our Arizona or New York facilities, we’ll convert it and two to three weeks later it’s back in your possession.
We’ve developed our own proprietary glue that is incredibly strong and unique. It isn’t like we’re just using Elmer’s here. [laughs] The plates are engineered, manufactured and in mass production. There are some real unique elements to the whole process that is hard to replicate.
NDP: How do you think the audience breaks up?
JG: I’d say our customers are 50/50. Fifty percent of them don’t care what they feel like and simply like the shoe they’re starting with. They just want to look a certain way and wear a certain color. The other 50% do it because of the way that it feels.
NDP: To that point, what kind of performance feedback have you gotten over the years?
JG: Jesse Chavez on the Braves, an All-Star caliber relief pitcher this year, has been wearing our conversions now for about six seasons. He swears that wearing the shoes has helped him pitch better and stay healthier in his legs, versus normal cleats. He probably has around 30 pairs. He likes the comfort of the shoe first, then the way they perform on a baseball field.
Some players will say, “I don’t like the way this shoe feels, but I like the way they look, so I want to get them customized and be able to wear them.” It’s all over the map.
Then, there’s some athletes that are wearing our conversions, and the base shoe is frankly just a very inline, mainstream shoe. But they love that shoe so much, and they’re not doing it for style. They’re doing it for comfort. Maybe they haven’t found a cleat with their particular brand to be comfortable, so they’ve gone to a sneaker or a trainer and put cleats on the bottom.
NDP: What’s the percentage of orders you get between the pro, college, and youth levels?
JG: The big highlight for us at this point has been the number of big league players that want to wear the shoes. When we took over, we asked Anthony, the original owner, “What’s the breakdown?” He said there was a lot of high school and some college kids, and that was the majority. There were a few dozen big leaguers here and there — around 30 to 40 players.
As we look at it now, our big league orders are out the roof. We have people that are walking billboards for Custom Cleats all around the league. A large amount of them are pitchers.
NDP: When we’re talking about shoe deals for MLB players, some of the brand deals aren’t as lucrative compared to their huge team deals. There’s also been a big divide between the value of MLB shoe deals and deals in the NBA.
How have you seen the changes in the deal marketplace and just the rise of sneaker culture impacting how many players are wearing Custom Cleats now?
JG: There’s two things that have been huge factors for Custom Cleats. One, the MLB took away the color restrictions. For years, up until five years ago, you had to have 50% or more of your team designated colors. They removed those restrictions, and now guys are wearing yellow cleats that pitch on the Minnesota Twins.
Secondly, most, if not all, sneaker brands have removed so many of their paid athletes. If their roster 10 years ago had 200 players who were either getting merch money or some cash, that roster might now be down to 40 players.
The brands have created sneaker free agency across the baseball realm and tripled the number of guys who can wear whatever they want, whenever they want to. We’ve grown from 40 to 50 guys, to 205 guys who have a pair of Custom Cleats.
NDP: Who are some key players that have worn Custom Cleats over the years?
JG: Marcell Ozuna is an All-Star this year and will be in the Home Run Derby, and he only wears Jordan 1s and Dunks that are converted into cleats by us. That’s all he wears. If you go in his locker, he has around 60 pairs.
Merril Kelly from the Diamondbacks pitched in the World Series in Custom Cleats. Some guys are pretty exclusive, like Merrill Kelly only pitches in conversions. Back in 2016, Josh Donaldson wore a Custom Cleats Soldier X and got a huge shout-out from LeBron about it.
We’ve also done several conversions for Fernando Tatis Jr. The pair of gold Curry 4s that he wore in San Francisco with Steph’s handwriting on them blew up big time and the league posted about them.
NDP: How have you worked with NBA players and other stars on converting some of their shoes?
JG: We’ve done custom Harden 7s for James Harden’s charity softball event. We’ve also done conversions for two years for Travis Scott’s charity softball game in 2021 and 2022. They sent about 20 pairs of his Cactus Jack shoes — the Air Max 1s, Mocha 1s, Fragment 1s, and the Trainers — to be converted. I said, “Hey, send your boy a couple extra size 13s, too, while you’re at it.” [laughs]
Donovan Mitchell also introduced each of his last two Adidas “Issues” with us. Last year at MLB All-Star, he wore a converted D.O.N. Issue 5 for the Celebrity Game, and this year he wore a converted Issue 6 for batting practice.
Another big moment for us recently was Paul Rudd wearing converted AE 1s in the Royals celebrity softball game. He’s played the “Ant-Man” character over the years and even Anthony Edwards said it was “hard” that he wore the shoes.
Paul Rudd wearing Custom Cleats in the Kansas City Royals’ Celebrity Softball game.
NDP: Is there a shoe that was too crazy or rare, where you thought, “Hey, maybe we shouldn’t do this?”
JG: People will send us fakes sometimes. We’ve received some Dior 1s, and we’ve gotten three or four Red October Yeezy 2s. Our conversion team is not an authentication team [laughs], but my assumption is no, those weren’t real.
We did a pair of Platinum Yeezy 2s that were painted, but real. It was my teammate that paid $3,000 for them, had them painted with blue to match the Royals uniforms, and then he wore them once and gave them away.
NDP: What are some of the wildest requests you’ve gotten?
JG: We’ve done cowboy boots, Timberlands, and designer Gucci shoes. We’ve done dress shoes and church shoes. We’ve done Hey Dudes and Crocs. It might not be the most functional, but if someone wants to be funny or do a one-time special event, that’s where it gets fun. We’ve had a group of 18 guys getting together for a golf trip that all wanted a Custom Cleated golf sneaker for their event.
NDP: How do you balance customers who also want their cleats customized with artwork?
JG: We have good partnerships instead. Because our name is Custom Cleats and we have the exact URL, people will find us through search and say, “Hey, I want to paint some stuff on my shoes.”
We don’t do any artwork on the upper. We’re a conversion business. We would rather focus on doing what we do well. We’re happy to send a customer’s converted cleats to an artist like Stadium Custom Kicks or Mache that we know do great work, to get painted before they’ll be sent back to the customer.
Brayan Rocchio, a shortstop for the Guardians, will do a combination. He’ll send us shoes to get converted, and then he’ll get them custom-painted. Some athletes want artwork only. Some want conversions only. And some want both.
NDP: More of a broad question — but what’s the most comfortable conversion, in your opinion?
JG: People ask me all the time, “What are the most comfortable conversions?” I tell them, “The most comfortable shoe that you wear is also the most comfortable conversion.”
For me, I’d have to say any Kobes. Kobe 4, 5, 6 or 8. All of those are really good conversions. Jordan 1s are less comfortable, in my opinion, but they really work. The weight on them is great, and the Jordan 1 just plays. You put them on and they’re supportive and easy. That’s our No. 1 converted shoe.
But the most comfortable, in a landslide, for me, has been anything LaMelo Ball. If you rock a Puma LaMelo Ball shoe — and they’re in crazy colors, which adds to it and is flashy — I’m telling you, the LaMelo 1 is the most comfortable conversion and feels like feathers. I have three pairs now. They just feel like they were built to be a cleat.
There is a multiple-time All-Star who is signed to another brand, and he asked me that question. I told him, “Put these on.” He throws on my LaMelo cleats and he says, “Dog, this is the most comfortable cleat I’ve ever put on.” That was one of my favorite moments for Custom Cleats.
NDP: What’s next for Custom Cleats? What are the next big steps ahead for you?
JG: I think it’s really a matter of getting the word out. I’ve learned a ton in the first year of fully owning the company. There’s that line always between promotion and profit. You’ve gotta really figure out: Is this worth it to our company to invest some money into this?
We’re planning ahead and looking for visibility. We’re convinced that the product sells itself. My opinion is that, certainly, if someone sees the product, it’s a no-brainer.
Who wouldn’t want to go out and play a round of golf or play baseball in some great shoes? We want to give every athlete in the world the chance to play their favorite sport in their favorite shoe.
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