Team USA Basketball Photos / New Melo M5 Hits Practice Court
With Team USA practicing in Las Vegas in preparation for the Olympics, a couple footwear stories have developed — the main one being the conspiracy theory over whether Coach K’s block of Dwight Howard’s adidas kicks in the above photo was intentional or not. Regardless, here’s the breakdown of what everyone’s been wearing, and photos of Melo’s new M5 model are also shown after the jump…
(Photo by Taryn Simon/Nike)
NFL Camps Open Up; Taylor & Portis PE’s
With training camps starting to open up, NFL PE’s will start getting some coverage on PlayerExclusive.com. I’ll be posting pics and doing renderings of NFL kicks through the end of the season, and our first PE sightings come from Redskins camps…
It didn’t take long for Jason Taylor to get some Redskins-colored Jordan III Retro PE’s. They look like they have a molded TD outsole instead of the detatchable cleats offered on the retail version… I’m looking forward to seeing some better quality pics of these to see what else they have. Unfortunately, he’ll either have to get a black version or spat these up with black tape for the season since Washington wears black cleats.
(Photo by AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Player Exclusive Gallery; New Matt Holliday PE
If you’ve visited the site over the past few days, you may have noticed the addition of the “PlayerExclusive.com PE Gallery: Coming Soon” graphic at the top of this page. The gallery isn’t up and running quite yet, but here’s the deal: One of my main goals for this site (beyond following the daily beat on PE’s) is to create an extensive visual collection of custom footwear from each sport. Much of this will hopefully be accomplished through PE close-up photos, but since it’s often difficult to obtain close-up shots for many models out there, I’ll be doing quite a bit of Photoshopping.
If you check out the gallery link now, you’ll see a few of my early renderings from the ‘08 baseball season. Even though I’ve only focused on Nike thus far (they’re the easiest to find photos to work from), I will definitely be doing all the major brands in the future. Here’s an example of one of my most recent renderings:
The above graphic is based on Matt Holliday’s latest Air Max MVP PE, as seen below:
(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
I probably won’t be launching the gallery until the beginning of August (I’d like to get at least 20-30 models in there before I open it up), but in the meantime I’ll be sharing more renderings in my daily posts. I’ll be doing Albert Pujols’ latest Max MVP PE’s next, and Holliday’s All-Star PE’s (which, due to the pinstripes, will likely be ridiculously difficult to do) are on deck.
If you have any suggestions of what Nike models you’d like to see in the future, feel free to leave them in the comments section.
Nike Air Swingman Remix PE’s
In the next few weeks, I’ll be mixing it up between new footwear coverage and some recaps of the first-half cleats from the ‘08 MLB season. One of the best stories to develop this year has been the return of the Ken Griffey Jr. signature shoe.
For the past few seasons, Griffey has worn PE’s of his older signature models on newer Nike midsoles as well as a few PE’s of non-signature shoes. They looked great, but as one of baseball’s greatest enduring stars, it was surprising to see Griffey go without a new signature cleat since 2004. This year, Nike decided to change that with the Air Swingman Remix:
While it’s technically not a completely “new” shoe (it combines the iconic designs of the Griffey 1 and Griffey 2), this is clearly one of the most exciting cleats that we’ve seen in years. They feature 20 “dots” on the upper to commemorate Junior’s 20 years in the league, a Swingman logo embossed into the medial side in addition to the logo on the Griffey 2-inspired heel, and a few other design elements that just make these look amazing (pics via NT’s gotta be tha shoes). The cement pattern on the above shoe is part of the PE — it won’t be on the retail version. The pictured model is shown on Junior below:
(AP Photo/Al Behrman)
Griffey has worn a few other colorways of these this year (including black/red, black/white/silver, and all black pairs), but most of these should be available for purchase this fall (see page 3 of the ‘09 catalog updates here). A bizarre thing has happened with this signature shoe, however — other MLB players are getting player exclusives of them. Nike might be doing this to honor Griffey in his 600 HR milestone year (or they might just be pushing these hard for their upcoming release). My guess is that the players wearing them have been hand-selected by Junior himself. Griffey has often spoken out on the lack of African-Americans in baseball, so it would make sense that he’d have Nike send PE’s to Jimmy Rollins, Orlando Hudson, and Carl Crawford…
David Ortiz Debuts New Signature Cleat in AAA
It’s a fair assumption that Reebok was hoping to debut their latest David Ortiz signature shoe at Monday’s All-Star Game, but since Ortiz was sidelined with a wrist injury, they never hit the field. However, he began his rehab assignment today with AAA Pawtucket, and here’s what was on his feet:
At first glance, it looks like these feature an synthetic leather / open weave mesh upper, similar what was used in Reebok’s ATR Vertical III and Sky Court BT basketball shoes. I’m looking forward to seeing a black colorway and a metal version of these as well, but I’m impressed so far. Additional views here, here, and here.
(Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)
Easton MLB All-Star Game PE’s
They sometimes get overshadowed by the corporate giants in baseball footwear, but Easton has done some really incredible work over the past few years. They do two things in particular really well: they make a great cleat, and they hook up almost all of their MLB players with really nice looking PE’s.
Dustin Pedroia Mojo Athcleat All-Star PE
As you can see, they really pulled out all the stops for their All-Star Game Mojo Athcleat PE’s. Each shoe featured a self screened Yankee Stadium mural that changes depending on the light, an “NYC 2008″ graphic on the outer heel (with Babe Ruth’s face as one of the zeros), team-colored midsole / upper accents, a chrome outsole, gold cleats, player names by the laces, and player numbers or logos on the heel. Dustin Pedroia’s PE’s appear above; the player exclusives they produced for Hanley Ramirez, Aramis Ramirez, and Cristian Guzman are pictured below.
Thanks to Michael Pratt for the photos.
Hanley Ramirez Mojo Athcleat All-Star PE
2008 MLB All-Star Game: Player Exclusives
One of my favorite things about the MLB All-Star cleats is the fact that it’s the only day that players wear colorways that they couldn’t wear otherwise. They’re able to disregard the “dominant cleat color” uniform rule and wear whatever they want, which means that we’ve seen a lot of white, grey, silver, and non-team colored cleats over the past few years. Even though I’ve always gravitated towards more conservative designs in baseball, I always look forward to seeing the bizarre colorways from the Midsummer Classic.
This year, there were so many All-Star PE’s that I actually had to split the ASG footwear into two posts (new releases post is here). The top PE’s appear below.
It’s not much of a surprise that Alex Rodriguez wore a white PE of his signature cleat — he’s worn white Shox cleats at the All-Star Game for the past few years. This PE featured embroidery on each cleat (the date on the shoe above, and “NEW YORK” on his other cleat), and additional views are available here and here.
(Photo by Nick Laham / Getty Images)
Albert Pujols wore the most attractive white PE in the game — they’re pretty simple, but they’re my favorite model from last night. These featured a Nike Air Max MVP upper, a 5-Tool Zoom Air midsole, and a white MCS outsole. Unfortunately, not too many photos of these were out there tonight… this is the only other decent view I could find. If anyone has any better shots of these, please get in touch.
(Photo by Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)
2008 MLB All-Star Game: New Releases
Over the past few years, companies have started using the MLB All-Star Game as a showcase for their new footwear and equipment. This year’s ASG carried on that tradition, and several new cleats were on display last night. (And just to clarify, even though this site is named PlayerExclusive.com, I’ll also be giving you a heads-up when new kicks hit the field or the court, PE or not.)
Here’s what we saw:
The most noticeable new model from last night was the Nike Air Max MVP. In addition to Joe Mauer above, these were worn by Ben Sheets, Dan Uggla, Edinson Volquez, Milton Bradley, Dioner Navarro, and Geovany Soto (Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday also wore PE’s of these, discussed in the All-Star Game PE post). The colorways worn by these players (all of which are in the 2009 Nike Baseball Catalog) will be available for purchase this fall, and solid colors will be available as well.
(Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)
MLB All-Star Workout / Home Run Derby Photos
A ton of PE’s and new releases should be seen later tonight at the All-Star Game, but yesterday’s home run derby and afternoon batting practice brought us a few decent photos. The best are highlighted below.
Chase Utley in an All-Star PE version of a new adidas model… these feature some custom embroidery on a tongue, but I can’t make out what it is. Anybody get a closer look or know the name of these? Please post in the comments section below.
(Photo by Nick Laham / Getty Images)
Welcome to PlayerExclusive.com!
Hello, and thanks for visiting PlayerExclusive.com. Before I get into the details about what this site is all about, let me just tell you what will be featured on here over the next few months. Later this year, PlayerExclusive.com will cover the PE’s worn in college football and basketball as well as in the NFL and NBA, but for now you’ll only be seeing the custom shoes worn in current sports. As you can see, the first item being covered are the PE footwear and new releases being worn at the MLB All-Star festivities, but the Olympics, NFL training camps, NBA offseason, and daily MLB play will also be covered over the course of this summer.
The idea behind this site is to basically have a photo-oriented version of Uni Watch for pro/collegiate sports footwear — instead of following uniform elements, we’ll be following unique custom footwear (and occasionally equipment elements) from major American sports. There are plenty of other footwear blogs out there, but they mostly cover retail sneakers. Here at PlayerExclusive.com, we’re only concerned the about what’s worn on the field or on the court. The posts made on this site will include game photos, close-up shots of custom footwear, and Photoshop renderings of PE’s.
Now, chances are that if you’ve found this site, you’re well-versed in footwear terminology, but for those of you who aren’t aware, a “player exclusive” (or PE) is special colorway of a shoe made for a specific athlete. They often use different materials and technical components than general release models, and they typically feature custom embroidery and other personalized elements to make the product unique to the player wearing it. PE’s will be the primary focus of this site, but news about new releases, brand signings, and other sports equipment will occasionally be mentioned as well.
This site is technically still being developed, so please just be patient for now. If you have any comments, suggestions, or if you’ve spotted something that you think should be featured on this site, please feel free to email me here (don’t worry–I won’t be sending you any spam). Just include your name and I’ll be sure to give you credit.
Thanks… and by the way, my name is Mark. I hope you’ll be visiting PlayerExclusive.com again soon!
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