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After building a Hall-of-Fame level career with five different organizations, NFL free agent Odell Beckham Jr. has also built a reputation as one of the most stylish players to ever grace the field. With the increasingly lenient rules around NFL players and their equipment, we’ve seen an increase in individuality, most particularly with the choices of cleats. However, when it was much more taboo, Beckham Jr. stood out as a pioneer, recently claiming to having “invented” the current trend.
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Most recently, we saw Super Bowl LIX MVP Jalen Hurts get fined for his custom Air Jordan cleats during the season, which Jordan Brand responded with the perfect “You can’t ban Greatness” campaign. However, long before Hurts even entered the league, New York Giants’ superstar Odell Beckham Jr. was turning heads with his custom pre-game cleats, working with some of the most talented sneaker artists on the planet.
While their may be same debate as to who started the custom sneaker-turned-cleat trend (some will argue Cam Newton, or even Randy Moss with his Jordan 11 cleats in 2001), but the fact remains that no one did it as wild as OBJ. The NFL free agent spoke out in a recent Instagram post: “[I] invented the cleat game, let’s be honest.”
Beckham Jr. has partnered with prolific sneaker artists like @thesurgeon and @mache275 for some of the wilder on-field looks we’ve seen over the last decade. While his custom footwear is usually only allowed during on-field warmups during the game, it’s the perfect time for Beckham Jr. to showcase them given his awe-inspiring and popular pre-game workouts filled with circus catches and crazy athleticism.
In 2024, a legal battle between Odell Beckham Jr. and Nike concluded after both parties argued a breach of contract. While both parties were found ‘not guilt’ during the dispute, it’s certainly soured the relationship between Beckham Jr. and his go-to cleat manufacturer. Since, Beckham Jr. has been seen rocking various Adidas cleats and even supporting Kyrie Irving with custom ANTA KAI 1 cleats.
Whether or not Odell Beckham Jr. “invented” the custom cleat game will remain in the air for sneakerheads and football fans to discuss, but there’s no question that he certainly elevated what is possible with a football cleat, paving the way for the crop of young talent following him. Each receiver in the NFL today was impacted by Odell Beckham Jr. in one way or another and that’s something the iconic wideout can always hang his hat on.
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