Baseball Isn’t Boring
BIB on the Go: Talking Custom Cleats With The Custom Cleat King Jeremy Guthrie
04 Dec 2025
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What inspired Jeremy Guthrie to start Custom Cleats?
Yeah, there should be some passion. This doesn't have to be boring.
You don't get bored by baseball. Okay, one thing the game needs is more people like you.
You. You. You. You. You. You. You.
You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. There is no human being on the planet I'd rather be talking to more than Jeremy Guthrie right now. So thank you, my friend. Thank you for joining.
My pleasure. Great to be here.
Yeah, it's... There's so many good things that you've done for the great game of baseball, which we appreciate. Very good player, by the way. I'm always fascinated by drafts, like MLB drafts. So you obviously first round 2022. It is. I was going to do this off the top of my head. 22nd overall. Now, can you name the player who was right after you?
Oh, I think Swisher was really close.
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Chapter 2: How has the custom cleat game evolved in baseball?
He was close. Wasn't him, though. I give you a hint. Tell me the team.
I couldn't tell you.
I stumped you back, see?
Yeah, I know. Because I want to say the team, but I want to say Braves. because he played for the Braves, but you know how that works. Frank Gore. Frank Gore, yep, right after you.
Tell me the team, I can tell you most of the draft.
Well, you know, I'm here to build up, so I want to also note this about you in that draft, that there was, let's see, you had a better overall career war then all but six of the players pick before you.
Granke, Hamels. I'll have to get a look. Fielder, Prince.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh. But I didn't have the list. I just wanted to build you up, man. Because that's pretty good, man. Like 22nd and only six guys. And obviously the first pick in that draft is, remember who that was?
Brian Bullington.
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Chapter 3: What were the previous restrictions on baseball cleat designs?
I think it was 2009 or 10. I don't remember the exact year.
Okay. So around there. And did players notice it immediately, like teammates or anybody? Yeah.
Actually, I was facing the Yankees when I wore the black and orange jersey. Oh, what was the, it had like a name to it, a black and orange air Jordan one high.
Yeah.
Burnett over in the other dugout was like, you know, hooting and hollering at me like, Hey, where do we get those shoes? What are those all about? So I think I had a pretty solid game. I think I went six innings, maybe one or two runs. And at the end of the game, I top stepped and he's like, show me the shoes, show me the shoes. We were having that dialogue across the diamond about the cleats.
It was pretty fun.
That's awesome. So as those years go on, And like you said, my first introduction to this conversation with Price, I think ultimately I just said, hey, how would you grow the game? And he immediately said the cleats, which I didn't know. But for the players, was there murmuring throughout that time to say from 2010 to when did they change it? When did they officially change the rule?
After my time, so I don't know, post-2017. Right, 17, right?
So were there, not that it's like a top priority thing, but you probably were like, guys were like, are you kidding me? Like, why can't, because other, the one, Jeremy, the one sport everyone pointed to during that stretch was the NBA. Yeah. where kids were falling in love with players because of what was on their feet.
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Chapter 4: When did Major League Baseball change its rules on cleat customization?
is getting nutty too right which is great it's a great thing yeah well most people that work for you know different customization companies they're very creative and so whether they're coming up with the ideas or or assisting players and doing it or the player themselves brings the idea to the forefront imaginations are running wild and there's no there's no limitations at this point as to what a player can put on his foot whether that means you're painting it
whether that means you're altering it by restitching logos in different locations, or whether that means you're taking a shoe like custom cleats does and making a regular shoe become a cleat. You can have whatever you want on your foot to play your favorite sport at any point in time. And that's what a lot of players really enjoy. That drives a lot of energy for the game and excitement.
And I think custom cleats and other companies are all the beneficiaries of that.
When did you know, obviously, I think the last year was 2017, correct? Washington. And anytime you end a playing career, you're thinking about what am I going to do next? What was that process like for you, the evolution of going from player to whatever was next?
It was slower, actually. Right when I retired in 2017, my wife and family and I were asked to go be missionaries for our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And so unexpectedly, we uprooted our family from Oregon, where I had retired to, and found ourselves in Houston, Texas. And we were there for three years.
And we did missionary work nonstop, working with over 150 18 to 24 year olds and helping them learn and live the gospel and be courageous enough to share it. And that was a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job for three straight days. So I made it to a couple of baseball games with my sons to go to the Astros, but I probably watched fewer than five games on TV.
Really?
Business custom cleats. I was already a part owner of it, but I had to tell my partner at that time I didn't have the bandwidth or the availability to work with him beyond a few things, a few responsibilities. And so... you know, that was a, that was a, I started that about a year after I retired and that was three additional years.
So for four years, my transition was very much, um, dedicated to, to our faith and, and, uh, in missionary service before we returned in 2021.
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Chapter 5: How do players express themselves through their cleats?
And so those are, you know, I'm a Jordan fan. So anytime someone puts an Air Jordan on their foot and on top of that gets to customize it to their specific colorways like Manny and these guys, Machado that is, it's like they're going to be at the top of my list. But there's some other good ones out there as well.
We just had Dom Leon on, so he was taught. He had the backdrop of shells upon shells upon shells with Jordans.
Yeah, Dom Leon, and I would consider him one of our best members of the Custom Cleats family. He was consistently getting Air Jordan 1s, different colorways. doctoring them up, putting cleats on them through our custom cleats. And so he was amazing to watch. We have a lot of really loyal customers all over the league. And so it's hard to single them out.
But we just have guys that really stretched, pushed the envelope this year. Josh Naylor was one that kind of comes to mind. He called at the start of the year. He said, hey, I want to just blow it out this year. I want to get the coolest, most exclusive Jordans. And he did a bunch of other non-air Jordans. He did some Reeboks, some Allen Iverson pairs.
Um, he really stretched into different realms and said, I wanted to shock the world with my cleats. And he did it like he did, I think over 30 different conversions. And he also did some, some artwork on some other ones, but he, he brought some, some serious noise to the, uh, to major league baseball this year.
That is so awesome. And, you know, obviously, like, I go to the All-Star game and you see the Futures kids, you know, and they have a lot of, like, they're just beginning that process. But it's literally, you're just going from locker to locker to locker. Anytime we see these, it brings joy. Like, it brings joy to everybody, which is a big part of it. What would be your cleat?
Well, let me ask you this. You mentioned Naylor, like, having just wanting the best of the best. Is there a Rolls Royce of cleat, do you think?
Well, it's just tough to say.
Yeah, preference.
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Chapter 6: What challenges do players face with cleat sponsorships?
They know what it is. They want to succeed in it. Before, it was kind of like, oh, we'll go do it for fun. I think even some teams probably thought, I'll just show up and we'll probably win because we're the best team. And that's not the way it works. And so I think generally guys are more invested in it. You're seeing a few more of the superstars join the team.
And I know this year the goal for DeRosa, you know, with managing the U.S. team, is to get the top pitchers in the league as well to go along with the top position players. And that's a little bit – understandably, it's more difficult. You're asking guys to – be ready 30 days sooner than they otherwise would be.
Maybe it's 20 now because the season's going to start a little bit earlier, but you're asking guys to get ready earlier at the expense of whatever toll that's going to take on their body come September and October, hopefully for a lot of these championship caliber teams. So that's the challenge, but I think players are invested enough and recognize the significance of the tournament.
And I think the passion of it, what I experienced is, you know, it's second to none to really be able to go there and play. We played Venezuela in round two and down in Miami and the electricity of that, we played against Canada up in the first round in Toronto. And then we played Japan. So those, you know, in LA, and those are just, they're big games.
And they have every bit the atmosphere of a playoff game. And so I think guys are hungry to perform at the best. They know there's going to be more people watching. And therefore, you know, come late February, early March, I think the majority, if not all these players, are going to be ready to go.
Yeah. They'll be ready. It's like, listen, I said the trout Otani at bat is still one of the most iconic at bats in the history of baseball. I don't care if it doesn't mean anything. It's still, it is what it is. So, but Hey, listen, I, I appreciate everything. You represent so much of what's good about baseball and life. So, uh, again, I appreciate all that you do.
And, um, if we can do anything at all to help the cause, let us know. So I appreciate it.
You appreciate it. Yeah. Share the game. It's awesome. And it's definitely not boring.
So for having me follow baseballs and boring in the odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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