Have you ever wondered who was designing those vivid custom cleats you would see some of your favorite NFL players sporting for pre-game warm-ups? Do you recall Marshawn Lynch’s gold cleats? the pair that caused the NFL to threaten him with a hefty fine if he wore them in-game? Allow us to refresh your memory or formally introduce you to Marcus Rivero, the man responsible for adding flair to the cleats worn by more than half of the National Football League.
We met with Marcus during NFL Draft Week in Philadelphia. Marcus was in town to promote his latest project with Hyundai dubbed “Rolling With The Rookies.” The campaign featured four NFL Rookies: Mitchell Trubisky, O.J. Howard, Mike Williams, and Haason Reddick.
Hyundai created a mini-documentary for each player, filming the prospects in their hometowns and talked with the people that helped make their dreams a reality, capturing their unique stories, from youth football to high school through the collegiate level. As part of the film, each player worked with Marcus Rivero to design a custom vehicle wrap for a Hyundai Santa Fe, visually bringing their story to life.
We spoke to Marcus about his involvement in Hyundai’s “Rolling With The Rookies.” project, according to the famed cleat designer, it wasn’t that big of an adjustment to design an actual Santa Fe vehicle. “A car is like a supersized version of a cleat, I had more space to play with, I was able to do more things I couldn’t do on shoes, it was fun.”
Check out our full interview above as Marcus goes more in depth about the collaboration, designing for 500+ football players, who he’d love to work with in the future and much more. Make sure to follow his Instagram account @Solesbysir to keep updated with his latest work.
The mini-documentaries and all of the content for “Rolling with the Rookies” presented by Hyundai can be found at Hyundaiusa.com/NFL, on Hyundai’s YouTube channel and at HyundaiNews.com.
photos/vid by Mike Law
