Heading into his junior season at Indiana, Marcelino McCrary-Ball spent the beginning of the summer of 2018 playing “Fortnite” and “Call of Duty,” much to the dismay of his girlfriend, now wife.
“She wanted me to use my time more wisely,” McCrary-Ball said.
In response, she bought several blank canvases and the pair spent the summer painting, becoming more enamored with it each day. Soon, more creative items, such as football cleats, became their own canvases.
“I wasn't really into sleeves or armbands or even gloves at the time,” McCrary-Ball said. “I didn't have too much of a swag really. So I just wanted to paint my cleats to kind of stand out just a little bit.”
What began as a replacement for video games, evolved into a way to stand out on the football field. Now, McCrary-Ball is well-recognized as a top artist in the NFL, in addition to playing. The New York Jets linebacker has designed cleats for NFL players since his college days, and more players request his services each year.
The artistic talent always lived within him, specifically coming from his grandmother — a natural artist — McCrary-Ball said, he just didn’t use it.
His first “piece” was a cardinal, drawn in the fourth grade. He loved birds as a kid, and drew the colorful bird during class.
“I just remember the teacher like she was so amazed at how good it was,” McCrary-Ball said. “I didn’t think nothing of it.”
It wasn’t until he discovered his affinity for painting in the summer of 2018 that this artistic side truly blossomed.
Demand for his services grew almost immediately among Hoosiers athletes. Wrestlers, runners, and of course his teammates, all wanted custom footwear. But between football, school and wanting to paint simply as a hobby, the demand was too great.
“I tried to reach my arms out too wide,” McCrary-Ball said. “But I couldn't even complete half the opportunities. I wasn’t ready yet. I said too many yeses ... and I was too busy.”
Still, word of his talents reached the NFL. During the fall of 2021, his sixth and final season of college football — McCrary-Ball suffered two season-ending injuries that resulted in medical redshirts — Bengals tight end C.J. Uzomah reached out about a custom pair of cleats for the NFL’s “My Cause My Cleats” week.
“If I was a college kid and an NFL guy was like ‘Hey, what’s up? Can you design these cleats for me? I would freak out,” Uzomah said in a Bengals video unboxing the cleats in 2021. “I gave him kind of creative control and he went for it and he crushed it.”
“I’m not in the NFL now,” McCrary-Ball said of the moment he saw Uzomah wear them against the Chargers in Dec. 2021. “But someone in the NFL is wearing my cleats, like that’s fire.”
Two years later, McCrary-Ball and Uzomah were teammates on the Jets.
“I don't know, it's like, art imitates life, or life imitates art, but I'm just like, bro, my locker's right next to his,” McCrary-Ball said. “Like what the heck. This is crazy.”
That same season, McCrary-Ball also produced "My Cause My Cleats" custom shoes for former NFL offensive lineman Wes Martin, and since then, the requests have continued to pour in.
After signing with the 49ers as an undrafted free agent in 2022, McCary-Ball designed "My Cause My Cleats" customs for fellow San Francisco linebacker Oren Burks, as well as 49ers linebacker coach Johnny Holland, who was battling Multiple Myeloma.
Following his stint in San Francisco, McCrary-Ball signed with the Jets in the fall of 2023, where his designs have reached new heights and new audiences.
Fellow Jets linebacker Quincy Williams loves to dress up on holidays, and goes all out. Around Christmas 2022, Williams warmed up on the field before a game in a full Grinch costume, and followed it up on Halloween 2023 by entering the stadium dressed as The Joker.
For the Jets’ 2023 Christmas Eve game, Williams asked McCrary-Ball for custom cleats. Knowing Williams’ love of the Grinch, McCrary-Ball followed suit, designing them with a phrase on the side, “How Quincy Stole Christmas.”
“Bro, I’m padded up in the game, next to Quincy Williams,” McCrary-Ball said. “He's wearing my cleats, and I was wearing my own cleats. I was just like, bro, this is crazy."
Unfortunately, Williams was asked to take the cleats off at halftime due to an NFL rule about words being written on the cleats, McCrary-Ball said. Naturally after changing his cleats, Williams secured a second-half interception to help the Jets defeat the Commanders.
“I was like, 'No!'" McCrary-Ball said. “It would’ve been so crazy if it was like ‘How Quincy Stole Christmas’ and then he got a pick.”
His favorite cleats are always the ones he designs for others, and despite the Christmas Eve misfortune, Williams’ cleats remain McCrary-Ball’s favorite that he’s created, even though they were “rushed” and he may have changed some things.
“He’s got a career path after football for sure,” Williams said.
While it may be easy to consider art to be an outlet for football, his passion for his work brings out the same effects.
Looking at his previous pieces and watching game film evoke “literally the same” reactions, always wishing there’s something he did differently, but also always seeing something he’s proud of.
One of those moments came this past February, when the Jets asked McCrary-Ball to design Black History Month custom shoes.
Originally, McCrary-Ball wanted to fashion a design incorporating different elements from all of New York’s five boroughs, but ultimately it wasn’t something he “could feel,” a critical part of his creative process.
“I didn’t want it to be fake,” McCrary-Ball said. “Even if it didn’t come off as fake and forced ... it wasn’t genuine. I kind of just wanted to please the viewers, rather than, you know, please myself, as well as the viewers.
“Hopefully the viewers (and I), you know, we kind of see it together.”
Ultimately, McCrary-Ball’s construction featured Black New York icons like Jackie Robinson, Biggie Smalls and Sammy Davis Jr., mixed with images, phrases and different shading and coloring.
Designing cultural projects like this tap into what makes McCrary-Ball himself.
He lived part of his childhood in India, and experiencing different cultures and ways of thinking from across the globe helped foster a more innovative mindset. One which allows him to weave in people, places and ideologies that others may not think to connect.
His success here will certainly lead to other projects. When he first arrived in New York in 2023, he didn’t want to cause a scene and offer to create everyone’s cleats when NFL Week 13 and 14 rolled out "My Cause My Cleats."
Now, a veteran with Gang Green, he already has big plans. He can’t reveal what his own cleat design will be for those weeks, but ideas and mock-ups are already in the works. And he’ll definitely take care of the rest of the Jets linebackers as well.
What’s most important, McCrary-Ball said, is that when he’s been asked to do projects like these Black History Month shoes, or Uzomah and Williams’ cleats, that they trust his judgment, perspective and his adaptability.
McCrary-Ball designs mock-ups for every one of his pieces, but rarely sticks to the script, and that’s when he feels he’s at his best.
“I just let stuff flow. I don’t follow the rules of whatever I laid down. I feel like me painting is like Lil Wayne rapping,” McCrary-Ball said. “Just give me some colors ... and let me cook.”
Matt Liberman is a reporter and video producer for cllct.