Local artist HAM customizes cleats for All-American Bowl players

The nation’s top high school players head home with a colorful slice of HAM.

January 6, 2014; 6:44 AM • by Nathan Cushing

Local artist Hamilton Glass (aka HAM) was one of two artists who hand painted 108 cleats for players in last weekend’s U.S. Army’s All-American Bowl, a showcase of the nation’s top high school football players, televised nationally by NBC.

Glass and Else Oner were selected by Adidas to paint a limited number of cleats from the company’s RGIII line, made for the All-American Bowl players ahead of last Saturday’s game in San Antonio, Texas.

“We went to Texas and we basically had two days to customize 108 cleats,”¹ Glass said by phone. In each pair of cleats was a slip of paper, requests from players as to what each wanted painted on their cleat (Twitter handles, upcoming college teams, “or something like that,” Glass said). “It was definitely different than what I usually do.” He said each cleat took roughly 30 minutes to paint.

“Honestly, it was the biggest freestyle job I’ve ever done,” he said. “I don’t even think Adidas thought we would get them done.” Glass said meeting the players² and working with the athletic brand was a great experience. “I’d definitely work with Adidas again.”

In the coming months Glass will return to mural painting. He’s set to paint two of them for Moton Museum in Farmville and will also paint one for a church on the Southside.

Photo courtesy: Adidas

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Footnotes

Glass said the original plan called for 54 cleats to be completed in 10 days. ↩
He said most players kept the cleats as keepsakes and didn’t wear them during the bowl game. ↩

photo courtesy of Adidas