Inside Tarik Skubal's custom 'Scooby Doo' cleats, as explained by creators
Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal wears his emotions on his sleeve, but aside from wearing Cartier sunglasses and a Shinola watch on the All-Star Game red carpet, he doesn't go out of his way to make fashion statements.
"Just give me a baseball," Skubal said.
It's no surprise Skubal has never ordered custom cleats — until now.
Skubal, who has a 2.53 ERA in 24 starts and is running away with the American League Cy Young Award, plans to wear his new Scooby Doo-themed Nike cleats when he pitches Sunday night against the New York Yankees in the Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It's the final game of MLB Players Weekend, which allows players to express their personalities with custom-made equipment.
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The Scooby Doo cleats were created by Stadium Custom Kicks , as were Colt Keith's Fortnite-themed cleats.
"They look great," Skubal said. "They're cool."
Alex Katz, who founded Stadium Custom Kicks in August 2019, received the order from the Tigers in the last week of July, sent by home clubhouse manager Dan Ross. Ari Solomon designed the cleats, and Elliott Gilardi painted the cleats.
"Every time that I see professional athletes wearing our cleats, it's still kind of surreal," Gilardi said. "All the time and hours you put in perfecting a design and perfecting a cleat, it's very rewarding to see professional athletes, the best of the best, wearing the cleats you worked hard to create."
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The project started with a conversation between Ross and Skubal.
"Do you want cleats for Players' Weekend?" Ross said.
"I don't really do that," Skubal said.
"Well, I'll send in a pair of white ones," Ross said. "What do you want to do?"
"Everyone calls me 'Skub,' so probably just a Scooby Doo theme," Skubal said.
From there, Stadium Custom Kicks took over the project.
Katz, the founder, sent an email to Solomon, the designer, that included an outline describing the cleat and the theme. A lot of players, such as Yankees outfielder Jazz Chisholm, provide a lengthy list of details with several bullet points, but Skubal had what was considered a very simple request.
For Skubal's order, Solomon received just two pieces of information. The cleat: Men's Force Zoom Trout 8 Pro Baseball Cleats. The theme: Scooby Doo.
"I got the vibe that Tarik was looking for something sleek with more accents," Solomon said. "I'll usually go through 10, 15 different revisions to see how different things work. I choose my favorite and usually send one or two for them to check out."
The Nike cleats received a Scooby Doo makeover, all while maintaining a clean and bright appearance as the original white synthetic mesh covers the laces. The Nike "Swoosh" logo is brown with black spots, reminiscent of Scooby Doo's fur pattern. The heel of the cleat, reminiscent of the Mystery Machine van, has bright teal as the primary color with neon green as the secondary color, plus bright orange flowers with yellow centers. The white midsole has a speckled pattern of blue and orange.
Most importantly, the middle of the cleat showcases a portrait of Scooby Doo and Shaggy.
"I'm a very visual designer," Solomon said. "I don't like to map things out. I just go straight into it without any initial thought process. This cleat, I know Scooby Doo colors are green and blue because of the Mystery Machine. I like to look for the coolest colors and throw them on the board, and then I start trying things. When something clicks with me, I'll keep it. It's like I'm building a puzzle, but I don't know what the puzzle is going to look like. Usually, that's how it comes together."
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After designing the cleat, Solomon sent the design to Katz, who emailed Ross, who showed Skubal. Once Skubal approved, the Scooby Doo-themed cleats entered the painting phase of the project, completed by Gilardi.
Some cleats require 20 hours, but Gilardi needed just seven hours to paint Skubal's cleats.
"You get the cleat, and you have to acetone it to get the factory finish off the shoe for the paint to be able to stick," Gilardi said. "You got to use acetone, sand it down, use some adhesion promoter, and then you can hand paint or airbrush. You use a finisher at the end to make the paint stay for the players to wear them."
Gilardi hand-painted the Scooby Doo and Shaggy portrait, which took the most time, as well as the Nike logo. He airbrushed the heel of the cleat with the Mystery Machine colors.
Before painting, Gilardi had to color match by mixing different paints to get the exact colors from the design.
"You want to make the cleats look like the Scooby Doo colors," Gilardi said, "so that was probably the most difficult part, just figuring out how to get the right colors. That took a little bit, but in the end, I think it turned out pretty well."
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The Tigers players packed their bags Saturday afternoon in preparation to leave Sunday morning for Williamsport to play in the MLB Little League Classic against the Yankees, televised on ESPN.
Skubal filled his duffle bag with all of his baseball gear, and at the very top of the pile, he placed his Scooby Doo-themed cleats.
All eyes will be on the custom cleats Sunday night.
"The Scooby Doo cleats turned out fantastic," said Katz, the founder of Stadium Custom Kicks. "The cleat model Tarik is wearing is particularly complex, as it incorporates different types of plastics, which are difficult to paint on. We were able to integrate a vibrant and engaging Scooby Doo design that truly pops."
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tarik Skubal's custom 'Scooby Doo' cleats for Little League Classic
