By Joel Crabtree
Excerpt from our January 2022 issue
Growing up, painting and football were Eamon White’s two loves. He picked up painting from his grandmother, a watercolor artist who lived in Damariscotta, and began playing college football in Portland before playing at the University of Maine and Merrimack College in Massachusetts. The 32-year-old has been teaching and coaching ever since – currently teaching art at schools in Lewiston and coaching Scarborough High’s JV football team. In 2020, however, he plunged into a parallel scramble that merged his aesthetic and sporting passions: styling cleats. He began contacting professional athletes cold on Instagram, and his first client was then New York Jets defensive back JT Hassell, who wanted a pair that promoted the Lucky Fin Project, a charity supporting children with hands under -developed. Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Cyril Grayson Jr. ordered a pair with a superhero theme. Portland Sea Dogs shortstop Ryan Fitzgerald requested a sky blue pair trimmed in pink and gold.
-
![]()
Photograph by Neil Shelley -
![]()
Photograph by Eamon White
White decorates the cleats using leather paint and a combination of brushes and airbrushes, and he charges around $250 a pair, depending on the scale of the design. Working on a small canvas in the shape of a foot is a challenge he enjoys. “Maybe it turns into a full-fledged business, maybe it doesn’t,” he says. “But it allows me to try new things, and I have fun with it.”
BUY THIS ISSUE
