{"id":314481,"date":"2013-07-17T15:17:45","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T20:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/?p=314481"},"modified":"2022-09-16T17:07:43","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T22:07:43","slug":"baseball-pes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/baseball-pes\/","title":{"rendered":"Fielder’s Choice: A Look at the Rise of Player Exclusives in the MLB"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u201cPE\u201d attachment to sneaker titles may not carry the weight it once did, but the kicks the letters describe are usually noteworthy. For obvious reasons, basketball players as early as George Gervin<\/strong> have received personalized basketball shoes. It is not a rare occasion to see an NBA athlete rocking a popular pair of kicks in an unattainable colorway, complete with their own logo and jersey number. That trend has also made its way to the football field, as the number of NFL players with shoe contracts increase. However, if you have paid attention our Base Kicks<\/strong><\/em><\/a> column, you may have realized the brands are starting to dip into the MLB PE realm on a larger scale. Snkrs Day takes a look at this rising development, as we examine the growing number of MLB players wearing exclusive cleat colorways.<\/p>\n Adam Jones’ banned Nike Air Swingman MVP “Camo” PE Cleats\n

\u201cPE\u201d is an abbreviation for Player Exclusive, which describes sneakers that were made specifically for the athlete wearing them. The PE tag is usually attached when the shoe features elements that identify a particular player or team. With athletes wearing regulation uniforms, their footwear is generally the only way players can differentiate themselves and express their individuality. Unlike the NBA, players in Major League Baseball are up against strict uniform policies. On page 7 of the 2013 Official Baseball Rules, Rule 1.11(a)(3) states that \u201cNo player whose uniform does not conform to that of his teammate shall be permitted to participate in a game.\u201d This rule of conformity was strictly enforced twice this year. MLB officials warned Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Carl Crawford to refrain from wearing the mismatching Jordan 6 Rings PE Cleats that he wore during the Jackie Robinson Day game. MLB went a step further to forbid Baltimore Orioles Centerfielder Adam Jones from donning Nike Air Swingman MVP \u201cCamo\u201d Cleats during a May game. These occurred after a similar \u201ccamo\u201d was allowed during special Jackie Robinson Day festivities, and an off-field trainer with the exact same design was created. Does this mean the creativity of players\u2019 game cleats are stifled to the point that brands would not consider lacing their athletes with special edition pairs? Read on.<\/p>\n Air Jordan 11 “Jimmy Rollins” PE Cleat\n

As late as two years ago, it was not a common occurrence to see a litany of PEs scattered throughout an MLB game. However, more attention was paid to the feet of baseball players when New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia and Phildelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins were spotted in Air Jordan PE Cleats. Not only were there spikes added to favorite Jordan models, but the players wore colorways that were not available in sneaker form. This started the cry for Jordan Brand to release said color schemes to the public. That has yet to happen, but this year we have seen more players with Jordan PE cleats. Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price laced up one the best Jordan adaptations to date when he rocked an Air Jordan 12 PE cleat in a game earlier this season. Is Jordan Brand ahead of the curve, or are this wasted time and wasted dollars?
\n<\/p>\n Air Jordan 11 CC Sabathia “200th Win” PE Cleats\n

Jordan Brand may have been a bit ahead of the game, but other brands have caught on. In terms of number of athletes sponsored, Nike dominates basketball courts. On the other hand, the sponsorship varies in professional baseball. The niche market allows for a diversity of brands. For perspective, the NBA has approximately 450 players. Only one player in the NBA, San Antonio Spurs forward Matt Bonner, has a New Balance contract. That is .2% of the entire league. Conversely, MLB has approximately 750 players, and 259 of them sport New Balance cleats. That is about 35% of the league rocking the vaunted \u201cN\u201d. One of the leagues most highly touted\u00a0 young stars of all-time, Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper, is signed to Under Armour. What does this mean? The diversity of brands allow more opportunities to bring attention to their product by lacing their athletes with eye-grabbing exclusive cleats. Under Armour paid homage to mothers everywhere with a special pack of pink baseball cleats for their players to wear on Mother\u2019s Day this year. New Balance released a combination pack that included two commemorative sneakers and two commemorative cleats to celebrate the 2013 MLB All-Star Game, and its return to New York. Even Jordan Brand created a celebratory pair of cleats for C.C. Sabathia\u2019s 200th victory. Brands are constantly looking for ways to distinguish their product in a possibly flooded market. The range of brands increases competition, which results in more intriguing cleats. The goal is to transition them from a mere uniform accessory to a conversation piece. Saying that, baseball players do not wear sneakers, so do special cleats even matter?<\/p>\n Under Armour “Mother’s Day” Cleats\n

Our Sneak Peek<\/strong><\/em><\/a> series takes us into the closets of celebrities and athletes. One of the more surprising tours host George Kiel received was from Kansas City Royals pitcher Jeremy Guthrie. Guthrie does not have an extensive sneaker closet. Instead, Guthrie has a temperature controlled sneaker vault. Within his collection, he has sneakers that he converted into spikes that can actually be used in games. He also hinted at other kicks he would like to play in. Also, Nike Baseball joined Instagram just over a month ago proving that they understand the importance of placing product in from of clients. As we know, Instagram is based on images. Run of the mill cleats will not garner the attention they desire. It is not unreasonable for one to assume Nike will come up with even more exclusive cleats.<\/p>\n

Can fans play in the baseball cleats of their favorite players like they can of their favorite basketball players? Not yet. Even professionals are not on the diamond 24 hours a day, and the season is not 365 days a year. There are offseason and off-field opportunities to capitalize on concerning the increasing popular of PE baseball cleats. As we said previously, the Nike Air Max 360 Swingman \u201cCamo\u201d was made in the vein of its cleated counterpart. We see no reason why this trend will not see an uptick, and we are ready for it.<\/p>\n Air Jordan 3 Cleat PE from Jeremy Guthrie’s Collection\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u201cPE\u201d attachment to sneaker titles may not carry the weight it once did, but the kicks the letters describe are usually noteworthy. For obvious reasons, basketball players as early as George Gervin have received personalized basketball shoes. It is not a rare occasion to see an NBA athlete rocking a popular pair of kicks in an unattainable colorway, complete with their own logo and jersey number. That trend has also made its way to the football field, as the number of NFL players with shoe contracts increase. However, if you have paid attention our Base Kicks column, you may have realized the brands are starting to dip into the MLB PE realm on a larger scale. Snkrs Day takes a look at this rising development, as we examine the growing number of MLB players wearing exclusive cleat colorways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4653,"featured_media":314515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[618],"tags":[1204896],"cultivate_rss":[],"class_list":{"2":"type-post"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFielder's Choice: A Look at the Rise of Player Exclusives in the MLB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Snkrs Day takes a look at the growing trend of Player Exclusive cleats in Major League Baseball.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/baseball-pes\/\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/baseball-pes\/2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fielder's Choice: A Look at the Rise of Player Exclusives in the MLB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Snkrs Day takes a look at the growing trend of Player Exclusive cleats in Major League Baseball.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/baseball-pes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Snkrs Day\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NiceKicks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-17T20:17:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-16T22:07:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/files\/2013\/07\/fielders-choice-lead.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"748\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"461\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tee Jay Void\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@snkrsday\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@snkrsday\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tee Jay Void\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"WebPage\",\"ItemPage\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/baseball-pes\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/baseball-pes\/\",\"name\":\"Fielder's Choice: A Look at the Rise of Player Exclusives in the MLB\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/baseball-pes\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/baseball-pes\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/files\/2013\/07\/fielders-choice-lead.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-17T20:17:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-16T22:07:43+00:00\",\"description\":\"Snkrs Day takes a look at the growing trend of Player Exclusive cleats in Major League Baseball.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/baseball-pes\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/baseball-pes\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/baseball-pes\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/files\/2013\/07\/fielders-choice-lead.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/files\/2013\/07\/fielders-choice-lead.jpg\",\"width\":748,\"height\":461,\"caption\":\"Fielder's Choice: A Look at the Rise in Player Exclusives in the MLB\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/baseball-pes\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Features\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/\",\"name\":\"Snkrs Day\",\"description\":\"Sneakers News. 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