{"id":405147,"date":"2014-09-18T16:15:44","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T21:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/?p=405147"},"modified":"2022-09-17T12:43:27","modified_gmt":"2022-09-17T17:43:27","slug":"deangelo-hall-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/deangelo-hall-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"DeAngelo Hall Talks Custom Cleats & Sneaker Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"
DeAngelo Hall<\/strong> seems to always be at the epicenter of a big play. Whether he\u2019s sprinting down the sidelines of a packed Lane Stadium\u00a0or collecting an NFL record tying four interceptions in one game, Hall has a knack for the heroics at any level. With DeAngelo being known for exhibiting great style, the 11-year veteran is planning to sport various\u00a0customs cleats during the course of the 2014 NFL season. We recently caught up with the dynamic defensive back as he elaborated more on his desire to rock illustrious kicks both on the field and off of it.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: We noticed through the help of your former teammate London Fletcher that you were able to grab a pair of customs cleats from dezcustoms<\/a>.\u00a0Can you tell our readers a bit more about how that process developed?<\/strong><\/p>\n DeAngelo Hall:<\/strong> I\u2019ve always been a cat who likes to have some of the flyest things on the field. When I saw Fletch I was like, “You’ve got to give me your connect.” So, we talked to Dez and he was able to dial up a pair of cleats. In fact, the ones I had on this past weekend against the Jaguars had everyone on their team saying, “I’ve got to get me a pair of those cleats.” Everybody is feelin\u2019 it right now and it\u2019s sort of the ‘it’ thing to do. They don\u2019t make too many sweet football cleats, so we’ve got to get the standard pair and customize them ourselves.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: We spoke with SolesBySir earlier this week, a Miami-based artist that is going to produce some customs for you. What do you have coming next in regard to custom cleats?<\/strong><\/p>\n DeAngelo Hall:<\/strong>\u00a0Being that they don’t offer that many options of cleats, I reached out to a couple of guys for some work. [For example] one of Patrick Peterson’s guys is out in Arizona, so I get cleats from all over. I’m just kind of waiting for them all to get back so that I can figure out what I’m going to wear, what feels the best on my feet and what looks the best. Then I’ll just go from there.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: Does\u00a0the NFL uniform policy make it tough to wear elaborate cleats every game?<\/strong><\/p>\n DeAngelo Hall:<\/strong> Oh, absolutely man! [Laughs<\/em>] It\u2019s a $5,000 fine for the first offense and $10,000 the second offense, so it’s definitely a little ridiculous with the fines. The NFL is not quite like the NBA where you can be an individual. That’s kind of the brand of the NBA: everybody gets to go out there and be themselves. In the NFL, it’s a lot more strict than that. Since we’ve all got to fit into a box, we all try to do little things ourselves to put ourselves outside of that box.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: How have your cleat choices changed since you first started in the NFL?<\/strong><\/p>\n DeAngelo Hall:<\/strong> This is my 11th year and I remember being signed with Reebok. Early on, I wanted some custom kicks done and they were slow motion on it. I remember having a Monday Night Game and at the time I had Mike Vick on my team. Being very good friends with him, I had Nike dial me up a sweet pair of Vicks and I ended up putting them on for Monday Night Football. I ended up getting my Reebok contract pulled, but I was definitely clean out there.<\/p>\n Photos courtesy of Jon Wheeler<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Snkrs Day: I noticed standout defensive backs like yourself and Patrick Peterson have chosen in some instances to utilize a lacrosse cleat. What makes lacrosse cleats good for your game?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n DeAngelo Hall:<\/strong>\u00a0It just feels so good on your foot. It’s very similar to the football cleats, but a lot of guys used to actually wear soccer cleats. I know Sean Taylor, rest in peace, was a real big soccer cleat kind of guy because he really wanted the lightest things on his feet and something that felt comfortable. For me, soccer cleats weren’t really an option. Being a defensive back and having to react in a split second, you really have to get your toes into the ground and push off. The soccer cleats don’t give you that toe spike that football cleats give you and lacrosse cleats give you. I’ve always liked Huaraches and having a mid-level shoe. When I tried on my first pair of lacrosse cleats I fell in love with them.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: Being a member of the Nike family, do you have any involvement within the design process of your cleats?<\/strong><\/p>\n DeAngelo Hall:<\/strong> I used to back in my heyday. [Laughs<\/em>] However, for the most part we get standard cleats and every once in a while they’ll dial up a couple of different pairs. But there’s really no creative design involved, unless you’re one of the top guys and have your own signature shoe like a Calvin Johnson or someone like that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Snkrs Day: Shifting towards your personal kicks, how many sneakers do you own within your collection?<\/strong><\/p>\n DeAngelo Hall:<\/strong> Oh man, I can’t even count it. I have boxes, on boxes, on boxes of shoes. I have houses in Atlanta and Virginia and both closets are at capacity. My wife has been urging me to get a lot of them out of there. Sometimes I’ll just have a giveaway and invite some of the homies over and give them some shoes I haven’t touched in a while.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: Do you remember the shoe that got everything started and made you fall in love with sneakers?<\/strong><\/p>\n DeAngelo Hall:<\/strong>\u00a0Air Jordans did it for me as far as building my passion for sneaks, but we rocked it all. I remember when Kobe was first with adidas I had those. I had the old Iversons, I rocked the Air Force Ones, I even rocked the old Filas with the strap.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: What’s currently in your sneaker rotation?<\/strong><\/p>\n DeAngelo Hall:<\/strong> I’m such a Kobe fan that I’m always rocking Kobes in each and every colorway. I’m also a huge KD fan, so those are probably my top two shoes at the moment. They’re both so easy to get on and they’re both so comfortable on your feet– you can wear them all day. I have almost every color of each shoe.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: I saw that you reached out to Kevin Durant about potentially getting a KD cleat. What’s the status on that?<\/strong><\/p>\n DeAngelo Hall:<\/strong> Yeah, back in the day the S. Carters were everywhere and everybody had them. I remember going to a Pro Bowl and seeing Roy Williams, who was a safety for Dallas, wearing a pair of the S. Dots as cleats. Through his connection with Kelly Rowland, he had Jay Z send me a pair and they were already hot as a casual shoe but to turn them into cleats, I was just like, “Maaaannn.”\u00a0<\/em>But with Kevin being the guy at Nike right now, I know that if [Reebok] can put cleats on the S. Carters, then [Nike] can put cleats on the bottom of some KDs. I’ve just got to get through to the right people and make that happen. I definitely would love to rock the KD cleat. He’s a huge Redskin fan being from the DC area. In fact, he was out there on Sunday. I ran out of the locker room so fast that I didn’t get a chance to run up on him and talk to him about it, but I’m definitely going to hit him up soon and try to make that happen.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: Lastly, what can we expect from you going forwards as far as cleats on the field?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n DeAngelo Hall<\/strong>: To continue to bring some hotness to the field. With me being a DB, obviously I believe in the mantra that if you look good, you play good. So, I’m always trying to look fly as possible and bring variation. I want to give each sneaker artist that I work with a chance to put something hot together. I try not to put too much pressure on them or put any limitations on them. I let the artist do what they do and hopefully I get a chance to rock them in a game. At some point I might end up auctioning them off, but for right now I’m wearing them to put ’em up.<\/p>\n You know, I don’t know why football players don’t get the same respect as far as having their own shoes, but there is definitely a market out there for it and hopefully this will be the start to some crazy things. Some crazy, big things.<\/p>\n Keep up with DeAngelo Hall on Instagram<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>. Tune into Gridiron Kicks<\/a> every week for more coverage of custom cleats.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DeAngelo Hall seems to always be at the epicenter of a big play. Whether he\u2019s sprinting down the sidelines of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":405246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[96,51,1219126],"tags":[1216825,1208882,1221066],"cultivate_rss":[],"class_list":{"2":"type-post"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n