Got a little gift in our inbox the other day… Jay Bruce’s new Seattle Mariners player exclusive cleats. Lets take a look at Bruce’s home and away cleats this year, both Alpha Huarache Elite 2s that you can customize on NIKEiD or in stock options on Eastbay.
If you recall, Jay Bruce was actually one of Griffey’s “Swingmen” before the brand got phased out a couple seasons ago. Bruce has always gotten the ace treatment from Nike, so it was an underrated WPW-friendly move when Bruce was traded to the Mariners in the offseason. Notice the glass bottoms, which are designed to dig like metal but still have the feel of molded cleats.
The inner collar is desert camo, which looks a little out of place on this cleat. The pattern is cool, but I would have stuck with the Mariners color palette for this part, too. This picture also shows a subtle camo-like appearance on the white parts of the cleat, too. Bruce has had 3M reflective cleats before, so maybe this is the same deal.
Here are the away cleats, which just make my soul happy. These babies will make Griffey proud, and if WPW had a squad, these would be the team issue cleats.
Bruce put his boys’ initials on the back of each…
…and their names underneath the glass bottoms! This is a Big League touch. With those glass bottoms, I could see some tropical fish under there, too.
Bruce’s number on the heel with a closer look at the reptilian pattern. Reptile seems like the animal print to have this year. Waiting for the day when guys start putting feathers on their cleats…
Which do you like better? I’ve changed my mind about 15 times while writing this post, but if I had to choose, I’ll take the teals.