Meet the ex-pitcher changing the game one pair of custom cleats at a time

Suffice to say, no-hitters don’t happen every day, so when Michael Lorenzen threw one in 2023 in just his second start for the Phillies, it was obviously a significant feat. But even more rare than the no-no itself were the cleats he was wearing: a crisp pair of Vans, which are generally seen at skate parks and virtually never on the pitcher’s mound.

The Vans weren’t a surprise, though, given the pitcher: Lorenzen, an Anaheim native nostalgic for home, had long used the SoCal staple as his on-field footwear.

“Being away from home for so long, my first part of my career made me really appreciate everything about where I’m from,” Lorenzen, who pitched for the Rockies in 2026, told MLB.com’s Thomas Harding. “So that’s when I kind of decided, you know what, I want to wear some Vans and pitch in them, and represent where I’m from.”

There was, of course, the slight matter that Vans does not make cleats. That’s where Custom Cleats and owner Jeremy Guthrie came in.

Since 2020, Lorenzen has customized the look of his preferred model, the UltraRange, on Vans’ web site. Vans mails him the sneakers and he forwards them to Custom Cleats, which specializes in adding spikes to existing shoes to make them game-ready.

Thanks to Lorenzen’s gem, the rest is literal history: One of those pairs of cleated Vans earned itself a permanent residence in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“That gave us tons of visibility,” Guthrie said in a recent conversation at MLB’s NYC headquarters. “Michael’s been one of our most loyal customers and part of our family.”

That family has grown by leaps and bounds. Custom Cleats’ reach has exploded in recent years -- their Instagram account has gained more than 30,000 followers since Lorenzen’s no-hitter -- and a few hundred MLB players use its services. But its clientele is not restricted to the highest levels of the sport.

“We did a few thousand conversions last year,” Guthrie said. “We have customers that are 3 years old all the way up to MLB All-Stars.”

Guthrie started as a customer himself. Like many of us, his love affair with sneakers began in his youth; enamored by his first pair of Air Jordan 1s and its namesake, he posted up sneaker advertisements in his bedroom and marveled over details like the smell of the glue on the AJ V’s clear outsoles.

During his ensuing journey to the Major Leagues, he forged connections with sneakerheads on and off the field, trading shoes and stories, acquiring both an impressive collection and a groundswell of knowledge.

By the time Guthrie broke through with the Orioles in the late 2000s, he had built an online rep as a premier collector -- for example, he owns a signed pair of Michael Jordan’s game-used baseball cleats (!) -- not to mention a walking sneaker encyclopedia. Though he hadn’t yet found a way to translate his passion to the field, he’d seen some players who had.

“Jim Thome comes to mind, Eric Chavez from the A’s. Those were players that I’d seen wearing unique cleats, so I knew it existed,” Guthrie said. “I asked my agent, ‘Can you find a company that does it?’ He did and the shoes showed up, and I wore them a couple times and broke the early Internet, as you would say.”

That first pair of orange-and-black Air Jordan 1s opened a lot of eyes, including Guthrie’s. As he established himself as a 15-game winner with Kansas City, he commissioned more customs, most notably a royal blue pair of Nike Foamposites; he thinks he’s still the only MLB player to rock Foams on the field.

And then opportunity knocked, at an auspicious time: Guthrie was offered the opportunity to buy a stake in Custom Cleats in 2015, sealing the deal right before Game 4 of the Royals’ World Series victory.

“I believed in the company,” Guthrie said. “The owner reached out to me and asked if I'd be interested in investing and I'm like, ‘Yeah, this is a great concept. I love it personally and I know that other players love it, so let me invest.’"

Eight years later, he purchased the entire company from its founder, Anthony Ambrosini, who stayed involved to help make customs.

“He still loves it,” Guthrie said with a laugh. “He calls it ‘his therapy.’”

Business has only grown on Guthrie’s watch. Major League players have long been interested in expressing themselves through their footwear, but until relatively recently, they had to work around an MLB rule that required 51 percent of a player’s cleat to be their team’s designated primary shoe color.

The inaugural Players’ Weekend in 2017 seemed to be a bit of a turning point as MLB encouraged players to celebrate their individuality via their cleats and gear. The event was popular among fans and players alike, and it was probably no coincidence the league and the MLBPA came together to waive the 51 percent restriction roughly a year later.

With players freely able to wear their favorite sneakers on the field, increasingly more have turned to Custom Cleats to make it happen. One of them is White Sox pitcher Sean Burke -- a big-time AAU basketball player in his youth -- who has donned three colorways of the Air Jordan XI during some of his best starts this season.

“It’s probably my favorite pair of cleats this year,” Burke told MLB.com’s Scott Merkin. “I really like Air Jordan XIs, they are probably my favorite sneaker. … Growing up playing basketball, wearing different basketball shoes, I thought it was cool. So it’s the same thing, being able to wear different shoes on the mound.”

Aesthetics aside, Guthrie swears by his cleats’ comfort and quality, and many of his clients do as well. Vaughn Grissom, in fact, credits Custom Cleats in part for facilitating his breakout 2026 season with the Angels.

“I had [plantar fasciitis] last year, which hindered me in a lot of ways,” Grissom told MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger. “So I found basketball shoes with thicker soles. I was like, ‘Man, if I can get these turned to cleats, I think this can change the course of my career.’

“I used to not, after games, be able to almost make it to the training room because I was in terrible pain. But I’m in a whole different spot. … The group that does the custom cleats, they’re phenomenal.”

Plenty of non-baseball players also think so. Basketball star Donovan Mitchell debuted his adidas D.O.N. 5 sneaker with a cleated version at the 2023 All-Star Celebrity Softball Game, and the company has supplied spikes for actors Paul Rudd and Jason Sudeikis. Also, in a neat full circle moment, they frequently convert cleats for the Van Doren family -- which owns Vans -- to use for golf and softball.

Along with all those high-profile customers, Guthrie’s goal is to let it be known that his cleats are accessible to literally everyone. Need fun golf spikes for a company outing? Or an unforgettable birthday gift for your favorite Little Leaguer? Custom Cleats has you covered -- and Guthrie is willing to work with families when money is tight.

“I do think it has the potential to grow much more,” Guthrie said, “And it's just a matter of getting the word out because I think every kid, or adult for that matter, that sees the concept thinks to themselves, ‘Oh my gosh. I’ve got a pair of shoes I'd want to convert.’

“I just want to see it on as many players as want to have it. We want every player that wants to express themselves through footwear to know that we exist, and to come to us.”