Iversons and Jordans in the Super Bowl: DeVonta Smith, Jalen Hurts, and the designer who pulled it off
Sean Vergara worked with the Eagles and two of their star players on custom cleats for the big game.
During Budda Baker’s rookie season with the Arizona Cardinals in 2017, the safety sent a pair of cleats to his former University of Washington teammate Sean Vergara to design.
Vergara, a walk-on defensive back who played for the Huskies from 2015 to 2018, had been doing custom sneaker designs and shoe restorations for four years at that point. But this was his first time designing cleats at the NFL level, after doing so for his college teammates as practice.
Eight years later, Vergara’s clientele for custom cleats has grown tremendously, and three of his cleat designs were on display during Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.
“I love being able to do this as a job, it’s like the coolest thing ever for me. So it’s really fulfilling being able to do that because I’ve always been a sneakerhead. At the same time, I’ve also always been an artist,” Vergara said by phone. “It’s really rewarding for me to be in a spot where I can combine all that stuff together and help guys create things that they get to wear. When it’s on a high level like this, and gets a lot of eyes and viewership, it’s really cool for me.”
Vergara has been designing shoes for 12 years, but he started to design cleats after Baker’s inquiry. Since then, he has turned his hobby into a full-time job, as his network grew after Baker spread the word of Vergara’s services. His Instagram account, “Seantehdon” has a catalog featuring hundreds of other cleat designs. Vergara’s account has over 53,000 followers.
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One cleat in particular that trended on social media during the Super Bowl was Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith’s Allen Iverson-inspired footwear. Named the Chrome Answer IV, Smith’s cleats had a chrome and black base, with the Iverson logo on the outside of each cleat.
It was the second-straight game Smith wore Iverson cleats. Against the Commanders, Smith wore metallic green Answer IV cleats, with a green and white base, a neon green and gray bottom, and neon green spikes.
Smith reached out to the 28-year-old Vergara in 2023, but nothing materialized until late this season, when Vergara sent over the Answer IV shoes, inspired by Iverson’s 2001 NBA Finals Game 1 pregame outfit that featured the green version of his signature shoe and a custom Eagles jersey with his name on the back.
Vergara had designed Iverson-inspired cleats during the 2023 season’s playoffs for San Francisco 49ers wideout Ray-Ray McCloud. He also designed cleats for Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Charles Omenihu in the Super Bowl — Lombardi Trophy-inspired chrome cleats honoring the Chiefs’ previous two Super Bowl wins.
“I take a base cleat that the athlete prefers to wear, so DeVonta sent some cleats that he wanted me to use, and then I just make the pattern based on the shoe,” Vergara said. “With that pattern, I pulled materials that match the designs and the colors [players] want. I used a metallic green to make [DeVonta’s cleats] this time.”
In addition to designing cleats for Smith, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was also a recipient of Vergara’s services. Since Hurts is sponsored by the Jordan Brand, he has special player edition cleats at his disposal. But after seeing Vergara’s Instagram, the Super Bowl MVP had Eagles assistant manager Peter Gould reach out. Vergara said Hurts wanted “some material swaps” on some of his cleats, including the PE Jordan XI kelly green cleats the quarterback wore during the Super Bowl.
Vergara originally designed the cleats for Hurts to wear during the Eagles’ Dec. 29 game against the Dallas Cowboys, a kelly green jersey game. But Hurts missed the game with a concussion and ended up changing into the Jordan XI cleats after warming up in custom-made “Bred” Air Jordan 1 cleats with the “UNBANNABLE” messaging on them, stemming from the commercial he recently starred in celebrating 40 years of the Jordan Brand. Hurts wasn’t allowed to wear them in-game because it didn’t match the team colors.
“It was really nice working with those guys from the Eagles, though, because Peter [Gould] would send me cleats as quickly as he could,” Vergara said. “He would send me labels to make sure stuff was logistically planned out smoothly. So that was really helpful.”
The original material swap for the Jordan XI included the inside cleat lining as kelly green to match the bottom base color of the cleat, but Vergara noted the lining had been changed to black for the Super Bowl. Still, Vergara takes great pride in Hurts’ wearing cleats he color-matched, especially since the viral photo of Hurts holding the Lombardi Trophy against the wall with the cigar in his mouth and the cleats on his feet have made the rounds.
“Seeing iconic historical moments like that and getting a glimpse of the shoes in the pictures is super cool for me,” Vergara said.