AURORA— An Aurora shoe artist is turning heads with her custom hand-painted cleats featuring Coors Field at the All-Star Game Sole Power exhibit.
Breanna Berry’s cleats were on full display inside a clear box for fans to admire at Play Ball Park. Countless people stopped by to admire the detail and time put into the one-of-a-kind shoes.
Berry calls herself "Colorado’s Queen of Custom Shoe Art." Her work exploded on Instagram and through word of mouth in 2017.
“My very first professional athlete was (former Bronco wide receiver) Demaryius Thomas,” Berry said.
Her client list is now made up of athletes in the NBA, NFL, MLB and celebrities like Machine Gun Kelly and Kel Mitchell.
In May, Berry was contacted by a spokesperson with the All-Star Game to hand paint a custom pair of cleats to showcase at the Sole Power exhibit at Play Ball Park.
“I was like, 'This is actually insane.' I had a little moment of sitting there like, this is crazy,” Berry said. “It’s here in Denver, so I had to go with purple for the Rockies.”
She was one of three people selected to showcase her talent and the only Coloradan woman of color. It took her more than four hours to freestyle her vision onto the cleats. The All-Star Game cleats were on display for five days. Berry said she nearly cried when a little boy asked her for an autograph at the exhibit.
“Sitting there and watching everybody be so drawn to my shoe was so amazing and a lot of them didn’t realize I was sitting right there,” Berry said.
In 2019 and 2020, Berry made 99 custom shoes for Broncos players for the NFL's "My Cleats My Cause."
“They all wear cleats that represent a cause that they are working with or something that is near and dear to their hearts,” Berry said.
For years, Berry struggled to find her niche in the art world.
She spent most of her life painting and sketching and wasn’t ready to give up her passion, so she kept chipping away, searching for her calling. She said she remembers waking up one morning in 2017 feeling inspired and decided she was going to paint a pair of her Timberland boots. She painted Mickey Mouse on her boots and posted a photo on Instagram. It marked the beginning of her career as a custom shoe artist. She received an outpouring of support that allowed her newly found passion to explode.
“I promise you, if you just stick to it and find something you love, stay dedicated, you literally can take off,” Berry said.
Berry is a single mother and cares for her mother. She works a graveyard shift part-time and creates custom orders during the day. She’s lost track of how many custom shoes she’s created in the last four years.
“I just want to forever do what I love and do this full-time for eternity,” Berry said. “I’m always challenging myself. I want to be the dopest artist ever.”
Her next goal is to create a custom pair of shoes for NBA MVP Nikola Jokić. She says she has some big ideas in mind if he ever decides he wants a custom pair of shoes to hit the basketball court.