Look closely at Dak’s cleats. There’s a chance this former TCU student painted them
When Jada Henderson first posted on Instagram a design she made for her younger brother’s track spikes in 2020, she thought painting shoes would be just a hobby.
She had no idea that a year later, in 2021, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott would ask her to paint his cleats for a game.
“Then after that, so many people asked,” Henderson said. “I was like, OK, maybe this is like a side hustle. I never thought it would be like a full-time thing.”
Henderson is now booked out for the next three months painting shoes and cleats with various logos for NFL teams and colorful designs. Since January she has been designing and painting the shoes out of her house in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Before that, she lived in Dallas, Texas. She also attended Texas Christian University for a year and worked on the football equipment staff.
“My dad got to play football in the league for a long time and so football has always been like a really big part of my life,” Henderson said.
For the Dallas Cowboys she usually gets requests for cleat and sneaker designs through the equipment staff but for those not in the NFL she takes requests on her business website.
“Now I’m starting to get guys from a lot of guys from other teams,” Henderson said.
Henderson has done shoe designs for Micah Parsons, Tony Pollard and Michael Gallup. She’s also done designs for players on the Tennessee Titans, the New York Jets, the Carolina Panthers, the Baltimore Ravens and the Cleveland Browns.
But the former TCU student’s first NFL customer was Prescott. Her dad,former NFL quarterback Jon Kitna, set Henderson up to paint Prescott’s shoes. Kitna played for the Dallas Cowboys from 2009 to 2011 and was the quarterback coach in 2019.
“My dad had coached him the year before and told him that I did shoes,” Henderson said. “Nothing ever really came of it. Then a year later, he was like, ‘Can you ask your daughter if she’ll paint some shoes for my friends for Christmas?’” Henderson said.
Kitna put them in touch. After Prescott received the shoes, he asked Henderson to paint his cleats.
“Dak was definitely the most exciting to work with because you know him and you’re like, ‘I see you on TV,’” she said.
Henderson does custom designs for other shoes, too, and works with more than NFL players.
“A majority of my work is definitely just Air Forces and Jordans and other shoes like that. But I take requests through my website,” Henderson said.
This story was originally published November 23, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
