Prep Network’s Drip of the Week: A’mazing Kicks, A Custom Cleat King, and Real Ones Wear Pink
Anwar Stetson
Highlighting Trending Accessories in Youth Sports 🔥🔥🔥
The King of Custom Cleats Has an Important Recovery
Salvatore Marcum isn’t your average custom cleat creator. The 33-year-old, known as mpls_customs on Instagram, blew up on social media after connecting with Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Rashod Bateman. He’s created dozens of custom cleats for the fifth-year NFL pro, leading to collaborations with high-profile athletes across the sports world.
Marcum has created custom designs for NFL, NBA, and WNBA players, including 2025 NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. But despite his dedication, Marcum has been dealing with a heartbreaking battle off the field.
For over two years, the Minneapolis, Minnesota-native has been dealing with testicular cancer.
Just this week, though, he announced that he is on the road to recovery after “over a 1,000 hours of chemo,” two surgeries, and the removal of over five tumors. Every time you watch the Baltimore Ravens or another team around the NFL on Sunday, you may see one of Marcum’s custom cleats.
Real Ones Wear Pink
Marcum’s story comes at an opportune time–October marks Breast Cancer Awareness Month. If you’re just a casual football fan, you may be confused to see a traditionally “manly” sport decked out in pink colors. But for years, the NFL had customized pink gear in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Though the league stopped the practice in 2016, replacing “pink” with other cancer support themes, one company is bringing it back.
Apparel shop NXTRND just dropped some new pink football gear for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Check out some of their pink gloves, leg sleeves, turf tape, mouth guards, and other dripped-out accessories.
Today’s youth players love ski masks, (sometimes referred to as “sheisty’s”), and NXTRND even has a pink-colored Sheisty mask for football players to rock as the autumn weather cools down. The merch is selling quickly, however, so get yours while you can.
Half Woman, Half A’mazing!
A’ja Wilson elevated her status as an inspirational icon for young girls when she dropped her debut shoe this year: the A’ones. The promotional commercial for the A’one prominently featured the four-time MVP interacting with young Black girls in her home state of South Carolina. Now, a new colorway dropped this week as the two-time WNBA champion prepares for a shot at title number three this weekend.
Originally dropping in pink earlier this week, the champagne gold colors debuted on Wednesday, just a day after the Las Vegas Aces defeated the Indiana Fever in a thrilling five-game semifinal series. On her way to becoming one of the most decorated players in WNBA history, Wilson has done her part to grow the game of women’s basketball and serve as an inspiration for young girls’ basketball players across the world.
The Las Vegas Aces face the Phoenix Mercury in game one of the WNBA Finals on Friday. If the Aces emerge victorious, Vegas will have won three of the last four WNBA championships. The conversation about the Aces’ status as one of the league’s greatest all-time dynasties will begin.
Fortunately, that’s why the new champagne gold A’one’s are titled: “dyNASTY”. Because Wilson isn’t just a part of an all-time great team, her game is nasty enough to strike both fear and admiration across the women’s basketball landscape.