UD alumnus Nate Benjamin, a graduate assistant athletic trainer for the Dallas Cowboys, has a lucrative side gig, making custom cleats for NFL players.

Designing for the pros

Article by Amy Cherry Photos courtesy of the Dallas Cowboys February 04, 2026

UD athletic training alumnus makes custom cleats for NFL stars

It was a primetime game early in the NFL season. The Dallas Cowboys were facing rivals, the Green Bay Packers, on home turf. Graduate assistant athletic trainer Nate Benjamin watched Dak Prescott, the Cowboys quarterback, walk out of the tunnel for warm-ups wearing a pair of custom cleats. The cleats resembled an old military plane, with shark teeth and paneling.

“Please don’t let the paint chip,” thought Benjamin from the sidelines.

Benjamin, who earned a master’s of science degree in athletic training from the University of Delaware College of Health Sciences in 2022, has a rare side gig: making custom cleats for pro football players.

“It was a crazy feeling to see my designs on one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL,” Benjamin said.

It all started on a whim while playing flag football.

“I noticed all the guys had custom cleats and cool designs, and I wondered if I could make a pair for myself,” Benjamin said.

He hadn’t taken an art class since middle school. Benjamin bought some cheap paint and spent hours watching YouTube tutorials.

He donned his first design — a Japanese-style samurai and red half-moon — while assisting Cowboys players with rehab during the off-season. They noticed.

“They saw my vision, thought it was awesome, and asked if I could make them a pair,” Benjamin said. “It’s mind-blowing how much it’s taken off.”

Custom cleats gained popularity in 2017 after the NFL loosened footwear rules, with wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. pushing the boundaries on the field.

“From there, it just exploded,” Benjamin said.

In the past six months alone, he’s made 40 pairs of custom cleats. Prescott never wears the same pair twice, so he keeps Benjamin busy off the clock.

“My favorite was a Halloween-themed design loosely inspired by Nike’s Kobe 5 X-ray shoes, made to mimic a skeleton of a foot,” he said.

Dak Prescott, the Dallas Cowboys quarterback, never wears the same pair of cleats twice. Prescott commissioned the team’s graduate assistant athletic trainer, Blue Hen Nate Benjamin, to make him a spooky for the team’s Halloween matchup against the New York Giants on Oct. 31, 2025.

Benjamin has also designed cleats for Chargers and Jets players. Each pair takes between eight and 10 hours, with more complex designs requiring a week of nightly work.

“I don’t sleep much,” he laughed.

He’s since invested in his craft, using an airbrush and a Cricut to cut vinyl stencils, and Angela’s leather paint, which he calls the gold standard.

“The paint won’t chip or wear — that’s a problem a lot of cleat designers have — no matter how hard they are on their feet,” he said.

Benjamin’s bosses support his side gig, even asking him to design cleats for the My Cleats My Cause game, which allows players, coaches and staff to showcase charitable causes on their feet.

While he loves helping injured players return to sport, Benjamin also hopes to grow his business by learning to stitch cleats in the off-season. He credits his time at UD as the foundation for both his athletic training career and his creative venture.

Blue Hen Nate Benjamin, a graduate assistant athletic trainer for the Dallas Cowboys, ensures quarterback Dak Prescott stays hydrated during a game time-out.

“UD got me in the door with my first NFL team, interning with the Seattle Seahawks over the summer, where I learned so much about athletic training on and off the field,” he said.

Now, Benjamin sees Blue Hens everywhere in the NFL.

“Being a Blue Hen is a brotherhood,” he said. “All these awesome athletic trainers came from UD, and they’re great at what they do. If that can be part of my story too, it would mean a lot to me.”

He also credits his mentor, Thomas Kaminski, professor of kinesiology and applied physiology, who taught him a lasting lesson. On the first day of class, Benjamin’s alarm didn’t go off, and he was 10 minutes late. Kaminski was telling a story about an athletic trainer who missed a plane for an away game.

Kaminski told the class, “The plane doesn’t wait for you, so don’t be late.”

Every day, Benjamin looks at a sticky note above his desk that reads, “Don’t miss the plane.”

“Always be ahead of the game,” he said — a mantra that guides him both on the field as an athletic trainer and off the field as a cleat designer.