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Painting the Picture

The NFL's annual My Cause My Cleats initiative is a time the league takes to amplify nonprofit organizations by allowing the players to wear decorated cleats representing their causes.

This year, Cardinals offensive lineman Kelvin Beachum decided to look locally when it came to choosing the artist to paint his footwear.

Scouting Out

High school junior Scout Rooney was the artist of choice this year.

She works at Mesa Youth Creative Agency, an organization that Beachum has supported since its inception.

The player/painter duo met for the first time in mid-October to talk about the process and discuss any requirements before starting a design.

Beachum's cause for this year's cleats is World Vision, a humanitarian aid organization with a focus on solving the global water crisis.

During their initial meeting, Beachum expressed how happy he was to be able to be a part of the process.

"Usually, when My Cause My Cleats comes around, you may get a sketch, you may just send the cleats off, and whenever you get them back, that's the first time you see them. But it's just interesting to have this local and have it here in Arizona."

As for the artist herself, Rooney said she was so grateful for the opportunity to work on the project with Beachum.

"I think it builds a more meaningful relationship with the art, since you know that it's local and you've talked to the artist."

She had painted pairs of Vans shoes before, but never any football cleats, and definitely never shoes this size.

"I'm always down for a challenge," Rooney said.

Drawing it up

A couple of weeks later, Rooney had three different designs sketched out.

Beachum wanted her to "do her own thing" throughout the process, so he had no expectations going into the second meeting.

The first impressions were extremely positive, with Beachum being drawn to the first example that Rooney dubbed "the sporty one."

Beachum had only a few notes, one being that the cardinal bird should be holding a blue bucket instead of a bottle to represent the actual buckets that World Vision uses to provide clean water.

Beachum wanted to represent World Vision in as many ways as possible while also allowing Rooney to use her own background.

"I think World Vision is going to see the ability to be creative and the creative nature of somebody so young. ... Scout is doing a phenomenal job of using the resources that she has to be able to leave her mark on the world. I'm really excited for the world to see that. This is not just Mesa, not just the Valley. It's the world that gets to see this."

Getting to work

Rooney had about one month from the first meeting to when the cleats needed to be finished, so she got to painting right after the sketches were approved.

Mesa Youth Creative Agency hires students as actual employees, so she had to balance school and coming in to paint for only a couple of hours each day.

When asked if Rooney had looked at previous examples of players' My Cause My Cleats, she laughed and said she probably should have.

But she liked the ability to wing it and use the trust Beachum had in her.

Rooney has never had this big of a platform for one of her art pieces.

Will it be weird seeing her name and work everywhere?

"Definitely. 1000 percent. It hasn't settled in how big of a thing this is. I'm just kind of pinching myself."

Finishing touches

Rooney draws inspiration from graphic artists around the country, and she used her own style throughout the cleats.

"I really have always loved doing the more realistic and stylistic animals with like a bright, graphic background so that kind of inspired the design for this."

Instead of painting the cleats on just the outside like a lot of artists do for this project, Rooney opted for a different approach.

"I know I probably don't want to paint the same design twice, so I'll make it a little bit better for myself and do a more cohesive all-around design."

World Vision's main color is orange, and they use blue buckets to transport water.

So, the obvious choice for a color scheme was orange and blue.

"It's also, conveniently, one of my favorite color schemes to use."

Important to both Beachum and Rooney was the inclusion of the World Vision logo, so it was added onto the top of each cleat, into the eye of the cardinal and within the empty spaces of the number 68.

Throughout the process, Rooney was confident in her design.

"I'm hoping he really likes them. I think he'll like them."

The Reveal

When the cleats were finished, Beachum invited Rooney to the Dignity Health Training Facility to round out the process.

Because their first meeting was on her turf, it was only fitting to bring Rooney to see where the cleats originated.

Once they were pulled out of the box, Beachum couldn't stop smiling.

Since Beachum was kept in the dark on what the cleats would look like the whole time, he decided to give Rooney a surprise of her own: A signed jersey and some Cardinals gear.

The duo analyzed each cleat and pointed out each little detail that they had previously discussed.

Beachum even noticing that Rooney had hid her artist tag really tiny on the back.

Even though the big reveal was supposed to be of the cleats, Beachum one-upped that by inviting Rooney and her family to the Cardinals' Week 14 game so that she can see her artwork in person.

After a month-long process with sketches, design feedback, creative freedom and many hours of painting, Beachum's My Cause My Cleats project was ready to hit the field.

As for his partnership with Rooney, Beachum is "more than happy" to be a reference on any of her future résumés.