Eamon White, a graphic designer and shoe customizer, sits at his workspace in his South Portland apartment. He recently painted custom cleats for members of the New England Patriots for their “My Cause My Cleats” campaign. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

This fall, the NFL ran a national TV spot featuring New England Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez. In the video, Gonzalez held a blue-and-green pair of cleats. On one side was the logo of KyleCares, a nonprofit that works to encourage communication about mental health challenges faced by teens and young adults. On the other was the name and an illustration of a close friend who died this year.

Gonzalez wore these special cleats during the Dec. 1 game against the Indianapolis Colts. Every year, the NFL relaxes its strict rules about shoe color for one game, so players and coaches can wear custom footwear in support of a charity.

“This is my cause, and these are my cleats,” Gonzalez said in the ad.

And his cleats were designed and hand-painted by South Portland artist Eamon White.

This year, White customized 33 pairs of cleats and shoes for players, coaches and staff of the Patriots as part of the “My Cause My Cleats” initiative. The partnership was a natural one, as White is himself a former football player and a current coach.

“It’s been a dream come true,” he said. “You start football and try to make it to the NFL, and then it doesn’t happen, but you find a back way into where you want to be, and you get to meet really cool people along the way.”

A portrait of George Floyd by Eamon White. Image courtesy of Eamon White

It was his second year working with the team and perhaps his most high-profile work yet, although White has already built a reputation in Maine as a talented graphic designer and shoe customizer. He has done artist residencies at Indigo Arts Alliance and the Illustration Institute in Portland. In 2020, he made a vector portrait of George Floyd that went viral when former Red Sox slugger David Ortiz shared it on social media. He has worked with other teams and athletes, and his portfolio includes a special jersey for the Maine Celtics and a custom pair of Nikes for team president Dajuan Eubanks.

His local fans said they were thrilled to see his work appreciated on the national stage – or, in this case, field.

“Eamon is a wonder to me,” said Scott Nash, co-founder of the Illustration Institute. “He is actively looking for ways to connect and create in a positive way.”

AN ARTIST AND AN ATHLETE

Eamon White’s rendition of Goku, an anime character from “Dragon Ball Z,” is painted on a sneaker displayed in his apartment. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

White, 36, has decorated the walls of his South Portland apartment with framed jerseys, movie posters and, of course, shoes. He pointed to a pair painted with characters from the Japanese anime show “Dragon Ball Z.” The designs are sharp and precise.

“You got people who know the cartoon, so you have to get everything right,” he said. “I spent a lot of time detailing those.”

White has always been both an artist and an athlete.

He started painting at a young age with his father and his grandmother. He later studied studio art and new media at the University of Maine and got his degree in digital design from Merrimack College in Massachusetts.

His first sport was actually soccer, but the middle school football coach spotted his height at a gas station and told his mom that he should play football. He ended up playing through his college years and later on the Maine Mammoths, a National Arena League team that operated in Portland. For more than a decade, he has coached football and other sports across the region. He also works as a technology teacher at Gorham High School.

Eamon White poses in front of his collection of custom-painted sneakers. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

In 2020, when a police officer murdered George Floyd in Minneapolis, White made his striking portrait. The response online made him see his own work in a new way.

“People would click on my art,” he said. “That’s what I didn’t realize. Sometimes you do art just as an escape or just because it makes you feel good. And then you realize the way you’re feeling is the way other people feel as well.”

He has since done artist residencies and exhibited in an intergenerational show at LA Arts in Lewiston that also featured his dad and grandma.

The Illustration Institute invited White to a residency on Peaks Island in 2023, which included a workshop at the Portland Public Library. Famous Footwear donated shoes, and White showed kids how to tell a story through a custom design.

“He’s a truly gifted teacher,” Nash said. “He was able to inspire all of the kids in that fairly large workshop to dig right in and start drawing on shoes and share his knowledge and ideas on how this can be a means of expression.”

OUTSIDE THE BOX

White did an internship after college at iSlide, a custom sandal business. A few years ago, he started seeing videos on Instagram and YouTube of creators customizing shoes by dipping them in paint. He started buying cheap pairs to experiment with his technique. When he learned about My Cause My Cleats, he started reaching out to agents he knew from his experiences as a player and coach. His first pair was for J.T. Hassell in 2021.

The cleats Eamon White designed for Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez highlighted KyleCares, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting communication about mental health challenges faced by teens and young adults. Photo courtesy of the New England Patriots/Leanna Puccio

“I was at Sebago Brewing Company here with one of my friends to watch the game,” he said. “They panned down, and I was like, ‘I did those.'”

He started getting commissions from more athletes. Last year, he applied to do a game day poster for the Patriots. He didn’t get the gig, but the team approached him when it was time to start planning for My Cause My Cleats. Some players choose their own artists, but for two years running, the Patriots have connected White to those who were looking for one.

This fall, White spent two days in Massachusetts with his iPad in hand. Players, coaches and staff met with him to discuss their ideas. He said he liked learning more about the causes – and the players as people. Linebacker Christian Ellis, for example, chose an adoption agency as his charity and asked White to put the names of his siblings on the cleats. White is also adopted and found a personal connection to the design.

In a video made by the team that day, the players said they appreciated White’s style and easygoing nature.

“We were bouncing ideas off each other, and I love how the plan is working,” Ellis said. “I’m excited to see how they turn out.”

“I’m not the most creative person, but he really helped me bring it to life on the cleats,” center Ben Brown said.

Donna Spigarolo, director of community relations for the Patriots, said White has “the hugest heart.” She was excited to open the boxes as they arrived from Maine.

“Each time they come in, I get to be the first one to open the boxes,” she said. “They came out phenomenal.”

White had less than a month to finish the big commission. He put in long hours at a table in his apartment that is covered in tiny brushes and dozens of jars of Angelus leather paint. But at the end, he got to see the shoes in action as he watched from the sidelines on game day and to snap a photo with inside linebackers coach Dont’a Hightower wearing his custom design.

A WINNING DESIGN

White has done design projects for the WNBA’s Chicago Sky and a jersey patch for the New England Revolution soccer team. He painted one of 75 cow statues that were displayed in Boston and auctioned off to benefit the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. But his work is also on the fields and courts in Maine. (Literally. He once painted a mural on a basketball court in Portland ahead of a kids’ camp.)

Eamon White, center, unveils a custom jersey for “Maine Black History Night” at the Maine Celtics game on Feb. 2, 2024. Photo courtesy of China Wong/Maine Celtics

One local project was a special jersey for the Maine Celtics in honor of Black History Month last February. The color palette of gold, green and navy reflected the Maine flag and the impact of Black people on land and at sea. The pattern paid homage to the significance of quilts in African American culture, and the North Star referenced the navigation tool for those traveling the Underground Railroad to Portland’s Abyssinian Meeting House.

Eamon White’s custom-designed shoes for Dajuan Eubanks, the president of the Maine Celtics. Photo by Neil Shelley

“He came up with a wonderful design to tell a story that continues to build a narrative for us and really build awareness around the rich Black history in the state of Maine,” said Eubanks, the team’s president.

Eubanks has a custom pair of Air Forces that blends the old Red Claws name with the new Celtics brand. He breaks them out for special games and always gets compliments. White also did a special commission for the Celtics to commemorate the people who died in the mass shooting in Lewiston last year. Eubanks said he has been impressed by White’s authenticity and his attention to social causes.

“He can still be involved with one of his true passions, sports, and really elevate it with his lifelong passion of art,” Eubanks said.

White got some much-needed rest in the weeks after the My Cause My Cleats game. But he still had time for another team – the Scarborough Middle School girls basketball team, where he is a coach this season. He talked about his players’ recent victory with the same excitement as he did his experience on the sidelines at Gillette Stadium.

“They won by one point on Monday night,” White said and beamed.