When Jeremy Guthrie stepped off the mound for the final time at what was then known as “Cougar Field” at the conclusion of his freshman season in 1998, he probably wasn’t thinking that the next time he donned the royal and white would be almost 30 years later.
He certainly didn’t know it would be as a special guest pitcher during an inter-squad scrimmage at practice.
“That was one of my better innings as a BYU Cougar,” he said last week.
But the former big-leaguer shone some of his best stuff for the Cougars, both in the pitching and in the shoe game.
The BYU baseball team was pleasantly surprised earlier this month when Guthrie, now majority owner of the athletic shoe company Custom Cleats, showed up with a brand new pair of “Kevin Durant 18” cleats in the royal and white for each of the players.
“Coach [Trent] Pratt … reached out to us,” Guthrie said. “He said, ‘Hey, we want to do something good for my guys, get them a cool pair of shoes and turn them into cleats.’ So we had the shoes ready and I thought, ‘you know what, can I deliver them to you personally.’”
He did just that.
.@TheRealJGuts gettin’ us ready for the season 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/vg9wwZuqEI
— BYU Baseball (@BYUBaseball) January 18, 2026
As noted, Guthrie is now the majority owner of Custom Cleats, a company founded nearly 20 years ago according to their website. However, he became acquainted with the company during his playing days.
After two strong years at Stanford following a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Spain, Guthrie was drafted in the first round of the 2002 MLB Draft by the then Cleveland Indians. He made his debut in the major leagues in August of 2004 for the Indians, and went on to have a 13-year career in the MLB, with stops in Baltimore, Colorado, Kansas City, and a quick stint in Washington.
His time in Kansas City was topped off with a World Series victory in 2015. During big-league career, he was an American League Rookie of the Year candidate, a member of the 2009 Team USA World Baseball Classic roster, and even the starter in games three and seven of the 2014 World Series. But Guthrie always mirrored a love for baseball with a love for sneakers, and was one of the early athletes of Custom Cleats.
“I had seen players use the product before and was roughly familiar with the process, so I told my agent to help me find a company, Custom Cleats, that could do that for me,” said Guthrie. “My first conversion was maybe 2008, 2009.”
After retiring in 2015, Jeremy and his wife Jenny were thrown their own curveball when they were called to serve as mission leaders of the Texas Houston South Mission, an assignment rarely extended to a couple their age. They served in that capacity from 2018-2021, and upon returning, Guthrie quickly got back involved with Custom Cleats.
“At the end of my career in 2015 I invested in the company — 25% of it. Then in 2023, with my friend from BYU, we partnered together and bought the remainder of the company,” said Guthrie. “I’m the majority owner and he’s my partner in it and we’re just trying to build it.”
Custom Cleats function beyond the baseball world, as it seeks to maximize comfort and style for athletes in any sport where a cleat might be involved. When asked about the range of their product and their vision, Guthrie said, “The cleats are all-purpose — you put the plastic cleat on it and you could play football, baseball, softball, lacrosse, soccer. I mean, you can play anything you want on it.”
While Guthrie estimated that about 85% of their business comes from baseball, they also have a pun-intended “foot in” the softball and golf markets as well. In fact, as Custom Cleats continue to grow, Guthrie identified the golf market as their “greatest opportunity for growth.”
“There are millions of golfers out there that have thousands of choices of shoes but we feel very confident that taking your favorite shoe and making it a golf shoe is appealing to most golfers,” Guthrie said.
While he does have a favorite cleat, saying that the most probably the most comfortable conversion they make are the Lamelo Ball basketball shoes, perhaps his favorite part of being involved in the shoe industry is the opportunity it has given him to give back.
“BYU is an incredible university and what they do for students like myself on and off the field is remarkable," he said. "It’s an affordable education for thousands of kids each year that go on to do great things. It’s just one of those things, when you’re a part of the BYU family and you know how much it does for others, you stay a part of that family.”
Now, getting to lace up his own cleats and put the Y cap back on for one more outing just proved to be a welcome bonus. When asked about why he decided to make the trip to Provo, Guthrie said that Pratt’s invitation “to compete against the guys was the huge cherry on top.”
“It was actually my first time pitching at Miller Park," he said. "Back in 1998, it certainly was not the beautiful ballpark they have now."
Guthrie led off the inning with a walk, but followed that up with an electric strikeout and a fly out. An infield single put a second batter on base, but then he ended a clean inning with a foul out to third.
“One hit, one walk, one strikeout, no runs," he said.
“I told a lot of people that if I were to pitch this good for BYU when I was here, I actually might have helped the team win games,” Guthrie joked.
While that may or may not be true, his love for baseball, BYU, and sneakers has provided the Cougars a boost heading into the 2026 season.