NY Mets Lindor Doesn’t Get Gold Glove But Owns the Shoes

Sunday night, Major League Baseball handed out their 2021 Gold Glove winners. On the list of potential winners, was two time trophy winner, Francisco Lindor of the New York Mets. Better luck next year. Brandon Crawford, who led his San Francisco Giants to the top of the National League West with 106 victories was voted this year's NL shortstop extraordinaire.

However, Lindor has something that no other shortstop nor any other baseball player has ever had, his own signature shoe from New Balance. In a cool article by Justin Toscano of northjersey.com, a repeat guest on The Drive with Charlie & Dan, "Throughout its history, footwear brand New Balance has had tons of opportunities to create a signature shoe for one of its high-profile baseball athletes. Yet as the years passed, the company continued electing not to do so — not for Miguel Cabrera, not for Dustin Pedroia, not for Jose Altuve, not for anyone else."

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The flashy $341 million shortstop for Major League Baseball's Queen's New York franchise has been sporting variations of the "Lindor 1" baseball cleats all season long at Citi Field. Toscano asked Francisco if it was a dream come true, “Have I thought about that? Yes. Sometimes it makes me teary-eyed and say, ‘Damn, here I am.’ But as a little kid, I never dreamed of having my own shoe and stuff. I didn’t think it was possible.”

“It’s a shoe that I can wear anywhere,” Lindor told Justin Toscano. “It’s not just on-the-field stuff. That’s kind of what I wanted. I wanted to create something that was going to transcend from the field to any different sport or to a club, to a mall, to anything. I like that, to be able to have that, it’s cool.”

If New Balance had all of these superstars on their roster for the past few decades, why is this the first? Justin Toscano asked Matt Nuzzo, a product manager for New Balance. "It’s an athlete that was dedicated to this. He was not just doing this to put his name on a signature product. He was doing this because he loves the fashion world, he wants to push baseball forward, he wants to show his flair side, but he wants to validate that with his play.” And, New Balance is banking on Lindor being a star in New York, the biggest media market in the world. The jury is still out on that one! To read the rest of Justin's awesome article go to northjersey.com.