'Slippers and slides, baby!': For fun or therapy, NFL players love their off-field footwear
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Mack Hollins goes barefoot, including at Patriots practice, believing it strengthens his lower body and improves his connection to the ground.
- Javontae Jean-Baptiste owns multiple pairs of bear claw mules from Bravest Studios, including a $115 purple pair (his favorite color), and ordered a blue set for teammate Dante Fowler Jr.
- Brian Thomas Jr. purchased Incredible Hulk slippers after spotting them on Instagram, once wore bear claw slippers to a Jaguars indoor walk-through and was laughed at by coach Liam Coen, who simply said, "Bro."
- Nic Scourton sported fuzzy orange Mari slippers — allegedly priced at $900 — on Victory Monday after the Panthers beat the Falcons 30-0 in their 2025 home opener.
- Kyle Pitts Sr. credits Oofos recovery slippers, recommended by his mother, for his career-high 88 catches, 928 yards and five touchdowns last season: "They take care of my feet, for sure."
- Isaiah Rodgers wears cleat covers designed to look like Hot Wheels slippers, while Jessie Bates III owns every color of Nike ReactX Rejuvena8 slides to let his feet decompress after cleat wear.
- Jaguars VP of player health and performance Jeff Ferguson framed the trend medically, saying foot motion "directly impacts knee movement, hip movement" and is central to preventing soft tissue injuries.
Why it matters: Foot care is now treated as a performance variable, not a locker-room punchline. Jaguars VP Jeff Ferguson tied foot health directly to soft-tissue injury prevention via the body's kinematic chain, while Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts Sr. credited his mother's Oofos recommendation for a career-best 928-yard season. With cleats and artificial turf punishing players' feet, NFL medical and equipment staffs are baking footwear protocols into daily routines across the league.
