Huskers turn to Villarreal for red shoes

By Alan Carman
The Imperial Republican
    About two months ago, Armando Villarreal received a call from Jay Perry, Nebraska Football Equipment Manager. Perry had a unique request.      The team was debuting the new all red uniforms on Sept. 13, but Adidas had stopped making red football cleats, do to them not selling. The task was for Villarreal to paint 134 pairs of white cleats, and turn them into red cleats with white stripes.
    Villarreal accepted the job and started working on the tedious task of sanding, taping off and painting 268 shoes. He soon realized that it was going to take a lot longer than he had anticipated.
      The shoes have all different materials covering them, so everything had to be sanded down, to assure the paint would adhere to all the different surfaces.
    Jesus Juarez had reached out to Villarreal about helping the high school art class with some demonstrations. Villarreal, who had been hesitant about hiring any help, decided this would be the time and ended up hiring Jesus, Navy Smith and Slade Stolz to help him with the process.
    Villarreal was also working on a set of helmets for Boise State at the time. The boys put in countless hours prepping the shoes, taping them off, painting them red, removing the tape, and then retaping for the white stripes. Villarreal’s wife and kids also got in on the job, making sure it got done in time.
    The reward for the boys who helped was a trip to the Husker  game, knowing they were a part of Nebraska Cornhusker History, with the uniforms.
    After the game was over, they all got a tour of the Huskers new facilities, including the equipment and weight rooms. Villarreal said a highlight of the tour was meeting Dylan Raiola and shaking his hand after the game.
    None of the boys had ever attended a Husker game, so it was pretty special for all of them. Villarreal said he also got to speak with Head Coach Matt Rhule, when he delivered the shoes, stating that he thought it was wild that Coach Rhule new of him through his work he has done on all the other college football team helmets. Villarreal is kind of known as the “Helmet Guy” in the spectrum of college football.
    Villarreal said it was nice to get his foot in the door of Nebraska Husker Football and is hopeful that sometime in the future, he will be able to do a Husker Helmet.
    When visiting Villarreal in his shop in Imperial, he had just finished the shoes and the Boise State Helmets, was working on another helmet for a college team and then still had Utah Helmets to do for this season. He stated that with the improvement in the helmets, which are all custom fit to each player on the team, he can’t get an early jump on painting until the team gets to the final roster cuts.
    When asked what he had lined up after the football season ended, he said he had been working with Delta Water-fowl and has been invited to paint at one of their conferences.