NFL players love wearing their 'slippers and slides, baby!'
From Hulk slides to Hot Wheels slippers to therapeutic mules, NFL players focus on their feet off the field.
NFLSeattle SeahawksDevon Witherspoon
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Do the shoes really make the man?
Not for New England Patriots wide receiver Mack Hollins, who likes to go barefoot as often as possible -- including at practice -- because he said he believes it helps strengthen his lower body, improve foot dexterity, and it improves his connection to the ground.
For everybody else in the NFL, however, their choice of footwear is important, particularly when they're in meetings, the cafeteria and the locker room. So some players opt for a more informal type of footwear.
"Slippers and slides, baby!" Seattle Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon said. "It really started in college, where we were taught about how everything about your body matters, from your feet to your shins to your hamstrings. Everything plays a part."
.@rodgers_isaiah is always cookin up something special 🔥 pic.twitter.com/IN0o6fKvay
NFL players' feet take a beating. They get stepped on, kicked, battered, stuffed into tight cleats. It's even worse for players who regularly practice or play on artificial turf, which isn't as forgiving as natural grass. That makes taking care of -- and pampering -- their feet a priority.
"I feel like that's always been important," Seahawks linebacker Derick Hall said. "A lot of guys will walk across the field barefoot just trying to stay grounded. They say it helps stimulate healing and the recovery process, so we harp on that a lot. Our medical staff and strength staff stay on that a lot.
"I don't have an absurd amount, but I have about three or four pairs of slides and slippers at my disposal at the facility at all times."
Players across the league use both throughout the season for comfort and recovery. But if you're expecting something normal, well, you've clearly never been inside an NFL locker room.
Players can be eclectic, creative and maybe even a little whimsical about their footwear.
THERE ARE TWO kinds of slipper wearers in the NFL. Those who wear normal slippers and those who... don't.
Washington Commanders defensive end Javontae Jean-Baptiste is definitely among the latter, because his latest choice was a pair of purple bear claw mules, which he purchased last season for $115 from Bravest Studios.
Washington Commanders defensive end Javontae Jean-Baptiste sporting his purple bear claw mules. John Keim They're not his only pair.
"My first pair was brown, like a grizzly bear," explains Jean-Baptiste, who said he ordered a pair of blue bear claw mules last season for teammate Dante Fowler Jr. "Then I saw the purple, and it's my favorite color, so I got that.... They're comfortable."
Slides are typically open-toed and backless and are usually designed for more outdoor use, while slippers often are indoor comfort wear. Either way, the definitions, and use-cases for both slides and slippers overlap and are utilized in different ways from the NFL players who shared their footwear habits with ESPN.
San Francisco 49ers linebacker Nick Martin estimates he has 10 pairs of varied varieties of slippers, including wolves, dogs and sharks (which he wore on his first day of rookie minicamp in 2025).
"I'm pretty comfortable with who I am," said Martin, who was spotted wearing dog slippers on the field before a preseason game. "And I've always worn 'em, so why change?"
Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Brian Thomas Jr. also has a pair of brown bear claw slippers, which, as we've seen, clearly isn't unusual. But he also has a pair of Incredible Hulk slippers, which he saw while scrolling on Instagram and purchased right after training camp.
"I've got to get those," said Brian Thomas Jr. about his Hulk footwear. Michael DiRocco "I used to like the Incredible Hulk growing up a little bit, so seeing those, I was like, 'I've got to get those,'" Thomas said. "So Spider-Man and Incredible Hulk were my two favorite characters growing up. They didn't have anything for Spider-Man."
Thomas said he wore his slippers regularly early in the season but cut down in favor of sneakers and slides with more structure and support as the season wore on. He even wore the bear claw slippers to an indoor walk-through the day before a game. He regretted that pretty quickly.
"[Coach] Liam [Coen] came in and he was like, 'Bro,'" Thomas said. "He was just laughing at me. He had everybody laughing, dying at me."
Minnesota Vikings cornerback Isaiah Rodgers doesn't exactly wear slippers, but he does have a cover for his cleats that look like slippers. Not an animal, though: Hot Wheels.
And then there's Carolina Panthers linebacker Nic Scourton, who wears normal slippers.
Kind of.
The day after the Panthers beat the Atlanta Falcons 30-0 in their 2025 home opener, Scourton was sporting a pair of fuzzy orange Mari slippers, which he said he purchased while in college, that were allegedly priced at $900.
$900? #Panthers rookie Nic Scourton pulls out the Mari slippers for Victory Monday. Says he got them in college. Not everyone can pull this look off but he wears them well. pic.twitter.com/SjJ9nZlgQ1
IF AN NFL player isn't wearing slippers around the facility, he's almost certainly wearing slides. And just like slippers, there's a huge variety.
Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts Sr. started wearing Oofos recovery slippers last season as well as soft slides in the offseason. Using the recovery slippers was his mother's idea, but Pitts was resistant at first.
"My mom actually mentioned them to me, and I was like, 'No, no, no,'" Pitts said. "And then one day I was on the web and looked them up. I might have been in the mall, actually. They have a store. And I was like, 'Let me get a pair of these.' And then I tried them, and I ordered a couple of pairs."
Turns out his mom did know best, because Pitts loved them.
"It's a recovery shoe," he said. "You're on your feet damn near all day, so that's a good thing to have.... I just love to take care of my feet. Those are my wheels."
Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Brian Thomas Jr.'s off-field footwear includes this pair of bear claw slippers. Michael DiRocco Pitts caught a career-high 88 passes for 928 yards and five touchdowns last season and joked that those slippers might have helped.
"They've definitely played a part," he said with a laugh. "They take care of my feet, for sure."
Foot care is something NFL trainers and teams take seriously.
"The body is really a kinematic chain, right? Everything in your body, it's all connected obviously, but everything starts with your feet," said Jeff Ferguson, the Jaguars' vice president of player health and performance. "So, whether that's your plantar fascia or your arch or whether that's your ankle joint, all your motion -- even your big toe motion -- directly impacts knee movement, hip movement, all sorts of things.
"So, we spend an inordinate amount of time making sure that with our equipment guys that proper footwear is in place from a recovery standpoint, preventative aspects. Some guys need corrective insoles, some guys don't. We really want to work range of motion, so the more motion and flexibility you have, that's really important as you go up the [kinematic] chain, particularly to prevent soft tissue injuries."
Falcons safety Jessie Bates III prefers Nike ReactX Rejuvena8 slides. They fit his more casual vibe, he said, plus he feels his feet get compressed while wearing cleats and the slides allow his feet to rest and stretch out.
"Some people come to work dressed. Some people wear shoes," he said. "I'm the type of guy, I throw on a sweatsuit and I slide on some slides and call it a day. But I got every color in the Nike ReactX and I just slip those on every day."
Seahawks tight end AJ Barner wears slippers at home, which help his feet recover, but he's a proponent of using YogaToes, which are toe separators made from medical-grade gel.
"If you want to take care of your feet, put the YogaToes on," he said. "They like space your toes out. After you've had your feet in cleats all day, it really relaxes your feet. I keep them at the house for sure."
WHETHER IT'S SLIPPERS, regular slides and sandals, or specific recovery footwear, NFL players are serious about taking care of their feet. It's the one part of their body that's used on every single play and an injury can derail a season.
"It is very important for players to take care of their feet. Players need to be comfortable and not think about their feet when they are playing," Falcons head of equipment operations Joey Galioto said. "Foot care and maintenance can be very impactful in a positive or negative way on a player's performance.
"We definitely make it a huge point of emphasis with all of our players no matter the time of year -- training, running, lifting, playing football -- grass, turf, bad weather, bad field conditions... it all matters."
Whether focused on good foot health or having fun, off-field footwear is a part of NFL player culture.
"It [taking care of their feet] is massive," Patriots linebacker Chad Muma said. "With how active we are all day, being able to get on some nice footwear where you can just slip into some slides and then put on your cleats, it's something easy to walk around the facility and do all that with."
Even if they're big green Hulk feet.
--ESPN reporters Brady Henderson, John Keim, Marc Raimondi, Mike Reiss and Nick Wagoner contributed to this story.
