​There has been only one narrative about soccer cleats this World Cup, which is about why they are almost all pink. Nike, Adidas, and Puma, which dominate the cleat market, all released fuchsia models that pop against the grass. Players seemingly love them.Nine of France’s starting 11 in their opening game with Senegal wore pink cleats. One of the dissenters was Michael Olise, who, in his white footwear, was having none of it.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOlise has had an unusual route to wearing the No. 10 shirt for Les Bleus. He grew up in west London, was on the books of several Premier League academies, and eventually signed professional terms with then-second-tier Reading. He excelled and was soon playing in the Premier League with Crystal Palace. In 2019, he settled on representing France (he was also eligible to play for England, Nigeria, and Algeria), and in 2024, he made a big-money move to Bayern Munich.But since his Reading days, one thing has remained consistent. He has worn only one type of cleat: Nike’s Hypervenom III, which was made between 2017 and 2019. Now extremely hard to find, he has helpers who scour resale sites for unworn pairs.He then sends these cleats to a man in Edinburgh to customize them perfectly. There, they land in the workshop of Ryan Park.The 34-year-old Park has always loved soccer cleats (called “boots” in most of the world) and graphic design. He used to black out the trefoil in his pairs of Adidas when he played amateur soccer, as he thought it looked subtly distinctive. “I was never good enough to wear, like, bright yellow boots, so it had to be black,” he tells Front Office Sports.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementTo pass the time during the COVID-19 pandemic, Park began buying cleats from eBay, refurbishing them, and selling them to fellow amateurs or collectors at a profit. He put his efforts on Instagram, where @bootsnpieces took off.Within months, professional players were shooting him DMs. He repaired and customized boots for players from his local team, Hibernian, and then word spread around Scotland and England. Some had a treasured pair they wanted refurbishing. Others sought bits of artwork applied to new pairs. But the most common request was for stud conversions.Most cleats are made with firm ground (FG) studs, typically made of molded plastic or rubber, and good for playing on dry or firm grass. Some players, including Olise, prefer soft ground (SG) metal studs, which offer more grip. Park has gradually upgraded his tools and techniques, and he can now file down a cleat with molded FG studs and replace them with SGs in 20 minutes. These conversions cost about £60; more custom modifications are more expensive.Park has hit on an obscure but important niche. Just as tennis players seek out specialists to string their rackets just so, players tend to be highly sensitive to how their cleats feel. “They often tell me they prefer the fit and the feel of a boot that has been