KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Craig Greco’s garage is his office.
“This all started with, kind of a hobby, and I started by painting my sons room before he was born and the hobby has turned into very much a career,” he said. “This is a blast, I love painting.”
Once a hobby, he reached out to Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker to paint his cleats. He did good work, and now he paints shoes for multiple Chiefs players.
“That’s going to look cool.”
It started by reaching out to Butker, which led to linebacker Jack Cochrane, defensive end George Karlaftis, cornerback Chris Lammons and the one he’s working on now for wide receiver Skyy Moore.
“This might be the toughest I have to do,” Greco said.
He met with Skyy, and knew he wanted to do Ronald McDonald house, so he got to work on a McDonald themed shoe. It’s a process that usually takes him about 4-6 hours for the pair. Not including prep work.
“There’s actually a lot of really fine detail that is probably never seen,” he said. “I want to make sure that it’s up to my standard and it’s good as I can possibly make it.”
He gets the shoes, removes the factory finish, and makes his stencils. Every airbrush, every precision line to paint, then a coating. A process.
“It’s hard to pass up an opportunity, even if it’s last minute, especially when you get to paint for the Chiefs, and there’s not a team this year I want to beat more than the Bengals,” he said.
But labor or love, especially when he sees the finished product on the field this week.
“Let’s say you see Skyy Moore play out there, and he makes a catch, and you see the cleats, you’re like yeah, that’s my work,” Greco said. “How proud is that feeling for you? It’s super cool. I don’t know how to describe it. It almost seems surreal to see my work out there on the football field.”