Jazz Chisholm Jr. may be wearing black and white pinstripes but he continues to brighten up the field with his custom cleats. The Akatsuki’s sharingan from Naruto Shippuden, outer space aliens, or just your regular differently colored shoes – the slugger has never failed to draw attention to his footwear. And that’s when the crowds can’t take their eyes off his already impressive form on the diamond! But his colorful ways haven’t always been received well.

Talking to Absolutely Ridiculous, the slugger recalled his first few weeks in the big leagues and how he wore different color shoes. With the Marlins, Chisholm had worked with former player Jon Jay, who is known for his sneaker game even as a coach now. But for Chisholm, his customization was different, “Your cleats don’t have ice cream sprinkles, you ain’t doing this bro. You ain’t got alien shoes, you ain’t got snake skins, customizing your own stuff to look like you’re glove. That was not happening when you were 22 years old Jon.”

“The kickback that I had to take, for first of all, not even playing two games in the big leagues yet and already wearing Jordan 1’s in different colors on the field.” Chisholm clearly recognized his upstart ways would cause a stir in the league, and some of his team were no fans.

“The way my veterans in the clubhouse was gettin’ at me, compared to the veterans in the league that was gettin’ at me, ain’t nobody take adversity as much as I had coming to the big leagues. Especially trying to do my own thing and trying to change the culture for everybody else.”

Given sports’ strict adherence to uniforms, players have limited options to show their personality in their work. And while Chisholm is not the first one to dramatically introduce new kicks to the diamond, his have certainly been some of the most creative so far. The Yankees slugger is a fan of Fernando Tatis Jr., Ronald Acuna Jr., and fellow Pinstriper Aaron Judge’s shoe game. And there were a few in the league who did actually support his style.

“My chains? Everybody had something to say about them Except Bryce (Harper), I ain’t gonna lie. Bryce is one of the people that can’t because don’t forget, that year we only could play on the East Coast,” Chisholm continues on Absolutely Ridiculous. “I played against Bryce, Soto, all them boys…I talked to all the big dogs. (Francisco) Lindor loved it, (Javier) Baez loved it…Trey Turner loved it, Bryce, JT Realmuto…Most of the hate came from guys on my team.”

“You got certain superstars that loved it, like (Mike) Trout loved it. Like when I talked to Trout the next year when we played against them, he was like ‘Bro, keep doing your thing. I love the purple, I love the blue hair, all that stuff.'”

“But it was just certain vets that didn’t welcome it and with my personality, I couldn’t care less what anybody says about me.”

When Chisholm debuted his ice cream and waffle cone customs, he spoke about how he was not planning to repeat them on back-to-back nights. It was nothing superstitious, he just liked looking good, in Chisholm’s own words!

As to who might have been the cause of criticism in Miami, the 27-year-old made a blurry allegation.

Miami was Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s “worst” time

For the time Jazz Chisholm Jr. was with the Miami Marlins, the team was nowhere near its peak even with the talent they possessed. As for the player’s part, he even called 2020-22 “the worst three years of probably my life.”

Without naming names, Chisholm also said on on “The Pivot Podcast” last March, “Even though they suck, they’ve been there for nine, 10 years and the team calls them the team captain, but they’re not a good captain, they’re not a good person. You’re not even a good athlete at this point. You’re just here and you’re bringing down the young guys that are supposed to be good.”

And while Chisholm kept it vague, many assumed it was Miguel Rojas, now with the Dodgers. Rojas himself responded to those comments, saying Chisholm had crossed a line when he said he wasn’t a good person but the younger player seemed adamant in his ideas. It may or may not have had to do with his modern style and different ideas, but there was certainly some bad blood in Miami.