Close-knit siblings combine talent to create custom Texas Tech shoes for fans and head football coach Joey McGuire, who will wear his at the Oregon game this weekend.
Those watching in person or online would have never guessed this duo just met.
The way Texas Tech University Red Raiders head football coach Joey McGuire high-fived Macy Martinez and invited her in for a hug made her feel like a long-lost friend.
“It was honestly surreal,” she laughed. “I kind of don't remember it, to be honest, because he was just so nice.”
Macy waited in line for this moment at the Women Behind the Brand football clinic in August, oddly enough, with a shoebox in hand.
Her patience paid off.
“Oh yeah!” McGuire exclaimed when he spotted the black box. “Yes! Y'all are awesome.”
Macy orchestrated this moment back in February, when she reached out to McGuire on social media to hook him up with some custom Texas Tech shoes – a small business she considers a side hustle.
His response was, “It's got to be UA! Have to rep The Brand #WreckEm”.
Sure enough, Macy tracked down the perfect Under Armor shoes and entrusted the monumental task to her designer, a special someone who came into her life unexpectedly more than 18 years ago.
Tied to Texas Tech
Macy had every intention of leaving Lubbock as a 14-year-old Frenship High School student. She dreamed of graduating and gaining independence elsewhere.
There was just one problem: her parents had a newborn baby boy.
“That was definitely a shock to my world,” Macy remembered. “I wasn't sure how to take it as a young girl. I wasn't even sure how to be a sister.”
Then Macy held her baby brother named Ethan, and suddenly, everything began to change.
“It's been the best relationship I've ever had with somebody,” Macy said. “He was my first baby.”
By the time Macy was 18 years old and could finally make her escape, she couldn't do it. Ethan was four years old and just beginning to speak – but only to her.
She could not abandon him.
“When it came down to it, I asked myself, ‘What's going to keep me here? What's worth leaving and not leaving?'” she said. “It wasn't worth leaving Ethan.”
Macy enrolled as a public relations major at Texas Tech so she could continue her partial role in raising Ethan.
“I would take him to his speech appointments because we couldn't get him to communicate or tell us what he was feeling or thinking,” she said. “And so as a sister, that was something I really held on to: he only spoke to me.”
As Macy and Ethan's parents continued to get him the support he needed, they discovered he had a learning disorder called dyslexia, which makes reading and language-related tasks difficult.
While Ethan struggled during his first years of school, he excelled in other areas.
“He could always draw, he could always color, he could always build anything out of Legos,” Macy explained. “He couldn't tell you about the train, but he could show you with how he created things.
“I think that speaks to exactly what he's doing today. His mind is so unique and so special that his creativity comes out in many other ways than what ‘normal' people's creativity does.”
So, when Macy needed a pair of custom shoes to cheer on her son during his baseball games in June 2022, she knew just who to turn to with a pair of white canvas shoes and some paint.
“Who better to ask than my very creative brother who can do all the things?” she remembers thinking.
Shoes That Shine
Macy's request was special to Ethan, not only because he loves his nephew, but his sister too.
“She's always been there for me since day one, and she will always be there,” Ethan said. “It's like having your own personal best friend.”
He gladly took the shoes and hand painted his nephew's number 12 on them along with baseball laces that curved up and down the front and sides of the shoes. Macy wore them to the game and, to her surprise, many parents asked where she got them.
“Then other people were like, ‘Well, can he do a themed shoe?'” Macy recalled.
Ethan, who was about to be a senior at Frenship High School, was flattered and up to the challenge. He needed some extra funds to save up for a car and afford his first year of college.
He accepted several different requests: from frogs on Converse to rubber duckies on children's Keds.
“I'm very detailed,” he said. “I like everything to be spotless. I want artists to look at these shoes and be like, ‘I don't know how you how you do this. I can't see anything wrong with them.'”
By this point, Macy had another design request she knew her brother could fulfill. As a 2013 graduate from the Texas Tech College of Media & Communication, she intended to show her pride at Red Raider athletic events.
Since Ethan had already customized shoes for a local sports team, Macy knew he would be up for the task of creating Texas Tech themed shoes.
“So I just gave him the shoes,” she said, “and, lo and behold, he made these amazing gameday shoes.”
First, Macy donned the shoes at the United Supermarkets Arena in support of the Texas Tech Men's Basketball Team. She cannot estimate how many times she was stopped by fans asking about her shoes.
She ended up sharing her phone number with several potential customers.
“The Texas Tech community is something else – if you're not in it, you don't understand it,” Macy said. “Every college says that, but there's something special about Texas Tech, and especially Texas Tech Twitter. It just takes off and you're a family. You feel like you know everyone, even if you've never met them.”
With the public relations and marketing skills Macy has utilized in various jobs, she began to support Ethan by spreading the word about his talent on Twitter and beyond.
Macy handles the backend of the orders with their customers – approving the style of shoes, determining what design they would like and sending them rough sketches for approval.
Once the customer is satisfied with the sketch, Macy hands it off to Ethan so he can begin his creative process. He uses a series of specialized leather paint to ensure the artwork not only looks pristine but is sealed.
He estimates each shoe takes him about five to seven hours to complete.
“I believe in myself because I know I can do it,” Ethan said. “Nothing's going to stop me from doing it besides myself, so I'm going to do it. If that means getting a toothpick and sitting hours on the table, just doing little dots, then that's what I'm going to do to make this shoe good.”
Macy knows she is partial to her brother's work, but she got to experience just how eye-catching his designs are during a Texas Tech Men's Basketball game in January.
During halftime, while she was juggling food and drinks for her children, she stopped in her tracks at the sight of a stranger wearing a pair of Ethan's designed shoes.
“At that point, I didn't really know who all had shoes,” she admitted. “We tapped our shoes together because we were both wearing a pair, and so that was kind of surreal.”
The overwhelming compliments and positive reviews gave Macy the encouragement she needed to reach out to Coach McGuire the following month.
Kicks for a Coach
When Ethan heard about the special order, he did not feel overwhelmed by the big shoes to fill, but he did feel challenged creatively. He researched how to paint the mesh of the UA shoes and brainstormed with Macy how to incorporate personal touches.
They settled on one shoe saying “#The Brand” with the Masked Rider on the other side. The second shoe would sport a Double T with Coach McGuire's signature “Let's GOOO” on the other side.
“It just kind of hit us: who is Coach McGuire and what needs to go on his shoe?” Macy said. “It's ‘Let's GOOO' and he represents the brand. That's exactly what he's implemented here, so that's exactly what we did.”
Little did they know Coach McGuire would be just as thrilled about the design, which was evident when he turned to Macy and said, “Whenever we play Oregon, I'm wearing them.”
Macy was shocked he approved of the shoes enough to wear them during a nationally televised game.
“We weren't going to ask him to do anything like that,” she said. “We just wanted maybe a picture or something. I don't think I'll ever forget that moment, because I think that's what made Ethan's shoes really come to life – this 60-second interaction with Coach McGuire.”
Macy sent the video of the big reveal to Ethan, who felt both appreciated and inspired. He rarely delivers the shoes and therefore misses the reactions of customers.
Ethan soon discovered he needed that newfound motivation to keep up with the demand that drastically increased once Macy shared the video and pictures of Coach McGuire with his personalized shoes.
“We always had a steady flow of shoe orders coming in, but nothing super overwhelming or that we felt we couldn't get done,” Macy said. “But then I posted the video, and Coach McGuire retweeted me a couple of times, and from that moment on it has been just incredibly insane on a whole new level that I never expected.”
Twitter shut down Macy's ability to message because of the influx of requests to her inbox. This happened not once, but three separate times.
“I was marked as spam,” she said, “and that's all because of the Texas Tech Twitter community.”
So far, Macy and Ethan believe they have produced 50 pairs of custom shoes, with that exact number lined up in future orders received to her Twitter account.
Ethan, now a first-year college student majoring in commercial music, was proud to use the funds to purchase his college textbooks.
“It's nice to be able to pay for some things,” Ethan said. “I'm working up to helping my family with everything.”
Besides Coach McGuire, Macy and Ethan also recently made shoes for Texas Tech quarterback Tyler Shough – who they were excited to see wore them. They also have received several orders from Texas Tech coaches' wives.
Macy estimates their scheduled orders have them booked until May.
“It's taken off and we're definitely going to surpass the 100 mark sooner than we ever expected,” Macy said. “That's why we're really trying to nail down the best way to do this.”
Macy is toying with the idea of a business name, order form, website, official licensing and even stencils to help streamline their process and relieve some of Ethan's workload.
And when the expectations and pressure begin to weigh heavy on the siblings, Macy reminds herself to walk in Ethan's shoes – like she has since before he even wore them.
“It's not for me,” she said. “While it's so cool to deliver shoes to someone like Coach McGuire and have that unforgettable experience, the purpose has always been to help my little brother.
“What I want from this is to keep shining a light on Ethan, because he's not just an artist; he's a musician and this unbelievably great person who's faithful, kind and genuine. If I can do anything that's going help him succeed in his talents and his creativity – whatever that looks like – I'll do it.”
