Custom shoe artist and Marmion alum Beckham Cournaya is building a growing business through creativity, patience, and thousands of hours of work.

From a small workspace filled with paint brushes, sketches, and rows of sneakers waiting for transformation, Marmion alumnus Beckham Cournaya ‘24 is building a business that now reaches NFL fields across the country.

Beckham has spent the last several years turning his love of art and sneaker culture into a growing shoe customization business. Today, professional football players wear his custom-painted cleats on game days through his brand, Beckham Customs.

“It’s still crazy to think about,” he says. “When I was younger, all my artwork was just in notebooks or sketchbooks. Now people actually wear it.”

The journey started during his eighth-grade year as COVID lockdowns began. Already obsessed with both sneakers and drawing, he came across videos from a local shoe artist,  Dillon DeJesus of Dejesus Customer Footwear, showing how custom designs could be painted directly onto shoes.  Something clicked immediately.

“I realized I could combine two things I loved into one thing,” he says.

What began as experimentation quickly turned into thousands of hours of work. Some custom pairs can take 10 to 40 hours to complete depending on complexity. Over the past six years, he estimates he has customized nearly 1,000 pairs of shoes.

His work eventually caught the attention of NFL players.

Among the athletes he has worked with are Daniel Hardy, Montez Sweat, Javon Bullard, Myles Hartsfield. He has also contributed to the NFL’s annual “My Cause My Cleats” initiative, helping create customized cleats tied to charitable causes and awareness campaigns.

Last season alone, he helped work on cleats for about 40 NFL players through that initiative.

Beckham credits Marmion with helping encourage his creativity early on.

Art teacher Ms. Dzuricsko became an important supporter of his work while he was still a student. Marmion even displayed one of his custom-painted shoes during a school art show, where classmates quickly took notice.

“That definitely helped build confidence,” he says. “People were really interested in it.”

Today, he continues balancing school, travel, and client work while exploring ways to grow the business further. He recently completed coursework at College of DuPage and is finishing his degree online as opportunities continue to expand.

Long term, he hopes to continue building his brand while potentially pursuing footwear design professionally.

But no matter how much the business grows, the process still comes down to the same thing: creativity, patience, and long hours bringing each design to life.

One pair at a time.