What custom gear will Bryce roll out in 2024?

This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki’s Phillies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Baseball is never far from Bryce Harper's mind.

If he is not playing or working on his game, he is probably thinking about it. He is remembering it. Last August, after he hit an inside-the-park home run at Citizens Bank Park, he remembered details of inside-the-park homers that Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley hit at the Bank more than a decade ago.

Last June, after J.T. Realmuto made a ridiculously athletic play at Wrigley Field, Harper mentioned Carlos Ruiz’s play that cinched Roy Halladay’s 2010 postseason no-hitter as a comparison. Just last month, when David Buchanan spoke to Harper about an at-bat they had in 2015, Harper remembered details from it.

“Yeah, 2-0 curveball, homer,” Harper told Buchanan.

Harper’s baseball thoughts extend to other matters, too. He has a shoe deal with Under Armour. The Harper 9s will come out around Memorial Day. Harper and UA designed this year’s shoe in 2022, which means they spent this past offseason working on the Harper 11s, which will debut in 2026.

“I enjoy it,” Harper said. “I’m pretty much full bore as far as what I want to do: low top, high top, colors.”

Harper is known for wearing special cleats and using special bats for special games, like Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Jackie Robinson Day, etc. Special cleats are hand-painted for most players, which means they are ruined easily during a game. But Harper works with Under Armour, so each pair is factory made, meaning they will not be destroyed if he slides feet-first into second base or makes a sliding catch on the warning track in foul territory.

“I want everything from the factory,” Harper said. “Just like a car, right? You buy a car, you want factory paint. I don’t want to go to a shop to get them repainted.”

Harper already designed his cleats for the Phillies’ new City Connect uniforms, which will debut in April. He has special cleats for the London Series in June. He has Wawa-inspired cleats and he has Phanatic cleats for Opening Day, which has become a tradition.

Harper has cleats and bats in the works for other games, too.

(The bat for London is fun.)

“I like to represent the city and other Philly teams and things like that,” Harper said. “There’s certain things I’ll just think about. In the middle of January, I’ll be walking through my house and I’ll say to [Harper’s wife] Kayla, ‘Hey, how cool would this be? Like, an arm sleeve that’s the color of my skin, but like green fur coming through it.’ She goes, ‘What is wrong with you? You come up with the most random stuff.’”

Harper laughed.

“It’s so funny because I’ll just say something about the upcoming season, cleat-wise or whatever it is that I’m thinking, and she’ll be like, ‘Yeah, it’s great. I like it,’” he said. “I don’t know. It’s so real for me. It’s funny because people say there’s so much stuff, there’s no way he comes up with it, but I do. I just love it. It’s fun.”