Brady's Fanatics Flag Football Classic appearance put a safety-first cleat brand on the map.
At 48 years old, Tom Brady still commands attention on a football field. At the 2026 Fanatics Flag Football Classic, he reminded everyone why — and in doing so, shined a spotlight on a footwear brand that's quietly been building a case for a fundamental rethink of how cleats are designed.
Brady chose Caddix — and his reasoning tells you everything about where performance footwear is heading.
Brady laced up Caddix Cleats for practice leading into the inaugural 5-on-5 exhibition tournament. His explanation was direct: "I've worn a lot of different equipment over the years, and most of it is designed the same way. Caddix is doing something different. I'm getting back on the field with two things in mind: high performance and safety. That's why I chose Caddix." For an athlete of Brady's profile — who has moved through Nike, Under Armour, and his own Brady Brand — a public endorsement of an upstart cleat company is a meaningful signal.
Caddix cleats are engineered around patented SmartStuds that flex and rotate to release a player's foot from the playing surface — specifically designed to reduce the torque that causes non-contact knee and ankle injuries. The men's cleat also features a wider toe box, extra padding, and a stiffer plate for what the company describes as elite fit and support. The claim isn't just about comfort. It's about keeping athletes on the field longer by addressing one of the most persistent structural problems in contact sport footwear.
Founded by former collegiate All-American Jack Rasmussen alongside his father Jeff, Caddix builds sport- and athlete-specific footwear tailored to the biomechanical differences between men and women — a distinction the company says leads to meaningfully better protection against ankle and knee injuries for female athletes. That's a notable gap in a category that has long defaulted to gender-sizing rather than gender-specific engineering.
Brady isn't alone. San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk wore Caddix cleats throughout the regular season, playoffs, and his 10th Pro Bowl appearance. Joe Flacco, Budda Baker, and NWSL standout Kayla Sharples are also in the lineup. The roster spans NFL, college, and women's professional sport — which appears to be by design for a brand positioning itself as cross-sport and cross-gender from the start.
The non-contact injury problem in football — ACL tears, high ankle sprains, turf toe — has been a known issue for decades, and the cleat industry's response has largely been incremental. What Caddix is doing at the stud level represents a more fundamental engineering intervention. Brady's endorsement accelerates visibility, but the more important story is whether SmartStud technology holds up as proof accumulates across game conditions. If it does, this is the kind of ground-up redesign the footwear industry doesn't see often.
Performance footwear is overdue for a safety-first disruption. Brady's platform has always moved product — but what's interesting here is that he framed his choice explicitly around injury prevention, not aesthetics or speed. That framing matters. It signals that elite athletes at the end of long careers are increasingly willing to be public about prioritizing longevity over brand loyalty. Caddix is smart to build its credibility story around exactly that athlete profile. The next question is whether the technology can carry the brand beyond the endorsement cycle.
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