Meet the Texas teacher behind Arkansas basketball coach Eric Musselman's custom Nike shoes

After a full day of work as an art teacher in the Riviera (Texas) Independent School District, Marla Burleson comes home, sits at her dining table, and pulls out a pair of pristine white Nike shoes.

She sketches her designs on the white sneakers first, giving herself a sort of stencil for when she puts paint to leather. There's very little room for error once the brushes come out. Still, Burleson finds the painting relaxing.

It's part of why Burleson agreed to the task of designing and painting custom shoes for Arkansas men's basketball coach Eric Musselman to wear at every game.

Burleson's son-in-law, Mike Ekanem, is the director of player development on Musselman's staff. When Musselman brought up wanting custom kicks throughout the season, Ekanem knew just who to ask.

Before Arkansas' season opener against Mercer, Ekanem sent Burleson a pair of Musselman's plain Nikes and asked her to design them with players' names and numbers. 

"I did that one for him, and then in a few days, he sent me a box with a lot of shoes in it," the 57-year-old Burleson said. "So I thought, 'Hey, I guess he liked them.' "

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Burleson has since painted more than a dozen pairs of shoes for Musselman, mostly Nike Air Force 1s. One other artist, Josiah Keys, has painted a pair, but the rest have been Burleson's work.

Musselman has said the shoes are part of an effort to generate interest in the program, for example, a pair Burleson painted with the names of Arkansas' new signees.

"We're just trying to promote our program, trying to be creative, be ahead of the curve, do some things before other programs start copying it," Musselman said. "Who knows what will be next? But it'll be something creative that we think of, and then somebody else can copy it a few months later."

Painting was a way for former coach to relax

Art has been part of Burleson's life for a long time. She's been an educator for 35 years and has painted watercolors for fun, shoes for friends, and murals for schools. Before this school year, she had coached basketball, volleyball, track and cross country, and painting was a way to relax. 

Since shifting fully to teaching rather than coaching, Burleson said working on shoes for Musselman has added a new challenge to her art hobby. It marries her life as a coach with her life as an artist.

"A lot of people do different things just kind of ease their mind," she said. "I've always enjoyed painting, so this makes it a lot a lot more fun."

Musselman's shoes aren't the first she's painted. She's done many pairs of canvas shoes such as Vans, but the leather Nikes are a different beast. 

"It's become such a big fad, the leather athletic shoes," she said. "A lot of times, (artists) use an airbrush and stencils. I'm old-school, so I still hand-paint them."

Burleson said hand-painting is "tedious," but she enjoys the process. One pair can take three to four days if she's working on them during the week, since she can only work after school. She sketches her design on the shoes in pencil, then adds her base coats of paint before going in with small brushes to add details. 

The most difficult pair Burleson has painted so far is also the one she's most proud of: the Hall of Fame Classic design Musselman wore for the tournament in Kansas City. She had to recreate the tournament's logo, plus she filled the swoosh and the back of the shoe with a basketball design.

"She's an incredible artist, and to think that she can do some of the designs that she does on a shoe is kind of mind-boggling," Musselman said.

Burleson said the best part of working with Musselman is that she has room to be creative. He'll give her a general idea of what he wants on the shoes, but colors and design are up to her.

Musselman always properly credits Burleson when sharing photos of her work on social media. That has led to many requests for custom pairs from fans.

"I'm working on a few right now, but they also know that if Muss calls, everything else gets put on hold," Burleson said. "Being able to do the shoes just makes it that much more fun to watch the games. I get to feel like I'm more part of what's going on."