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Bryce Harper and Melky Cabrera debut colorful cleats in All-Star game

You had to know Bryce Harper would figure out a way to shine brighter than his fellow All-Stars in Kansas City, even if his play on the field didn't quite measure to his high standards. And that's exactly what he did, debuting a new pair of gold Under Armour's Highlight Spine cleats for all the world to see.

According to the Washington Post's Dan Steinberg, Harper has been wearing Under Armour cleats (which are designated for greater ankle support) for the past two weeks. For the All-Star game, though, he decided to go with the specially designed gold pair, which Steinberg describes as "very Bryce Harper."

"Those are great, aren't they?" Harper told Comcast SportsNet's Kelli Johnson. "They're awesome for the camera....They're pretty impressive. They've got that Vegas feel to 'em. I like that gold."

That was Harper before the game. When asked about them after the game, he simply added: "I just told them I want as much gold on there as I can."

It looks like they obliged.

But Harper wasn't alone in making a fashion statement on Tuesday night. The All-Star game's Most Valuable Player, Melky Cabrera, was among several other players — including Pablo Sandoval and David Wright — to wear colorful cleats in the game. Cabrera's were orange. Bright orange, to be exact.

Where did those come from, our own David Brown asked The Melkman.

"It was Nike that made them special for me. I brought my own spikes from San Francisco, but I wore these because I thought they were cute."

I suppose "cute" is one way of describing them. Though I'm not sure Chipper Jones would agree with that assessment for any of his teammate's brand new colorful cleats.

"I would not be caught dead in those shoes to be honest. Aw, I'm just kidding. You know what? They get paid a lot of money to wear those shoes. It's a little flashy and a little loud, but we had a little fun with it here in the clubhouse."

When pressed to answer if they were the ugliest shoes he'd ever seen on a baseball field, Chipper replied:

"There were a couple that were pretty heinous [laughs]."

But hey, cute, heinous, flashy, loud or otherwise, like Chipper said, the guys made a chunk of change showcasing those cleats on Tuesday night. And they certainly got our attention, so they had the desired effect for the companies who designed them. That sounds like a win for everybody.

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