How Karon Boyd’s custom Grinch shoes stole the show in Wichita State win
The shoes were supposed to celebrate his defense.
Instead, the custom-made Grinch shoes that Wichita State senior Karon Boyd wore for Sunday’s game against Eastern Kentucky sparked a career night on offense.
Wearing his fully custom, holiday-themed Nikes splashed in Grinch green, Boyd buried four 3-pointers in the game’s first eight minutes on his way to a career-best 22 points in the Shockers’ 88-57 rout of Eastern Kentucky.
The shoes weren’t courtesy of an NIL deal or a Nike team perk. They were personal. After WSU’s social media team playfully leaned into Boyd’s quote this summer about his favorite part of playing defense — dubbing him the Grinch for “stealing joy” from scorers — Boyd decided to lean all the way in.
“A lot of people started making a thing about it on (social media),” Boyd said. “So I decided to make custom shoes about it.”
Those customs came courtesy of Boyd’s girlfriend, Mary Oakley Robertson, whose work has already traveled far beyond Wichita. Robetson built her reputation in the custom sneaker world last year at East Tennessee State when she was selected to design, paint, package and ship shoes for the USA women’s gymnastics team, including Simone Biles, Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles during their gold-medal run in Paris.
For Boyd’s latest pair, the canvas started with a clean white Sabrina Ionescu signature shoe from Nike. Robertson, whose social-media brand is MoakleyCustoms, painted the body Grinch green, added a Grinch hand on one shoe and the Grinch himself on the other, candy-cane striping on the heel and Boyd’s custom KB logo stamped on the back. On the toes: “Off night” on one, “Steal their joy” on the other — an homage to Boyd’s identity as a defender first.
“Last year I had a custom shoe design too,” Boyd said. “So I just worked with her and had a couple ideas. I have another one coming out soon.”
Pressed for details, Boyd grinned and kept it close to the vest.
“You’ll have to see it,” Boyd said. “Can’t let you know early.”
What made Sunday fun was the irony. The Grinch shoes were built to celebrate Boyd’s defense, the part of his game that earned him minutes and trust. Instead, they helped highlight how far his offense has come.
During his two Division I seasons at East Tennessee State, Boyd made just 21 of 110 3-point attempts, a 19.1% clip. Through his first 13 games in a WSU uniform, he’s shooting 40.5% from deep with 17 makes already — nearly matching his entire ETSU career total in the first two months of the season.
“This summer, it was a really big key of mine to get my shooting percentage back up,” Boyd said. “So I shot a lot of 3s during the summer with the coaches. The whole team shot a lot of 3s. We’ve been in the gym a lot. So just being in the gym more, constant repetition and then keeping the shot the same.”
That new dimension has changed the way defenses have to guard him. Boyd is still bringing elite defense, both on the ball and away from it, and physicality, but now he’s punishing teams that sag off him in the corners and on the wings. If opponents keep daring him to shoot, WSU’s offense gets wider, cleaner and harder to clog.
After his career-best performance, Boyd tried to deflect the credit. When asked about his career-best four 3s, Boyd instead wanted to focus on the 12 made by the team.
“It doesn’t matter how many I make,” Boyd said. “It matters how much the team puts in. We did it together.”
The Shockers certainly played near their best on Sunday, wrapping up nonconference play at 8-5 with one of their cleanest performances of the season: 26 assists on 34 made baskets, 12 3s, 14 offensive rebounds and a robust 1.31 points per possession, while holding EKU to just 0.85.
For a final before Christmas break, the kind that can easily become sloppy, it was a crisp, connected and joyful outing for the Shockers.
“It was definitely a good feeling to go into break and show our chemistry on the court,” said WSU teammate Brian Amuneke. “How we’re all unselfish and care about each other and everybody else.”
This story was originally published December 22, 2025 at 6:03 AM.
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