He visited all 20 cleats painted for NFL draft in Detroit

Native Detroiter Ed Cliett is a senior analyst for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

However, it was Cliett’s self-analysis that placed him on a life-changing path.

During April, that path has taken the 51-year-old Cliett to places — 20 places to be exact — that will forever connect him to Detroit’s celebration of the 2024 NFL draft as the host city.

“I like walking, I love downtown, I love my city and I love art districts,” declared Cliett, as he explained why he set out on a mission to visit — mostly by foot — the entire collection of 20 oversize cleats that were painted with murals by local Detroit artists. “Once I knew there were 20 of them, 20 stuck in my head and I knew I had to visit each (giant cleat) before the draft. Sometimes you have to feed the kid.”

In their entirety, the 20 giant cleats comprise the DCLEATED exhibit, which was made possible through the city of Detroit’s City Walls program, with support from Visit Detroit, the Detroit Medical Center and other community partners. But as Cliett explained Saturday evening from his downtown home at Cadillac Square, it would have been virtually impossible for him to accomplish his goal of reaching each site where the cleats are displayed a few years ago due to his physical health and state of mind at the time.

“Depressed” is the word Cliett used to describe how he felt during the early months of 2021, a time when the COVID-19 pandemic limited many public activities to varying degrees in downtown Detroit, where Cliett lives and works. And for much of the summer of 2021, Cliett was hospitalized due to physical ailments. His illness — both just before and immediately after his hospital stay — prevented Cliett from being able to walk for any significant amount of time without becoming fatigued. The illness was ironic and particularly demoralizing for him given that prior to becoming sick Cliett had given up driving by choice and had discovered a new world of sorts through walking.

Cliett says the “free and easy” existence that walking had opened up to him prior to his illness did not return until he gave himself a “homework” assignment that focused on improving his mindset.

“I made my mind up that I was going to start participating in my life,” said Cliett, who described how the discovery of the RUNdetroit running store in 2023 where he purchased shoes from On’s Cloud collection — along with a Garmin watch he ordered from Amazon to record his daily steps — supported his new way of thinking and provided him with additional incentive to walk again in earnest. “I spent much of my earlier adult life rolling myself into a ball and now I’m unfurling myself.”

More: Your guide to 2024 NFL draft in Detroit: Registration, map, parking, things to do and more

For Cliett, the change in mindset also entailed looking for more activities to participate in, which led to him becoming a first-time Detroit Lions season ticket holder this past season. And Cliett says the way he now approaches life also made him receptive to a Facebook post he came across in March announcing that 20 colossal cleats would soon hit the streets of Detroit. In fact, Cliett was so excited to begin his quest to see the cleats, which he has also photographed, that he arrived at his first location — Hollywood Casino at Greektown — a week before the artwork was on display.

“I had a false start,” joked the 1990 Cass Tech graduate, who registered more than 36,000 steps one day in April as he visited the cleats and other sites. “But this has been liberating and I think we have the best downtown in the country.”

As much as Cliett loves downtown Detroit, in order to see and photograph all 20 cleats, including exhibits at the Coleman A. Young International Airport and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), he needed to travel beyond downtown. And he also needed another type of transportation than just his feet. Cliett’s solution included using the Detroit Department of Transportation bus system, via the Gratiot bus, which brought him to the Coleman A. Young International Airport, 11499 Conner, a site Cliett had not visited in about 20 years. And with a lift from the Detroit Air Xpress (DAX), Cliett rode nonstop from downtown to DTW in Romulus, where a destination pass allowed him to enjoy all of the airport’s scenery and atmosphere without taking a flight.

More: Detroit reveals 'DCLEATED' art exhibit of 20 painted cleats for NFL draft

Cliett, who has taken many of his friends with him on his journey through frequent social media posts, completed his mission to visit all 20 of the cleat exhibits on April 17. But, he says, he expects to have lasting memories of the experience long after the players selected during the three days (April 25-27) of the draft downtown have made their marks in the NFL.

“A lot of people feel burdened about being an adult, whether you’re a parent, student, teacher or worker,” said Cliett, who during his last visit to a cleat exhibit at DTW’s Evans Terminal took a SMART bus back home. “But being an adult doesn’t mean that you’re not still a person and still alive. So, why can’t I be an adult and still do youthful things?

"After taking my last picture at the airport, I can’t even recall what the weather was like, but I looked up at the amazing sky and I said: ‘I did it.’ And it was fun — every step has been fun.”

Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture in its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at stalley@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott's stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/. Please help us grow great community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber. 

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ed Cliett visited all 20 cleats painted for NFL draft in Detroit