EUGENE -- Royce Freeman committed to Oregon when the Ducks were as cool as it got in college football.

Oregon won, a lot. The Ducks played with speed and flash. The uniforms and the Nike connection were alluring. New helmets, new jerseys and new cleats seemingly every week were part of the Oregon football DNA.

Here in 2017, Freeman has become one of the best players in Oregon history, doing so wearing just about every color of the rainbow on his feet. But midway through this season, in a game against Washington State, Freeman sat on the sideline and motioned for football equipment administrator Kenny Farr to come to the bench. The Ducks were wearing all yellow that day, from top to bottom, and Freeman was having an issue with his cleats. He asked Farr not for a new pair, but for his trusty practice cleats, which had been worn in over the course of the season.

"It's like a pair of sandals or flip flops that you wear around the house all the time," Freeman would say later. "I wear them every day. I can't get out of them."

In game, it wasn't an issue for Farr or the Ducks. Player comfort takes precedent over flash, and Freeman finished that game wearing his worn-down, white old-faithfuls. But ideally, the Ducks would prefer that all the players wear the same color of cleats. They want their players to be uniform in uniform.

That in itself is a challenge that keeps Farr posted up in the equipment room for hours, shuffling through hundreds of shoeboxes and operating a steamer.

"Every foot is a little different," Farr said. "It's a marathon, not a sprint, so you got to make sure your feet feel good for four months."

Farr's office -- the Oregon equipment room -- is just steps away from Oregon's practice field. It's one of the flashier rooms for a program synonymous with the term. Many have likely seen photos or videos of the holographic mirror that displays how recruits would look in Oregon gear. That mirror is pure Oregon -- flash mixed with technology and pizzazz. But to the right of the mirror is where Farr gets most of his work done. Behind sliding doors is the shoe room, which is filled with hundreds of neon-orange Nike boxes. The Ducks have eight different models of cleats, built for players ranging from speedsters like Tony Brooks-James to stout defensive linemen like Jordon Scott.

At the beginning of the year, each player gets a foot examination to determine what type of cleat they should be wearing.

"In high school they get to wear whatever they want, and big Jordon wants to wear fast-guy cleats," Farr said. "But that's not a smart move for him. We need to keep him and his feet healthy the whole season and guide him into something that makes him feel fast, but still gives him support for the position he plays and the weight he carries."

The Ducks have four different colors of cleats they wear throughout the year. This year is a range of yellows and greens. Farr said that every year they put in an order for about 1,500 pairs of new cleats. While some players, like Arrion Springs, like the right-out-of-the box feel -- "I get them and just snap them in half. I like the fresh. I take swag over comfort any day of the week." -- most players prefer their cleats a little broken in. For the first four weeks of the season, the Ducks get their new game cleats at the start of the week to practice in them. After a month, each shoe should be to a player's liking for the rest of the year.

To further ready the cleats, the Ducks use a steaming machine, built by Nike. The Ducks have two of these Espresso-looking machines, one that stays in the office with Farr and the other that they travel with. Pop in a set of cleats and 10 minutes later they are softened and ready to be broken in to a player like Freeman's preference.

"Some guys like wearing them like it's the first time," Freeman said. "I'm not like one of those guys."

Freeman wears the Vapor Pro Untouchable, a cleat that has a suggested weight restriction of 225 pounds, according to Farr, who can recite players' shoe sizes and models off the top of his head. At a listed 238 pounds, Freeman is pushing the limits of that cleat. Sometimes, like against Washington State, the cleats just don't feel quite right. Those are the times, with a pair of feet as important as Freeman's, that the equipment staff can make a concession.

"He was having some pressure in his feet and wanted to go with a different pair that were better for him," Farr said. "We want to make him as comfortable as possible. So we take the cleats he switched out of and work on those a little more and make sure they're ready for the next game."

The next week when Oregon played at Stanford, Freeman wore the same cleats as the rest of the team: The yellow and white "Stomp out Cancer" pair the team wore in Week 2 against Nebraska. They seemed to be comfortable this time, as Freeman rushed for 143 yards on 18 carries.

Those pair also happen to be Springs' favorite, even if he feels that they're not as comfortable as the others.

"They feel a little thin, like they're not as tight to my feet," Springs said. "But they're fresh. That's why I keep wearing them."

-- Tyson Alger

talger@oregonian.com

@tysonalger