Cal guard Jayda Noble paints custom shoes to express her artistic side when she leaves the court

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — With practice still a few hours away, Jayda Noble sits down at her desk and squeezes some fresh black paint right onto the top of her left hand just below the thumb. There’s already some white and red, a little bit of pink and purple along her wrist.

Of course paint always covers her university-issued California women’s basketball wear, too.

Noble works intently to touch up a pair of custom shoes she painted for Indiana guard Myles Rice, one of the two boxes Noble sent him for his first season with the Hoosiers after transferring from Washington State.

“Every time I do something I’m working on a skill,” she said, “some brush work, some hand work, something. So I’m getting better and it’s therapeutical. I feel like this is my me time all wrapped into one. It does get stressful, don’t get me wrong, but if I keep a good kind of rhythm going every day then it’s smooth sailing.”

Stacked just inside the door of her Berkeley apartment are boxes of in-progress shoes that Noble is trying to finish in any spare time she has between basketball and her graduate business studies at Cal.

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She transferred from Washington and moved many of her art materials from Seattle to the Bay Area, including several large paintings. It’s her passion, sure, but also a business — and her catchy Instagram handle is “Jayyycasso,” like Picasso.

Rice is a redshirt sophomore at Indiana who sat out the 2022-23 season in Pullman, Washington, while undergoing treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma which he completed on March 9, 2023, with a final chemotherapy round.

He wore Spider-Man-themed shoes painted by Noble in his first home game and will carefully choose when to bring them out so they stay clean.

“I thought they were very beautiful ... and just made the thoughts that I had come to life,” Rice said. “She did two shoes. One was a Spider-Man one because that’s one of my favorite superheroes and it had my cancer ribbon on it as well so it was kind of close to me.”

Rice plans to be a repeat customer and send Noble more shoes later this season and also order some for his family as gifts. Noble and Rice became friends when both were in Washington.

Noble pulled off a Taylor Swift-themed shoe for another good friend, noting, “I’m not the biggest Swiftie but I thought they were fun to do.”

During an off day, Noble might paint into the wee hours. Sometimes her roommate and teammate Kayla Williams comes out of her room at 2:30 a.m. to find Noble still busy at her art.

“She’ll just be like, ‘What are you doing up?’” Noble said, “and I’m like, ‘What are you doing up?’”

Noble keeps about six pairs of shoes in a painting rotation so if she needs a break from one there’s another to paint until an idea comes and she goes back to one she set aside.

“It’s easier to work on a shoe and then not feel it anymore and jump to something else,” she said. “And it keeps it interesting for me so that I can bounce around.”

Noble did shoes for each of her teammates and the Cal coaching staff and is nearly done with 15 “PR boxes,” as she calls them — shoes for some of the nation’s top stars who might become supporters and help spread the word. UConn’s Paige Bueckers was on that list, and TCU’s Hailey Van Lith just received a pair featuring flowers and a horned frog for her school mascot.

“They’re beautiful. She’s obviously extremely talented. I’m just so grateful that she thought of me and that I inspired her to create such a beautiful piece of art,” Van Lith said. “Very grateful for her, for using her artistic skills and creating such an awesome surprise. ... The one thing you love about Jayda is she’s such a genuine and authentic person. She’s going to be who she is and that’s what you love about her.”

Soon, it looks as if Noble might even be painting shoes for a couple of interested sneakerheads on the Golden State Warriors: Jonathan Kuminga and Lindy Waters III.

On the court for No. 24 Cal, Noble has made an impact with her energy and stingy defense. She contributed a 3-pointer during Friday’s 83-63 victory against Stanford as the Golden Bears made a program-record 18 3s.

Coach Charmin Smith has a couple of pairs and will add more to her rotation.

“Those Jayyycasso’s, they’re hot,” Smith said.

The 5-foot-11 guard comes by her artistic talent naturally. Noble fondly remembers painting with her avid scrapbooking mother growing up in Spokane, Washington.

When nearly done, she meticulously takes one final scan of the entire shoe in search of anything that isn’t quite right and will “go back over them with either my paint remover or white paint, and just clean it up so they look really nice.”

Noble sets her prices based on how long she spends on a project and when a customer needs the shoes. Most run about $175 with shipping and it’s an additional $15 for the box to also be painted.

Since Rice purchased two pair she gave him a deal.

“I’ve been able to be a part and see everything since she started it,” Rice said. “We both were on the West Coast in the Pac-12. Just seeing the heights that she’s brought it to and everything she does it’s just amazing to see and I’m really happy for her.”

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