For the past nine seasons, the NFL's annual My Cause My Cleats initiative has provided players with a platform to support causes and non-profit organizations close to them through custom cleats on game day.

While community involvement and advocacy is a year-round priority for the Bears, the team's strong and consistent participation in My Cause My Cleats highlights each player's passion for their personal causes.

"Our guys have been great when it comes to being involved in the community and giving back," coach Matt Eberflus said. "In every Wednesday meeting, we talk about where guys were on their day off, and they're always giving back. Another way to do that is through My Cause My Cleats. The guys are super involved in that. It's really cool to see what organizations guys are supporting and have the chance to ask them questions about what their causes are. I think it's fabulous and the guys are so involved and connected to it."

Watching player and coach involvement grow has been rewarding for Eberflus and general manager Ryan Poles. This year, more than 40 players and coaches will show off their custom shoes this Thursday in Detroit.

"This sport that we play, for how popular it is, it gives all of our staff members, coaches and athletes a platform to recognize those organizations that create change and inspire others, or even bring awareness to certain causes," Poles said. "I love the fact that the league allows our guys to use this to be their own message board for the things that they believe in. Usually, it's all about being uniformed, but I love that if there's a space for everyone to be unique, it's for a really good cause."

2024 also marks the second consecutive season where every member of the Bears organization has received the opportunity to design their own Nike Air Force 1's and support a cause.

While Poles and Eberflus participated in the initiative in 2022 with other members of the football operations staff, the immediate buy-in from the Bears business staff last year inspired President & CEO Kevin Warren and chairman George H. McCaskey to get involved.

"We had great participation from staff last year, and I think that helped the four of us decide that we should get involved, too," McCaskey said. "So, I think the momentum is coming from the staff to us instead of the other way around."

The Bears leadership group is supporting a variety of causes, each with a personal connection to their recognized organizations. Warren is representing his and his wife Greta's charity, the Warren Family Foundation, which embraces, educates and empowers youth in the community through ready-access opportunities that expand their worldview.

The Warren Family Foundation supports youth in communities close to the Warrens, such as Chicago and Minneapolis, as well as nationally, in a variety of ways, including scholarship grants, private tutoring, back-to-school shopping experiences and after school programs. The Foundation has also funded an emergency assistance fund for children's cancer patients and their families through Carolyn’s Comforts and earlier this year, pledged $1 million to Lurie's Children Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in Chicago.

"The youth are the future of this country, of this world," Warren said. "It is something that, I would say, is a requirement for adults to make sure that we are supporting youth in various ways. They are our future. And the fact that they had very little to do to create the complicated nature of the country and the world that we live in, we are all for supporting them, especially when it comes to health and wellness and education and experiences."

McCaskey is supporting Uniting Voices Chicago, an internationally renowned network of in-school and after-school programs that serve thousands of students across the city every year.

Similar to last year, McCaskey chose an organization he had never worked with before, with a goal of stepping outside his comfort zone to learn something new. He empowered the Bears' Women's Employee Resource Group to help him select an organization that would also pay tribute to the beloved Katie Nagle, a long-time Bears executive assistant who passed away Sept. 2.

"Katie loves music — that's the connection," McCaskey said. "Uniting Voices Chicago does great work all over the city. They get kids excited about music, give them a sense of accomplishment. It's a great cause. I had heard of them when they were called the Chicago Children's Choir. I know they've been around for a long time because they were founded in 1956. That happened to be the year that I was born, so I know they've been around for a long time. Like many of these organizations that do great work, they need help, so I'm looking forward to learning more about them and supporting them."

Both McCaskey's and Warren's sneakers were designed by Bears partnership activation coordinator Danica Lopez, who also painted their shoes last season.

Through a pair of custom Air Jordan 1 Lows, Poles is representing BUILD (Broader Urban Involvement & Leadership Development), a gang intervention, violence prevention and youth development organization based on Chicago's West Side.

Bears Care, the organization's charitable arm, has supported BUILD since 2012, but Poles became involved with the program less than a year into his tenure in Chicago. In January 2023, Poles hosted the first annual Scout School and brought students from BUILD to Halas Hall to learn about the roles of NFL scouts and other potential career paths in football. Since then, Poles has visited BUILD's renovated facility and continued to support their vision.

"I really love their commitment to youth with everything from their facility, which is a state-of-the-art facility, it's beautiful, where kids can go," Poles said. "It's a safe space to go to socialize, to work out and improve their health, to play sports — they have a gym there – or to work on their craft. If they're painters or if they want to work in the woodshop, they have space for that. They're very innovative and up to date with some of the things that they allow the kids to work on. It's just really cool to see how much they've invested in kids in the community and giving them a space to grow, to learn and to improve themselves."

Eberflus chose to support ALS United Greater Chicago this season to honor his father, Stan Eberflus Jr., who passed away Feb. 8, 2015, due to complications from ALS, a neurodegenerative neuromuscular disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. The organization aims to unite the ALS community using a collaborative approach to foster research initiatives, advance national and state advocacy efforts and provide comprehensive care to those affected by the disease.

Eberflus has supported ALS United Greater Chicago throughout his time with the Bears and last year, received the non-profit's prestigious Iron Horse Award, which honors an individual who displays the same humility, courage and strength as Lou Gehrig — a New York Yankees superstar who passed away from ALS June 2, 1941.

"I think about my dad a lot — every single day," Eberflus said. "He's very instrumental to my development and the man I am today. I can't thank him enough for that. I thought I'd recognize him and honor him by supporting ALS Greater Chicago. It's a great organization. We're trying to find the cure for this debilitating disease and they're getting closer. When you see your loved one go through that, it's heart wrenching, to see somebody deteriorate like that but still have their spirit. We need to find a cure for that, because it'll be incredible when they do."

The club's growing involvement in My Cause My Cleats the past two seasons, as well as the support from the McCaskey family in the initiative, has been inspiring for Warren to witness. He hopes the unified participation of the leadership group can continue to raise awareness for the causes they selected and help create a more positive environment for the entire community.

"It shows a common thread of making sure that we are doing everything we possibly can to support causes and initiatives that make the world a better place," Warren said. "We live in such a polarizing environment from a political standpoint, from a business standpoint, from a philanthropic standpoint, and it is critically important that we remove those barriers and start coming together as a people, as a country.

"This world that we live in, just operating every day is challenging enough, so it is important that we show that we can come together, work in a collaborative manner, especially lean into our youth and provide them with the resources so they have a chance to be the best version of themselves. I think we all are byproducts of someone helping us. We just did not get born into this world, raise ourselves and end up in this position. There were people — family members, parents, siblings, coaches, administrators, business associates – that helped all of us at at different ways during our journey. That is why we are focused on repaying those opportunities that have been provided to us."