cleats to support charitable endeavors during the games played on Dec. 4, Kerber and Avery have temporarily relocated to Oregon, where theyve been working with N

INDIANAPOLIS -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. indicated Friday he is feeling a little better as he battles balance issues and nausea believed to be from concussions.Earnhardt, who has been working with doctors for the past 10 days, will miss his second consecutive race this weekend.Today is the 1st day in many that I sensed improvement, Earnhardt tweeted Friday morning. Seen small gains during my physical therapy as well. Light at the end of the tunnel.Earnhardt, 41, initially thought his symptoms were from a sinus infection or allergies. Having been in wrecks June 12 at Michigan and July 2 at Daytona -- as well as having missed two races in 2012 after suffering two concussions in a span of six weeks -- spurred Earnhardt to see a neurologist last week.The tweet from Earnhardt, who visited the shop Wednesday, was encouraging for team owner Rick Hendrick.I want him to be healthy and right when he gets in the car and the doctors are going to dictate that, Hendrick said. The news has been really good. The tweet this morning was really good. He looks good. Hes sharp.Im excited about getting him back, but Ive tried to leave him alone. ... He misses this. He misses his team. He came to see his team [Wednesday]. He saw the guys and it really lifted them.Earnhardt was replaced by one his Xfinity Series drivers, Alex Bowman, last week at New Hampshire and will be replaced by four-time Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon this weekend at Indianapolis and next week at Pocono. There is no timetable for Earnhardts return.They can give me a lot of exercises that retrain my brain to handle what I need to handle -- its just going to take a lot of patience, Earnhardt said Monday on his The Dale Jr. Download podcast. I take my health and quality of life as a top priority. ... I am going to take this slow and strictly take the advice of my doctors.On the podcast, Earnhardt said his ImPACT test -- a test that measures cognitive function such as memory and reaction time -- matched a previously taken test that is used as a baseline to determine effects of a concussion. Earnhardt is seeing doctors at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Medicine Concussion Program.Dr. Mark Lovell, who developed the ImPACT test and is the chief science officer of ImPACT applications, said it is encouraging that Earnhardts recent results have matched his baseline. Lovell is not treating Earnhardt.You can have other symptoms of concussion that are not specifically cognitive -- not related to memory -- [so] we dont just look at the cognitive scores, Lovell said. We look at, is their balance OK? Do they have headaches? Do they have other signs or symptoms that arent purely of the cognitive variety?Lovell said an athlete typically would undergo an exertion test to determine if the balance and nausea symptoms return. He said when he was treating athletes, he would want to see someone undergo the exertion test for a few days without symptoms.The brain undergoes a physiological change, Lovell said. So there are actual chemical changes that take place. You want that process to settle down before somebody goes back in to [avoid] risk of another injury.By doing the exertional exercises, youre basically stressing the system. Its kind of like a stress test for the brain ... to make sure they are OK before they go back in.Lovell added that there is no expected timetable for an athlete to recover.The brain is complicated, Lovell said. Its not like any other injury. Its complicated by the fact that it can look differently in different people. ... [It] is really important to recognize that there is no testing for a concussion, an MRI scan.What happens in brain with a concussion is generally more of a physiological reaction, a chemical reaction.Michael Jordan Bengals Jersey . With the first unit struggling of late and Amir Johnson - one of the teams iron men - hobbling on an injured right ankle, Patterson knew he could get the nod in a challenging matchup against one of the leagues up and coming players at his position. Jessie Bates III Bengals Jersey . Bryzgalov stopped 25 shots on Saturday in the Oklahoma City Barons 4-1 victory over the Abbotsford Heat. The Oilers signed Bryzgalov to a one-year $2 million contract last Friday after shedding payroll by dealing defenceman Ladislav Smid to the Flames. http://www.bengalsrookiestore.com/Bengals-Germaine-Pratt-Jersey/ . The FA rejected Wilsheres appeal that the length of his punishment was "clearly excessive" and said Thursday his suspension begins with immediate effect. He will miss league matches against Chelsea on Monday and West Ham on Dec. Germaine Pratt Youth Jersey . With their top three point guards and Kobe Bryant all sidelined by injury, the Lakers signed Marshall out of the D-League on Friday before their home game against Minnesota. Joe Mixon Youth Jersey . The Hall of Fame defenceman told Landsberg that he believes fighting still has a place in todays game, but thinks staged fighting needs be outlawed.By now its a weekly routine: Big NFL stars like Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and Panthers quarterback Cam Newton take the field wearing custom-designed cleats.But the big names arent the only ones wearing the custom footwear. A growing number of players are wearing one-of-a-kind cleats -- usually just in pregame warm-ups but sometimes in games -- and many of them are getting the customized gear from an unlikely source: a sneaker shop in Buffalo, whose co-owner and cleat artist have ridden their custom designs all the way to a partnership with Nike.The shop, which is called Fabes Sole High, opened in 2014. Were big on exclusivity -- things that are expensive and rare, things you wouldnt find at Foot Locker, said the shops co-owner, Napoleon Polo Kerber, whos 26. Athletes would come to our store for that, so we already had that customer base.Shortly after the shop opened, Kerber met up with a 31-year-old local artist named Nicholas Avery, who got into customized footwear by painting his own sneakers for fun. A couple of designs that Id done were displayed at a different shop in Buffalo, he said. I wasnt really affiliated with them, but they just thought it would be cool to showcase those designs. Then, I started getting requests, and I ran into the guys at Fabes Sole High and we talked about working together.Things started slowly. The first athlete to request customized cleats from them was a college player -- Mississippi quarterback Chad Kelly, whos from Buffalo and requested a custom pair last year. But their big break came when Bills running back LeSean McCoy asked for a pair. Then, other Bills players saw what he was wearing and wanted their own pairs, and then theyd tell their friends on other teams, guys they went to college with, and it kind of took off from there, Kerber said.Things have picked up this season, as word of Fabes Sole High has spread. Players whove worn the shops custom designs have included the following:? Dolphins cornerback Bobby McCain. Avery turned the Nike swoosh on McCains cleats into a stylized dolphin.? Colts wide receiver Donte Moncrief. Avery again modified the Nike logo, this time taking the subtle approach of adding white dots to the swoosh to mimic the similar markings on the Colts horseshoe logo.? Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. Hopkins got a pair of NASA-themed cleats, complete the NASA logo on the insole and moon craters on the exterior. ? Giants wide receiver Sterling Shepard. Wheres Waldo? Right on Shepards cleats. ? Bills cornerback Kevon Seymour. Seymour went with a Sonic the Hedgehog theme for his custom cleats.Other Fabes Sole High customers have included Titans tight end Delanie Walker and Bills quarterback Cardale Jones, among others. The NFFL often frowns on custom footwear being worn in games, so most of these players have worn their Fabes Sole High cleats only for pregame activities.dddddddddddd But some have managed to get them into games. The guys who police this stuff for the league, theyll tell the players during pregame, You cant wear that during the game, but they usually dont check after that, Kerber said. So some guys, like Cardale Jones, have switched to regular cleats for the first half and then worn their custom designs during the second half.Kerber handles most of the communication with the players, but Avery executes the designs. Ill start by roughing the shoe up with a sanding pen, so itll hold the paint better, Avery said. Then I use whats called an adhesion promoter, which is usually used for automotive paint jobs, which also helps the paint to adhere. I use Angelus paint, which is designed for leather. Its made to flex without cracking. I mostly use an airbrush, but Ill use do small details by hand. And then I use a heat gun to cook the paint onto the shoe. The whole process takes about 20 hours. The player usually provides the cleats, and the price for the paint job is generally in the $400 range.Avery said the players usually leave the designs up to him. They might specify what color they want, but otherwise they leave it pretty wide open for me to do whatever I think looks good, so theres a surprise factor, he said. I dont do any mock-ups or preliminary versions for their approval because the designs usually evolve as Im working on them, so the final version would look different anyway.But a few players have taken a more active role in the design concepts for their cleats. Cardinals cornerback Marcus Cooper, for example, requested a pair that celebrated the upcoming birth of his daughter, so he provided Avery with photos to use, including a sonogram image.Players arent the only ones whove taken notice of Fabes Sole Highs work. With the NFL allowing players to wear custom cleats to support charitable endeavors during the games played on Dec. 4, Kerber and Avery have temporarily relocated to Oregon, where theyve been working with Nike to create footwear designs for many of the players affiliated with the sportswear giant. ESPN.com will provide previews of those designs soon -- stay tuned.Paul Lukas writes about uniforms for ESPN.com. If you like this column, youll probably like his Uni Watch Blog, plus you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Want to learn about his Uni Watch Membership Program, be added to his mailing list so youll always know when a new column has been posted or just ask him a question? Contact him here. ' ' '