GREEN BAY — The last time Jordan Love was spending time with some of the kids wearing the brand-new Nike cleats his Hands of 10ve Foundation had distributed, it was at Green Bay Southwest High School toward the end of training camp.

The members of the Trojans football team were sporting their new kicks at practice that day, and for Love, interacting with them reminded him of his own childhood and what it was like to look up someone who’d made it — at summer football camps in his native Bakersfield, California run by NFL quarterbacking brothers David and Derek Carr.

“Looking back on me growing up, being in those kids’ shoes of looking up to Derek Carr, David Carr — the professional quarterbacks that made it out of Bakersfield,” the Green Bay Packers quarterback recounted last week before his foundation’s latest cleat distribution at U.S. Venture’s headquarters in Appleton.

“I remember going to their youth camps as a kid, looking up to them, and I think as I got older, being able to interact with them and train with them, I look back on it and think, ‘Man, this is the impact I’m trying to have on these kids.’ And, hopefully, they take some things from it.”

This time, though, the experience of making several dozen kids’ days hit different. Because this time, Love — set to become a Girl Dad next month when he and wife Ronika welcome their first child — was seeing the moment through an entirely different lens.

Like he was looking into the future.

“It’s one of those things that I haven’t fully wrapped my head around. And I’m sure once that day comes of having our little one, it’ll change completely,” Love said of impending fatherhood. “But it’s something I’ve definitely thought about. Being with the girls softball team and thinking, ‘Hey, my daughter might be here one day, [as] a softball player or whatever she chooses to be …’ it’s amazing.”

Love was looking to the future in another way, too: Wanting to deliver more touchdowns, which would in turn deliver more shoes for more teams.

“I want to get that number up next year, throw even more touchdowns and get even more teams involved,” Love said before distributing shoes to the Gillett-Suring softball and baseball teams, the Appleton West softball team and a Water Cities youth soccer team. “But the impact is there. I’m just appreciative of where I’m at now, to be able to do this.”

In the first year of the initiative in 2024, Love accounted for 26 touchdowns (25 passing, one rushing), meaning 26 teams received cleats. This year, he expanded the program to give cleats to teams both in Wisconsin and in Bakerfield, so his 23 touchdown passes meant 46 total teams got shoes.

All told, Hands of 10ve will have given out more than 2,000 pairs of shoes when all of this year’s are distributed.

“Being an NFL player, the amount of cleats that we get on a daily basis, you don’t even think about it. And now, thinking back to when I was a kid, there were kids that might not have had new cleats, were wearing hand-me-down cleats, or some kids might have stopped playing sports because they weren’t able to pay for all the equipment,” Love explained. “So, it’s something that I just wanted to find a way to keep kids involved in sports, because I think there’s so many great lessons they learn from it.

“If giving them a brand new pair of cleats is something that’s going to help them stay involved, help them keep coming back year after year, that’s why we want to do it. And hopefully it’s something that helps propel them in their season, and they go out and have some success on the field, rocking some new cleats.”