There's a little bit more pop in eight-year-old Landon Pearson's fastball these days, thanks to a little pop of color on his feet.
"They're a nice yellow and orange," Landon said, pointing to his highlighter colored Under Armour shoes. "I like shoes that have color. I saw them up on this giant billboard and I thought that they were pretty cool."
Landon's trip to the Under Armour store in Albertville was a big occasion, because it was the first time he was looking for two shoes that didn't need room from corrective equipment.
"He was born with a club foot," said Landon's mom, Natalie Schuneman. "It's where his foot is turned up and in."
From the time he was born, Landon has worn a series of hard casts and braces in hopes of correcting his foot alignment. But that process has taken a toll.
"Being in casts so much kind of stunted the growth of his foot," Natalie said.
Landon and his family hadn't noticed how stunted his foot was until Monday, when they went shopping for his first pair of brace-free shoes.
"His mom asked if I could just measure his feet, and I was like sure," said Sean Kelly, store manager at the Under Armour Outlet in Albertville. "One was a size six, the other was a size three."
"I was shocked because I thought maybe it was only a shoe size difference," Natalie said. "Three shoe sizes is kind of a lot, so I cried."
Though Natalie was upset at the prospect of her son needing to buy two pairs of shoes, likely for years to come, Sean quickly decided to act.
"I said, 'How about you buy the (size) three, I'll buy the (size) six.' He gets to go home with the pair that he wants. Why not make him happy?"
Landon is still happy about it.
"He was a really nice guy," he said. "It was really thoughtful to pay for the shoes."
His mom thought it was thoughtful too. Natalie sent a photo and email to Sean's district manager. She then posted the story to Facebook and it quickly went viral, garnering more than 2,000 shares in less than 24 hours.
"It just makes you feel good," she said. "It makes you want to be a better person."
Sean says it's just part of customer service.
"I just love helping people find what makes them more happy and more comfortable in everyday life," he said.
Mission accomplished.
"My foot feels free," Landon said. "They're my favorite shoes."