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Thursday, May 18, 2023

Fake P.I.'s Workplace Got Robbed with Bear Mace


I'm not sure if the fake private investigator was on duty that day, but I certainly don't have any sympathy for him if he was one of the victims.  I have not forgotten how he had contributed to the loss of my job.  He had it good at Save-on-Foods.  It's just too bad he didn't realize it then.


Surveillance screenshot of a suspect accused of using bear spray at the Bowen Rd. 7-Eleven location on Wednesday, May 10 at 4:20 a.m. (Nanaimo RCMP)


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Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Shoe Dealer Sells More Than He Possesses


Sneakerhead Accused of Running Huge Air Jordan Ponzi Scheme

Source of Article:  Bloomberg


Zadeh Kicks promised the hottest sneakers at discount prices. Buyers say they never got their shoes and are out millions of dollars.

Air Jordan Sneakers
Air Jordan SneakersPhotographer: Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images

Now, this consummate shoe salesman has been accused by federal authorities of masterminding a Ponzi scheme custom-fit to these strange financial times.

After all the get-rich dramas and market mischief of the pandemic economy – from cryptocurrency to SPACs, to “stonks” and more – it’s come to this: a Bernie Madoff of sneakers.

That, in a nutshell, is how authorities characterize Michael Malekzadeh, of Eugene, Oregon. Prosecutors say Malekzadeh, 39, and his Zadeh Kicks LLC swindled thousands of people across the nation in a multimillion-dollar scam involving nubuck and leather, rather than stocks and bonds.

As portrayed by the feds, the fraud ran for years — and unraveled in months. In the end, Malekzadeh appears to have been undone by the spike in demand during the pandemic, as well as one specific sneaker: the Air Jordan 11 Retro Cool Grey.

More:  Sneakerheads Have Turned Jordans and Yeezys Into a Bona Fide Asset Class

After nearly a decade in business, Malekzadeh was charged by federal authorities last week. On Wednesday, he plans to plead not guilty to charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and money laundering. He faces as much as 30 years if convicted on the most serious count, conspiracy to commit bank fraud. 

“Mr. Malekzadeh is not hiding from his conduct,” his attorney, Joanna Perini-Abbott, said. “He has consistently taken full responsibility for his actions and will continue to do so.” 

Whatever the outcome, a Ponzi scheme involving Jordans and Yeezys, of all things, seems made for this moment in more ways than one.

Over the past five years, a confluence of forces – from high fashion to sports culture to online everything -- turned collecting sneakers into a multibillion-dollar business. But as with so many things, the pandemic changed the market in new and surprising ways.

Suddenly, home-bound collectors and day-traders were flipping Nikes and Adidas. Many used dozens of different credit cards to finance their purchases and prices soared.

Sneaker Prices Soar

Prices for Air Jordan 4 and Nike Air Max sneakers have risen 104% and 44% since January 2020

Source: StockX

Malekzadeh rode this resale market to improbable heights. From his warehouse in Oregon, birthplace of Nike Inc., he offered sought-after kicks at below-market prices even before manufacturers released them.

In truth, prosecutors now say, Malekzadeh was taking orders – and collecting money -- for thousands of sneakers he didn’t have and couldn’t get, at least for prices that made any sort of economic sense.

 When customers’ orders didn’t arrive, he bullied and blustered and offered store credit and gift cards that would more than make up the difference, prosecutors say. The ruse kept the scheme afloat even as it enriched certain customers who got in and out before other people.

Zadeh Kicks appeared to be running its operation smoothly in the years leading up to the pandemic-induced demand. That’s when Malekzadeh got in way over his head. 

In some ways, it’s remarkable Malekzadeh got as far as he did. His business lacked sophisticated systems to process orders, track inventory and ship the product. Other than his fiancee, who’s also being charged for her part as chief financial officer of Zadeh Kicks, Malekzadeh ran alone. Prosecutors say he falsified over 15 loan applications for more than $15 million in bank financing.

The latest limited-edition Air Jordans, the 11 Cool Grey, appears to have been a step too far.

As Nike prepared to drop the new high-tops last December, Malekzadeh made a move, prosecutors say. Nike was pricing the 11 Cool Grey – nubuck upper, grey patent-leather mudguard – at $225.

But Malekzadeh’s company offered to sell them for as little as $115, before the December release date, with the understanding that buyers agreed to take delivery a few weeks after the official drop.

Zadeh Kicks sold 600,000 pairs. It only had 6,000.

Most customers never got the shoes they paid for. Zadeh Kicks, however, pocketed $70 million, prosecutors say.

According to court documents, Malekzadeh spent much of his profits on Bentleys, Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Some $3 million went to Louis Vuitton bags, jewelry, furs and watches as expensive as $600,000 a piece. 

So far, the FBI has seized $6.1 million in cash from Malekzadeh, plus watches, as well as about 1,100 pairs of sneakers from his personal collection.

Unable to fulfill orders or refund customers’ money, Zadeh Kicks has since gone under, but according to the court-appointed receiver, its Oregon warehouse still holds 60,000 pairs of sneakers. 

Thousands of customers, meantime, are tallying their losses.

Jeremy Rogers, 30, a clinical researcher in Fort Worth, Texas, rattles off his purchase history: 100 pairs of the Air Jordan 11 Cool Grey, 300 pairs Air Jordan 4 Retro Lightning, 225 pairs of the Jordan 4 Retro Military Black, 100 pairs of Jordan 4 Retro Shimmer, 20 pairs of Travis Scott Jordan 1 High Fragment. 

In all, he figures he spent $143,000 in sneakers he didn’t receive, spread over 15 credit cards.

But the ones that he did get, Rogers says he resold for far more than he bought them. The 100 pairs of Jordan Shimmer sneakers he bought for $160 from Malekzadeh, ended up selling for $315 a piece. He made about $15,500 on that one sale. 

There were also other ways to make money from Malekzadeh, even if orders never arrived. Instead of refunding customers for undelivered sneakers, Zadeh would offer to buy back the same pair for cash and gift cards in excess of the amounts paid by his customers for the sneakers 

“I think within three cycles, I turned $6,000 into $20,000 just cycling through and letting him buy them back for me or giving me a gift card,” said Rogers, who calculates he’s ordered about one thousands pairs of sneakers from Malekzadeh over the past two years. 

Despite his ultimate failure, customers and industry watchers still wonder how Malekzadeh sourced so many rare sneakers. The shoes appear to have been legit, not knockoffs. Even so, a review of counterfeit sneakers was among the first things to take place as soon as Malekzadeh dissolved his company. 

Rumors floated about him securing shoes from online retailer StockX. Others suspect he’d formed relationships with retailers over the years that helped him get hold of hard-to-get sneakers. 

“Is this on the books and legitimate with brands? Hell no,’’ said Matt Halfhill, founder of Nice Kicks, a sneaker blog. Nonetheless, Halfhill suspects the industry often turns a blind eye to such practices, referred to as “backdoor” agreements. 

Even some customers suspected something might be amiss.

“There’s no way this guy can sell sneakers for 150 bucks, for something that costs the consumer $250, but guess what?,” said Johnny Liu, who says he bought 400 pairs of sneakers from Malekzadeh’s company. “The order actually came, and they were authentic.”

Still, Liu, who works for an IT company in California, says he’s now out about $70,000.

It’s hard to know how many people have been caught up in the supposed shoe scam. The court-appointed receiver has gotten 3,500 emails from customers who say they’re still waiting for their sneakers.

Those who paid via wire transfers have probably lost their money but customers who used credit cards are trying to recover some of their money by filing chargeback claims through banks or PayPal.  A bankruptcy lawyer for Malekzadeh’s company says various options are on the table, including an obvious one: Selling all those sneakers in the warehouse.

Some aren’t waiting. Right after Malekzadeh filed to dissolve his company, angry customers showed up at the Zadeh Kicks warehouse, local media reported. Malekzadeh called the police for help four different times, and one officer asked for backup after reports of a shot fired. According to court documents, Malekzadeh had security cameras installed to safeguard what’s left of his sneaker stash. 


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Sunday, June 12, 2022

Women's Puma Tazon 6 Shoes


Here are what these shoes look when worn in a practical sense.  If you like these shoes, you can buy them here.  The men's version can be found here.



The following is a more complex collage of these shoes...



Here is the review of the men's version of the shoe.




Notice how wide these shoes are.  A site that sells wide shoes can be found here.

A non-sneakerhead wouldn't think too much of these but I like the simplicity of the shoes' design.  I like the usage of the pink trim on the black suede-and-leather surface.


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Sunday, May 15, 2022

More Shoe-Enemies


On May 10, 2015, I saw Kelsie N. wearing some mint-green Nike Free 5.0s at Spinners Sports Nanaimo at Country Club Mall.  Of course, I couldn't pass up on the opportunity to ask for some poses.  Please see the thumbnails below.

Kelsie Nicholls in green Nike Free 5.0 shoes

Obviously, she was more than willing to participate after telling her it was for my blog.  I re- approached her 2 months later to get her thoughts.  Her face lit up and she said:  "It was really good!!"

Several months later (in either December or January), I revisited the store.  This time Kelsie's co-worker, Tanis W. was working with her.  I told her about the drama behind my blog, about how Cindy K. from Frontrunners Nanaimo claimed that shoe posers changed their minds even after consenting to my request.  I also went on to mention Cindy's claim that they were going to call the cops on me.

Tanis did not look taken aback or confused at all.  Instead, she shook her really hard, while sucking air inward intermittently like a fast-chewing gopher, a reaction that hinted she knew about my situation beforehand (in hindsight).  I asked Kelsie if she had read my backstories and the drama that Cindy K. has caused and she said she had no idea.  At the end of our dialogue, Tanis asked where I worked, just like Jane Moxam did after Mexican Dave "froze" my gym membership.  Readers can refresh on the details of Cindy's antics here.

Almost immediately after, Tanis and Kelsie went to V.C., the assistant store manager at the time.  It also turns out that Tanis had some familiarity (friendship) with him.  Their aim was to try and get me in trouble the same way Cindy did.  Why didn't they take their complaints to the head store manager?  My guess would be that it's hard to tell a bullshit story to a stranger in clear conscience.


Tanis Watson


First of all, the photographing was done outside of my workplace so to bring this shit into my workplace after the same way Cindy K. did when she successfully got me banned from the Nanaimo Athletic Club gym and then got me suspended from my workplace was obviously influenced by Cindy and Frontrunners Nanaimo.  Did Frontrunners Nanaimo (particularly Cindy, Cheryl, and T-Mac) bribe or incentivize them (with free sneakers)?

V.C. was "tricked" into thinking that just because my hobby is okay with me doesn't mean it's okay with them, the same way that Cindy tried to brainwash me into thinking that the posers changed their minds after giving me permission to photograph their shoes.  Having said that, V.C. couldn't figure out why Kelsie didn't refuse my request in the first place.  V.C. also went on to tell me that the two girls were going to escalate their complaints further than approaching V.C. about it.  I asked V.C. what they were going to do and he said:  "They were going to call the cops."  That was the clinching confirmation to me that their complaints were not legit.  That's exactly what Cindy K. used to intimidate me from carrying out my hobby.

There is no way that Kelsie, who was so willing to shoe pose for me and was so enthusiastic about my blog would think to turn on me like that unless she knew about the Frontrunners' drama and a friend of hers supported that kind of bullying.  Tanis clearly had an influence on Kelsie.  They are more than just co-workers.  They are friends as shown below.

Kelsie Nicholls

Also, I find it quite strange that Tanis was part of the complaint even though I did not photograph her shoes.  Tanis quit her job shortly after.

Six months later, after Kelsie found out that I knew what she had done to me, she was very worried.  Every time I shopped in the store while she was there, she couldn't brisk walk fast enough to the store's backroom (to hide and to stay hidden from me).  If I was just walking past the store, she would be rolling her upper body on the countertop as though she had an upset stomach.

Kelsie & Tanis.  You had no idea the emotional torment that I had to endure.  To try to bandwagon on Cindy's antics only adds to my trauma and my drive to call you out.  Do you think it's funny to have someone death-threaten you and to have your job taken away from you?  Perhaps you two are just as narcissistic as the D.T.A. as you clearly have no empathy.  If Spinners Sports continues to hire these types of employees (who associate themselves with criminals and bullies of another company) then I will recommend against shopping there.

These two girls, along with Jane Moxam (former gym manager), T-Mac, Cheryl J., C.K., and the blonde Mona Lisa, should all be banned from entering Save-on-Foods, particularly the Nanaimo stores.  If the DTM and the DTA are no longer working their shifts, a suitable move would be to bar them from entry too.  By the way, Cheryl still shops at Save-on-Foods.  To have that privilege taken away from her would serve as just punishment.


Cheryl Jolly (nee Davies)


For those who don't know the whole story, you can catch up on all that has happened to me here.



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