This shoe website will share cool pictures of running shoes (including women's athletic shoes) people are wearing, shoe design and customization, and interesting info useful to shoe owners. The sneakers listed here will be primarily sports shoes. Floral wrappings are included as an added bonus!! ~Wongous Works shoe blog
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
For those who don't know the whole story, you can catch up on all that has happened to me here.