The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 150 — More money, more problems
Under Armour ain't in the clear yet
Good morning, family! The Kicks You Wear is back. Thank you so much for rocking with me this morning.
Hope y’all are ready for the fantastic week you’re about to have. Can you believe we’re at 150? Wow. Don’t forget to tell your friends to subscribe!
Let’s jump in.
Kevin Plank has some explaining to do
(Photo by Taylor Siebert on Unsplash)
Under Armour just cannot shake the shadow of 2016's shady accounting scandal.
A class-action lawsuit is rising up again, per the Washington Post, just weeks after the company agreed to a $9 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC accused Under Armour of failing to disclose the fact that it shifted orders from future quarters in 2015.
It continued that practice for six quarters starting in Q3 of 2015, which beefed up its quarterly sales numbers. It’s why UA looked a lot hotter than it was.
That’s where this lawsuit comes in. A group of pension retirees and investors brought up a class-action lawsuit arguing UA’s numbers misled them and drove them to invest.
The lawsuit was dismissed by a judge in 2019 because there was no evidence of wrongdoing at the time, but the case was reopened in 2020 following the SEC’s investigation. Now UA is fighting it again. And though they settled, the company hasn’t admitted any wrongdoing.
But it gets even juicier. The plaintiffs are arguing Kevin Plank’s stock moves show that the company did benefit from deceptive reporting.
Plank sold a whopping $138 million in six months between 2015 and 2016 — when the alleged fudging was happening.
The Post’s Doug MacMillian shared a graphic showing a spike in Plank’s sales and…this certainly could make for a convincing case.
Under Armour is arguing that this was Plank’s regular pattern of trading and it wasn’t abnormal for him to do this. But that’s a massive spike and, as MacMillian points out, there’s a notable break in quarterly trading during the period in question.
No idea how this is going to end. If I were to guess, it’d probably be another settlement. But we’ll see.
A glitch in the matrix?
(Photo by Kristian Egelund on Unsplash)
I think something was wrong with SNKRS this weekend? They had two big drops this weekend with the Shadow 2.0s and the HOF Kobe 5’s.
They were just…unorganized. In a way, honestly, that I can’t recall seeing from SNKRS before.
What happened:
Both the Shadow drop and the Kobe drop were advertised as drawings which has been the norm so far in 2021.
And they were drawings…for some. For others, it was FCFS. I was one of those folks and it was so confusing.
I was unsure of what to do. I wanted the Shadows but I didn’t know whether or not I should put an entry in or not because it was unclear how the stock was actually being allocated — was it all being randomly distributed through the draw or did I legitimately have a shot?
Didn’t matter. I took the L anyway. But it was just…weird. That’s something we don’t normally see from SNKRS.
Say what you want about the app. There are obviously valid criticisms to make about it and Nike’s strategy overall — I’ve made them on this very platform. But, one thing about it, the directions in leading you to your L are always crisp and clear.
They weren’t this time. And we don’t really know why. My best guess is there was some sort of hiccup behind the scenes, but I don’t know. I’m going to reach out to hopefully find something out.
I just hope it doesn’t happen again.
SPECIAL DELIVERY: The strap is back on the KD 14
Special Delivery is BYKE! We came through with the KD 14 this week and I was really excited to look at this shoe for two reasons.
First of all, KD’s signature line has been lacking in some areas for me. I wanted to see if it improved. And I think it did!
Second? THAT STRAP.
In the latest episode above, I explore the history of KD’s line a bit and talk about why that strap is so important to it. Tap in.
Like, subscribe and leave a comment letting us know what your favorite KD model is!
Tell The Boy to send these back
Alright, if this is what the Air Terra is going to look like, Drake can keep these things, fam. These look awful.
Is…is that a snakeskin pattern? They look like somebody tried to create a Yeezy using NBA 2k21’s signature shoe builder.
Hopefully, another colorway pops these off because, uh, these ain’t it.
What’s droppin’ bruh?
Yeezy 500 “Tactile” — Monday, May 17
Concepts x Nike Kyrie 7 — Wednesday, May 19
Nike Dunk Low “Photon Dust” — Wednesday, May 19
A Ma Maniere Jordan 3 (SNKRS Restock) — Saturday, May 22
Yeezy Quantum “Flaora” — Saturday, May 22
That’s a wrap! Thank y’all so much for rocking with me. Hope you enjoyed today! I’m eternally grateful to you for letting me get to 150 of these things. Thank you. Love you.
Have an awesome week. Peace. Love. Be easy. Be kind.
-Sykes
more like certified lover barf imo
The shadow 2.0s were FCFS for me as well. The Kobes were a drawing but I was told I didn’t get them only three minutes into the countdown. Super weird.