The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 227 — Beware of the scammers 🙅

The Zadeh Kicks story is a cautionary tale you need to see

May 27, 2022

Gooooood morning, family. Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me on this lovely Friday.

Y’all. I actually stood in line for sneakers this week. We’ll talk more about it later but WHEW did that love/hate relationship with being outside come back. Have y’all lined up for sneakers in 2022 or am I wylin? Let me know in the comments.

Alright, let’s dig in.

The sneaker game can be nasty, y’all

There are tens of billions of dollars floating around the sneaker resale market. And wherever there are tens and billions of dollars anywhere, there are also bound to be scammers looking for their next lick.

That pretty clearly seems to be what happened with this Zadeh Kicks situation that has taken the sneaker world by storm over the last week or so.

Wait. Who?: Michael Malekzadeh — aka Zadeh Kicks — is a sneaker reseller who launched an LLC by that same name.

It was a sneaker pre-order service where you could order hyped pairs of kicks for prices not too far from retail value.
I’m talking high heat joints. Travis Scott drops, the latest AJ1s, the hottest Nike Dunks. He’d have all of that listed and well ahead of the drop date, too.
For example, he listed the “reimagined” Air Jordan 1 pre-order and we don’t even have a release date for the sneaker or know what it looks like.

So what happened: People are up in arms now because Malekzadeh reportedly filed to voluntarily dissolve his company on May 19, citing its rapid growth as the reason why. He claimed he was unable to sustain the business. And, with that, millions of dollars worth of orders were left unfulfilled.

Instead, a court-issued receiver is now handling the business and is supposedly working on resolving all disputes tied to the company.

This was the message left on the Zadeh Kicks website before it went defunct.

“The receiver has received a significant volume of calls/emails seeking an immediate resolution to individual investor/creditor/customer situations. The receiver will not be returning calls at this time, but has established a receivership telephone hotline and will release this phone number before the end of the week. The receiver will also send a former notice to all investors/creditors/ costumes in the near future,” read the newsletter. “You will have the opportunity to submit a claim as a part of the receivership process. In the interim, you may send your inquiries via an email to zadehkicks@stapletoninc.com.”

Just an absolute gut punch to anyone who’d done business with this dude — some of which paid him to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Insane.

The feds are involved: The receiver also notified users they’re working with the FBI on this, so Zadeh Kicks is officially under federal investigation. And Sole Retriever put together a pretty solid guide here on how folks could potentially get their money back.

Between the lines: It’s not like no one saw this coming. This was never a trustworthy operation. Sockjig told us this on his brilliant conspiracy podcast. A million folks on social media have said it. The clues were always there.

No one truly knew where Malekzadeh sourced his sneakers from and it would take months — over a year in some cases — to fulfill orders. Some were actually never fulfilled.
If orders weren’t fulfilled, by the way, he’d issue store credit rather than giving full refunds.
Folks alleged that he used StockX to fuel his whole operation. They said he’d use pre-order cash to fulfill older pre-orders and just kept that system going until he couldn’t anymore. Sneaker Twitter dug pretty deep on this one.
This seems like one gigantic Ponzi scheme that documentaries will be made on someday.

This isn’t over. There are lots more details to come between the company’s dissolution and the federal case being lined up against the Malekzadeh.

But the bottom line: Be wary out here, y’all. There are lots of Zadeh Kick out there in this game waiting to prey on you and take your money. If something smells fishy or seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Just stay away from it.

Howard being a Jordan Brand school is great, but let’s see where this goes

person wearing blue and white nike athletic shoes — *Photo by Carl Barcelo on Unsplash*

Seeing news that Jordan Brand is reportedly inking a deal to become the new team sponsor for Howard University’s athletic department is pretty cool.

The Boardroom reports that the apparel brand signed a multi-year, school-wide deal with the HBCU.

What that means:

Jordan Brand will be the one kitting each of Howard’s athletic teams, which could lead to some pretty fly apparel and such.
This is the first time Jordan has sponsored an HBCU since 1997 when they sponsored North Carolina A&T as one of their original schools.
It means Jordan Brand will be cutting Howard University a pretty nice check, too, which is dope.

The background: For decades, Russell Athletics was the primary sponsor for many Black colleges across the country. But, in recent years after Russell bowed out of the uniform business, HBCUs have begun to see interest from major athletic companies. It’s not shocking to see Jordan moving in here.

Howard was previously sponsored by Under Armour — more specifically, UA’s Curry Brand. As we know, Under Armour has been getting out of the business of sponsoring athletic programs. This news probably isn’t hurting their feelings. It’s nice to see Jordan Brand step in.

Between the lines: I really hope this deal is something of substance. And I don’t mean on the field or on the court, either.

The thing about HBCUs that has always been the case is this: They need funding. Not for sports. But for the general betterment of the campus.

For example, Howard could and should use whatever money they get from this deal to provide humane living conditions for their students.
This has been a problem for a long, long time. And, for years, cash has been diverted elsewhere and it’s remained unsolved.

So maybe Jordan Brand can help fix that problem? Maybe? I don’t know. Won’t hold my breath.

I touched some grass! Or…concrete. Wet concrete, actually. For Crocs.

If you’d told me back in January that I would’ve stood outside in line for five hours in some relatively chilly and rainy weather, I’d definitely have believed it. I know how I am when it comes to shoes I love.

But for Crocs? Nah, man. Wouldn’t have believed it. Definitely not for Salehe Bembury’s Crocs.

But…I did it, though. And the homie Jonélle caught me out here in 4k.

Let me explain: Listen, I hate Crocs. But my fiancé’s birthday is next week and she loved these joints. The way I see it? I ain’t really have a choice.

Plus, we had to do it for the content! As much as I preach about getting outside and enjoying standing in the line, I had to do it one time for the one time. It was fun! But I totally wouldn’t recommend it.

There were TONS of resellers who cut in line and made the experience awful. Folks popped their trunks open with 6 and 7 and 8 pairs of these kicks stuffed in the back. That was irritating.
It also rained. And it was cold. Y’all know I hate the cold.

It wasn’t all bad: We got the Crocs. Me and J had a good time. And we also shared frustrations with other folks in line, too.

I’d rate the experience a 5 out of 10. Not great. But will I be back? You know it.