The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 403 — All aboard the Nike Express 🚂
This is the wild wild west, folks.
Goooood morning, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate your time.
Big shoutout to Union LA! Had a lot of folks reach out to me with Ws yesterday. Absolutely love to see that — especially with a shoe as good as this one. This is the most hype I’ve seen for a Jordan 1 since, like, 2022. Interesting times we’re living in, folks. Interesting times.
Let’s get it poppin’.
This is a stick up
We’ve seen elaborate plans to steal Nike shoes before, but I’m not sure we’ve ever seen anything quite like this.
The news: There’ve been at least 10 heists since March 2024 by a group of thieves targeting BNSF freight trains in California and Arizona traveling through the Mojave Desert, according to reporting from the Los Angeles Times.
The twist: They’re not stealing gold bars or jewels or safes filled with cash. They’re stealing sneakers. Nike sneakers, specifically.
The details: All but one of the incidents involved the theft of Nike or Jordan sneakers. According to the LA Times, the combined value of the stolen items is reportedly approaching $2 million.
The how: The thieve’s process is like those old Western movies. They get tipped off by inside sources about the cargo on outgoing trains, and then it’s on.
They sneak aboard these freight trains and hide out until the trains reach the desert.
They either slash a brake hose to force a stop or wait until a scheduled stop in a lonely section of the route.
Once the thieves find what they’re looking for, they alert “follow vehicles” tracking the train and then toss the gear off for pickup.
That entire graf reads like something from one of those old-school Western movies. You know the ones. You’ve likely seen a few. Or, at the very least, you’ve played Red Dead Redemption 2 enough to know what I’m talking about.
The why: It’s simple, folks. Money.
Let’s look at the most recent example — nearly 2,000 pairs of the Nigel Sylvester Jordan 4s were stolen during an incident in January.
That’s over $440,000 worth of sneakers if you sell each pair at retail price.
If you’re talking resale? The shoes don’t have a lower bid than $650 on StockX. You do the math.
The thieves take the stolen sneakers — most of which haven’t been released to the public yet — and make backdoor bulk sale deals with consignment shops or online via third-party sellers on eBay or Amazon.
The consequences: The group's ringleader is reportedly Felipe Arturo Avalos-Mejia. Authorities arrested him in June last year, and according to the LA Times, more have gone down since then.
On June 20, California local law enforcement agencies and Homeland Security agents executed search warrants at 11 residences and 16 storage units related to the ongoing train burglaries, arresting 43 suspects and recovering from the storage units about $3 million worth of merchandise believed to have been stolen from BNSF trains, according to the complaint. More merchandise — including numerous boxes of stolen Nike shoes — were allegedly recovered from the home of a woman who said she had a romantic relationship with Avalos-Mejia, the complaint states.
That hasn’t stopped the burglaries so far. There’ve been more incidents since his arrest, including January’s.
The big picture: Remember what I said about the 2005 Pigeon Dunk release and how stealing a pair from someone could pay someone’s rent for an entire year? That’s why people were so desperate for those shoes.
This is basically that, but to the highest degree possible.
These sneakers aren’t just sneakers anymore. They’re cash. They’re a come-up. And people are willing to do just about anything — even bring miles-long trains to a screeching halt — just to hit that lick.
See you later, The Hundreds
Another pillar of sneaker and streetwear culture has fallen by the wayside this week.
The news: After 18 years on Fairfax in Los Angeles, The Hundreds announced that it closed the doors of its last and most prominent brick-and-mortar location over the weekend.
Bobby Hundreds shared the news in an Instagram post.
The why: Bobby got into it a bit in his Substack newsletter, Monologue. He didn’t dive into the details of why, but it’s what you’re probably thinking.
It’s the money.
Rent was probably too high in the space. The pandemic impacted it, sure. But that likely wasn’t it. Like other key streetwear spaces of yesteryear, The Hundreds store ran out of utility as the internet siphoned off everything. Streetwear culture has moved online. It’ll exist there for the foreseeable future. This closure is proof of that. That’s what makes this sad to me.
This anecdote from Bobby’s blog got me:
“We all know why people don’t visit physical retail stores as much anymore. Amazon is convenient. The Internet warehouses have available inventory. Brands offer more affordable prices when you buy from them direct. But on Fairfax, the limited-edition sneaker drops were just an excuse. These guys (and they were mostly young men) were shopping for friends (whether they’d admit it or not). Come for the clothing, stay for the culture, leave with a community…
At some point in the last several years, as we lost the boundary between our lives and our phones, Streetwear started conflating Comments with Community.”
While the internet is great — and it’s honestly granted me a lot of privileges and linked me with many people I’d never have met otherwise — the key part of genuine connection is missing. I’m not sure we’ll ever get it back. I hope we do.
The Hundreds isn’t going away, really. The online shop still exists. But that’s kind of the thing, right? The internet has cannibalized everything. We can’t escape it.
Maybe one day we’ll finally go back outside and touch some grass. Until then, RIP The Hundreds. Y’all had a great run.
Jordan Brand cooked
“Full tank. No mercy.” That’s one hell of a tag line for Jordan Brand to tap into for Luka Doncic as he debuted his new signature sneaker on arguably the biggest night of his NBA career so far.
What’s happening: There’s a lot of controversy and conversation swirling around Luka Doncic right now.
The Lakers star was shockingly traded to LA from Dallas a few weeks back (I’m still so mad about this) in one of the most controversial trades in NBA history. He played his old team for the first time as a Laker earlier this week.
Ahead of the game, where Doncic debuted the Luka 4, Jordan Brand also unveiled this new ad.
They’re cooking: There’ve been a lot of good ads across the sneaker world lately, but the timing of this one is just so perfect. To drop it on one of the biggest nights of his career with everyone watching is a brilliant move.
The big picture: To me, this is what re-centering the athlete entails. It’s making them the main characters again, not just telling their stories in real-time but allowing the fans to connect to those stories and live through these moments with them.
That’s a good look. Will this translate to sales of the Luka 4? Eh. We’ll need some better colorways if that’s ever going to happen.
Athletes x Creative directors?
The homie
proposed such a fascinating idea in his newsletter this week.I never considered the idea of athletes having creative directors until I read about it in SportsVerse. Now, I can’t stop thinking about it.
Dan’s reasoning is sound.
“Increasingly, athletes are turning to stylists at the outset of their careers as they look to build their personal brand and make similar connections in the creative industries. The best stylists also often help their clients navigate the intimidating network of editors, PR agencies and designers who hold the keys to the fashion industry, which haven’t always been as accepting of the presence of athletes as they are today.
It makes me wonder, given how much importance is now placed on an athlete's personal brand, why no one has gone one step further and hired a business-minded creative like a stylist, designer, or photographer as a full-time creative director. The role would allow athletes to create a 360° strategy to curate their personal style, visual branding, and communications and curate collaborations and partnerships across fashion and other creative industries that fit their personality and values.”
So many of these athletes are signed to brands with creative directors, yet they also have bigger followings and more fans than the brands themselves.
That’s the thing. Athletes are brands in 2025. Why shouldn’t this be a thing? It absolutely should.
DYM is spitting with this one. Check out the full article here.
#TheKicksWeWear
Y’ALL KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS! Let’s get it!
First the homie Ghee kicked us off with the Fruity Pebble Dunks. These joints are crazy.
My dog Sumeet came through with the Kasina Dunks from his b day festivities. Wish my guy
a happy belated birthday, folks!
Shoutout to the homie Storm who came through with the CNCPTS 740s. These joints are so beautiful, man. Love em.
The homie Dave popped out with the Georgetown vibes on the Jordan 1. Absolutely love to see it.
My guy Trevor pulled out the GALAXY FOAMPOSITES!!!! Cannot wait to see these on foot.
Then the homie Nate took us home with the Shake x Adidas Crazy Iiinfinity joints. These are GAS! Wow.
That’s a wrap, folks! Y’all did that.
Thanks so much for reading! Appreciate you giving me a bit of your time this morning. I don’t take it for granted.
If you’ve got any questions, comments or concerns, hit me via email at mikedsykes@gmail.com or shoot me a message here via Substack.
Til next time. Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯
Such a great read per usual. One hill I’ll die on is that things will keep happening like the train robbery until more people can get these shoes at an accessible price. And the easiest way to do that is to solve the sneaker bot problem. We see it all the time on Ticketmaster for concerts and they refuse to actually put money and resources towards it. The demand/resale market will still be there and you’ll alway have bad actors combined with hard to get limited releases, but this is coming from a build up of people who know they’ll never actually have a chance.
Thank you my guy! Great read as always!!