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Nice Kicks has confirmed exclusively that the inventory of the former sneaker pre-sale business Zadeh Kicks is actively for sale on eBay.
The collapse of Zadeh Kicks is one of the most notable stories to hit the sneaker world in 2022. When the business abruptly closed in May, thousands of pre-order customers and a handful of financial services companies were left with countless questions and millions in losses.
One of the biggest questions that circulated was what would be done with the inventory of the dissolved entity. Zadeh Kicks had a handful of warehouses in its hometown of Eugene, Oregon that housed nearly 60,000 pairs of highly coveted sneakers.
According to reports from Stapleton, the appointed Receiver handling the affairs of Zadeh Kicks as it dissolved, establishing a count of inventory was one of the first tasks that the group took on which involved counting every single pair by hand since Zadeh Kicks never had a sophisticated inventory management system.
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Following the declaration to the court that Zadeh Kicks would dissolve, monthly reports were given to the Oregon Court by the Receiver and in those notes were numerous conversations with various groups and platforms about selling the inventory.
The Receiver considered selling the inventory to notable names in the secondary market including creditors of Zadeh Kicks which posed a serious question around conflict of interest. Numerous resellers were in contact with the Receiver as well throughout the year expressing interest in selling the shoes as well in large transactions.
In July, Zadeh Kicks founder Michael Malekzadeh and his partner and CFO Bethany Mockerman were indicted on federal criminal charges related to the Zadeh Kicks business that include wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
Tasked with collecting the greatest possible amount of money from the inventory sale, the Receiver has moved forward with a plan to sell the shoes to consumers online via eBay under the username pacific_kickz.
The account, created on November 17, 2022, posted listings of sneakers in abnormally large quantities per size which is generally something not permitted by new eBay accounts. Most notably, amongst the more than 250 shoes offered for sale when we first saw the account this week, there were not any shoes that were released after the Zadeh Kicks business closed in May – another abnormality for large sellers of shoes.
Nice Kicks messaged the seller requesting information as to whether or not the items listed were associated with the Zadeh Kicks business or the Receiver, but did not receive a response.
Initial listings displayed the seller’s location as Solana Beach, CA, but on Wednesday night items popped up displaying the seller’s location as Eugene, OR – including a listing that offered the Air Jordan 11 Retro “Cool Grey” that Malekzadeh is alleged to have sold more than 600,000 pairs while shipping only 6,000 according to the indictment.
Initially, items listed by pacific_kickz were priced above the threshold that requires them to be Authenticated by eBay, but on the evening of December 14th, items were listed that were priced below the threshold to require authentication. Nice Kicks purchased a pair from pacific_kickz to receive a direct shipment and confirm that the seller’s location was indeed in Eugene, OR. Two days after purchase, the FedEx tracking provided confirmation that the shoes were shipped from Eugene.
To ensure that it was more than a string of coincidences that confirmed the initial hypothesis that the pacific_kickz eBay account was associated with the liquidation of Zadeh Kicks inventory, Nice Kicks exclusively obtained a confirmation from eBay that the inventory of the Zadeh Kicks business is available for sale on their platform.
Michael Malekzadeh started his venture into online sales of sneakers using eBay with the username zadehkicks dated back to May 28, 2007 – almost 15 years before his business filed for dissolution. The account sold more than 45,000 shoes and had a 100% feedback score of 17,800.
At the time of publication, there are more than 446 individual SKUs of shoes with more than 3,800 size variants with many having more than 10 stock per size. So far 103 items have been purchased from pacific_kickz. The inventory of Zadeh Kicks was tallied to 59,780 pairs earlier this year.
Nice Kicks spoke exclusively with Garry Thaniel, GM of Sneakers, eBay to get more insight.
Nice Kicks: Is eBay actively managing the sale and shipping of the shoes or acting purely as a platform?
Garry Thaniel: The Receiver has determined to use the eBay marketplace as an avenue to sell Zadeh’s remaining inventory. We’re happy to be able to leverage the marketplace to get these sneakers to enthusiasts. As an online marketplace, eBay does not manage any listings or sales on our platform. We have partnered with the Receiver to provide support for this sale purely as a platform. All listing logistics, sales and fulfillment are managed by the Receiver.
In court documents, there was mention of the authenticity of the inventory. Will the items sold by pacific_kickz have their authenticity verified like other transactions?
All items that are listed by pacific_kickz and qualify for eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee will go through eBay’s expert authentication process.
Numerous entities were considered and were in communication with the Receiver including competitors of eBay – did eBay provide any incentives in fees to have products listed on the eBay platform?
Given our low fees and Authenticity Guarantee service, the Receiver ultimately decided to list all products on eBay but were not provided any other incentives. However, in full transparency, eBay did connect the Receiver with the company that is assisting with posting the listings.
Our collective goal is to get these sneakers to enthusiasts and use those funds to repay those involved in this case. With eBay’s low fees and Authenticity Guarantee service, we hope to maximize sales for the Receiver and ensure maximum trust in the product that our shoppers receive.
Nice Kicks reached out to Michael Malekzadeh’s attorney for comment about the sale and in response pointed to an earlier statement supplied to Nice Kicks.
…[Michael Malekzadeh] has cooperated fully with the federal government and the receiver from day one because his primary goal is to minimize the financial harm to his customers and other interested parties. Before the criminal charges were even filed, Mr. Malekzadeh voluntarily turned over Zadeh Kicks and all its assets to a receiver and provided millions of dollars of his personal assets—including cash and hundreds of valuable items—to the federal government. He did so with the understanding that those assets would go toward making the parties who have suffered financial harm as whole as possible in a fair and equitable way and to protect those parties from any single creditor “jumping the line” to receive an unfair share.
Nice Kicks connected with David Stapleton of Stapleton Group, the Receiver of Zadeh Kicks, however due to time conflicts were unable to receive comment before publishing. We will update in the event we receive comments.
FAQ’s of Zadeh Kicks Liquidation
When is the Zadeh Kicks Warehouse auction?
The Receiver outlined different scenarios of how to sell the inventory that was in the warehouse of the Zadeh Kicks business. The Oregon Court approved the plan to list the bulk of the items on ebay to sell the shoes are market price to maximize the amount of money recovered from the inventory of the dissolving business.
Are the shoes from Zadeh Kicks authentic?
There has been speculation about the authenticity of Zadeh Kicks’ shoes for years based largely on the prices charged. All items sold through ebay that qualify for eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee will be verified by eBay like any other transaction on eBay.
Does the money go to Michael Malekzadeh?
Sales of shoes by the ebay user pacific_kickz will go to the Receiver who is in charge of the dissolution of Zadeh Kicks. No money from the sale of the shoes will go to Michael Malekzadeh as he is no longer involved with Zadeh Kicks.
UPDATE: DECEMBER 22, 2022
We received the order and confirmed that the box had a return address that matched the location of Zadeh Kicks’ primary warehouse in Eugene, OR located at 710 Commercial St.
