Official Nike Air Ship | Solo Releases ‘22/‘23

[snkrfollower]

Can't believe these fools are still able to sell Nike/JB product, let alone have collaborations. Hopefully whatever is already in progress is the last of it. And on top of all the legal stuff, with how they handled the Dusk/Dawn release, I'm not giving them my money. Will consider if they are available from a more reputable shop or direct from Nike, especially below retail, but not direct from TWG.

Doesn't sound like they'll be separating anytime soon: https://www.aol.com/why-jordan-brand-larry-miller-025346307.html

I wasn't familiar with this whole mess, and after reading up on the complaint I still can't say I fully understand it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like the TWG owner backdoored a slew of pairs to his buddy in NJ, who sold them to Chinese dudes, who paid for them in a bunch of smaller transactions with money from black market/prostitution businesses? But apparently no charges have been filed, and it seems like the U.S. gov't just wants to keep the $2m or so they seized from the buddy's NJ home. Right? So yeah, shady, sure, but I don't know if I'd say "close 'em down." I think it says more about Nike/JB being fine with their stuff going to overseas markets via third-parties (which nobody can really police) than anything else.

 

[GrizzlyAnimal]

Anyone know what time amm usually selects winners ? It says the 13th but I was hoping before snkrs drop so I don’t end up with 2 if I hit both

 

[frenchbreadbuilds]

Doesn't sound like they'll be separating anytime soon: https://www.aol.com/why-jordan-brand-larry-miller-025346307.html

I wasn't familiar with this whole mess, and after reading up on the complaint I still can't say I fully understand it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like the TWG owner backdoored a slew of pairs to his buddy in NJ, who sold them to Chinese dudes, who paid for them in a bunch of smaller transactions with money from black market/prostitution businesses? But apparently no charges have been filed, and it seems like the U.S. gov't just wants to keep the $2m or so they seized from the buddy's NJ home. Right? So yeah, shady, sure, but I don't know if I'd say "close 'em down." I think it says more about Nike/JB being fine with their stuff going to overseas markets via third-parties (which nobody can really police) than anything else.

This is technically what happens when stores open the back door to goat and stock x. Which is why pairs are below retail on direct ship before release day. They have no control over who buys what from there. If you’ve bought anything from goat in the past few years you’ve probably gotten pairs released in foreign/asian markets already. I’d assume the opposite happens as well.

 

[trappedintime]

This is technically what happens when stores open the back door to goat and stock x. Which is why pairs are below retail on direct ship before release day. They have no control over who buys what from there. If you’ve bought anything from goat in the past few years you’ve probably gotten pairs released in foreign/asian markets already. I’d assume the opposite happens as well.

Respectfully that’s not what happens at all with using StockX/goat.

The transaction amounts were meant to avoid taxes, the money was being pooled in NY and driven across state lines after being delivered by Chinese gang members who were trafficking prostitutes and money outside of their business with Jimbo.

Whitner tried to make it sound like he was doing the same thing as everyone else. Well if they’re all trying to avoid taxes, they’re all trash. But you sell those same pairs on the secondary market platforms and the IRS is informed.

He’s far from being in the clear. Civil forfeiture hearings almost always pre-date criminal charges and the IRS will get its revenge whether it’s millions in taxes and penalties he’s on the hook for or criminal charges or both.

Tax evasion isn’t taken lightly so I think the other shoe has yet to drop.

 

[brian8598]

Respectfully that’s not what happens at all with using StockX/goat.

The transaction amounts were meant to avoid taxes, the money was being pooled in NY and driven across state lines after being delivered by Chinese gang members who were trafficking prostitutes and money outside of their business with Jimbo.

Whitner tried to make it sound like he was doing the same thing as everyone else. Well if they’re all trying to avoid taxes, they’re all trash. But you sell those same pairs on the secondary market platforms and the IRS is informed.

He’s far from being in the clear. Civil forfeiture hearings almost always pre-date criminal charges and the IRS will get its revenge whether it’s millions in taxes and penalties he’s on the hook for or criminal charges or both.

Tax evasion isn’t taken lightly so I think the other shoe has yet to drop.

All I know is that small Nike accounts were getting shut down for breaking release date rules and backdooring a few pairs but TWG gets caught by the FBI selling millions of pairs of shoes outside of the country and before release dates, purportedly (breaking dealer agreements in both cases), and they get to not only continue selling the product but get to continue collaborating on highly desirable models over and over, AND while providing horrendous customer service. Other Nike accounts have to be pissed, unless they're all doing the same thing with a low-key okay from Nike directly. It's like when a dude on the street gets jail time for stealing something from a retail store but some white collar criminal steals millions of dollars from people and gets away with a slap on the wrist.

 

[spoonmanofthehour]

I’m not falling for this EQL stuff for this sneaker. I’ll take my chances elsewhere.

 

[trappedintime]

All I know is that small Nike accounts were getting shut down for breaking release date rules and backdooring a few pairs but TWG gets caught by the FBI selling millions of pairs of shoes outside of the country and before release dates, purportedly (breaking dealer agreements in both cases), and they get to not only continue selling the product but get to continue collaborating on highly desirable models over and over, AND while providing horrendous customer service. Other Nike accounts have to be pissed, unless they're all doing the same thing with a low-key okay from Nike directly. It's like when a dude on the street gets jail time for stealing something from a retail store but some white collar criminal steals millions of dollars from people and gets away with a slap on the wrist.

Oh yeah, it’s a double standard for sure. But it’s like the Kanye/Adidas situation. They decided they wanted AMM as their collab/luxury arm of the Jordan Brand. They sunk a ton of money into it, gave them a warehouse for product moving thru them, etc.

It’s too big to fail. But I highly doubt they’re giving the smaller boutiques the same kind of leniency if they’re caught, yesterday or tomorrow.

 

[trappedintime]

I’m not falling for this EQL stuff for this sneaker. I’ll take my chances elsewhere.

They’re still charging for EQL, correct? You’re paying $25 over retail with shipping and EQL so that’s like starting with the StockX fees baked in

Makes zero sense on a $140 shoe

 

[GrizzlyAnimal]

Snkrs or bust lol

 

[brian8598]

They’re still charging for EQL, correct? You’re paying $25 over retail with shipping and EQL so that’s like starting with the StockX fees baked in

Makes zero sense on a $140 shoe

... and then hope that they don't just hold your money for 2 months and send you a cancellation notice like they did with people on the Dusk release. It's a no for me, dawg. Not giving out interest free loans to shady businesses.

 

[frenchbreadbuilds]

Respectfully that’s not what happens at all with using StockX/goat.

The transaction amounts were meant to avoid taxes, the money was being pooled in NY and driven across state lines after being delivered by Chinese gang members who were trafficking prostitutes and money outside of their business with Jimbo.

Whitner tried to make it sound like he was doing the same thing as everyone else. Well if they’re all trying to avoid taxes, they’re all trash. But you sell those same pairs on the secondary market platforms and the IRS is informed.

He’s far from being in the clear. Civil forfeiture hearings almost always pre-date criminal charges and the IRS will get its revenge whether it’s millions in taxes and penalties he’s on the hook for or criminal charges or both.

Tax evasion isn’t taken lightly so I think the other shoe has yet to drop.

Was Whitaker found to be taking part in the scheme himself? Or are all the allegations centered on the person he was selling to? Genuinely asking because I haven’t looked into the case past the initial announcement.

 

[trappedintime]

Was Whitaker found to be taking part in the scheme himself? Or are all the allegations centered on the person he was selling to?

He was personally caught on recorded surveillance discussing the drops and he was personally driving 7 figure sums from NYC to Charlotte. They got so large they had to switch it up to armored trucks for the drive. This man was in DEEP and his buddy was just doing the work for him because the Chinese courier was in NYC where his buddy lived.

 

[$tacy]

Damn I wouldn’t mind those amm

 

[frenchbreadbuilds]

He was personally caught on recorded surveillance discussing the drops and he was personally driving 7 figure sums from NYC to Charlotte. They got so large they had to switch it up to armored trucks for the drive. This man was in DEEP and his buddy was just doing the work for him because the Chinese courier was in NYC where his buddy lived.

It’s not up for debate that he was selling the shoes, but was it confirmed that it was to avoid taxes? Is he being charged with tax evasion and money laundering in connection to the scheme?

 

[trappedintime]

It’s not up for debate that he was selling the shoes, but was it confirmed that it was to avoid taxes? Is he being charged with tax evasion and money laundering in connection to the scheme?

Tax evasion cases like this can take years to come together, so I don’t think we really know what will happen in the future. The IRS and FBI didn’t offer comment which isn’t good if they aren’t investigating you.

What we do know is Whitner said this was common practice and he paid all his taxes, which doesn’t sound correct to me.

“To be clear, while we take the allegations in the complaint seriously, they are unfounded, unrelated to our business or this community and unjustified. Our professional inventory management team runs a transparent process built on systems that are both legally compliant and consistent with industry standards. We have also complied with all tax obligations annually.”

Freeman also lost the 1.2M civil forefeiture case and that seems most telling. A IRS criminal investigator signed the complaint. They have recordings of them planning the drops and discussing the courier, and Freeman couldn’t produce anything business related to explain why he had $1.99M in cash in his apt in 2021.

Brendan Dunne probably has the best written article on this whole thing but even it is lacking a lot of info, presumably because there’s an active criminal investigation.

We also don’t know if Whitner stopped backdooring altogether in that 2-yr timespan or moved it to more legitimate platforms.

Social Status’ $32 Million Resale Scheme, Alleged Money L...

Prosecutor breaks down the flow of the money in explosive...

www.complex.com

 

[brian8598]

Working around paying taxes isn't what bothers me. Everyone with money does that, legally or otherwise. It's not even the stuff in the reports about where the money was going to/coming from. What bothers me is smaller shops struggling to sell all this garbage product that Nike requires them to sell to get the good product while bigger boutiques like TWG stores get to dump a large part of it in shady dealings like this and gets all the best benefits of being one of the biggest tier zero (if that is still a thing) retailers with seemingly no consequences.

 

[trappedintime]

Working around paying taxes isn't what bothers me. Everyone with money does that, legally or otherwise. It's not even the stuff in the reports about where the money was going to/coming from. What bothers me is smaller shops struggling to sell all this garbage product that Nike requires them to sell to get the good product while bigger boutiques like TWG stores get to dump a large part of it in shady dealings like this and gets all the best benefits of being one of the biggest tier zero (if that is still a thing) retailers with seemingly no consequences.

Most people don’t go to Chinese gangs laundering money and running human trafficking to bypass taxes though. So I find business owners who would do that to enrich themselves even more than they’ve been blessed by getting a Tier 0 Nike account to be pretty effin scummy!

Generally I would prefer not to do business with companies in cahoots with human traffickers and their money. Call me crazy but that’s worse than taking a dump on your fellow boutique owners.

 

[frenchbreadbuilds]

Tax evasion cases like this can take years to come together, so I don’t think we really know what will happen in the future. The IRS and FBI didn’t offer comment which isn’t good if they aren’t investigating you.

What we do know is Whitner said this was common practice and he paid all his taxes, which doesn’t sound correct to me.

“To be clear, while we take the allegations in the complaint seriously, they are unfounded, unrelated to our business or this community and unjustified. Our professional inventory management team runs a transparent process built on systems that are both legally compliant and consistent with industry standards. We have also complied with all tax obligations annually.”

Freeman also lost the 1.2M civil forefeiture case and that seems most telling. A IRS criminal investigator signed the complaint. They have recordings of them planning the drops and discussing the courier, and Freeman couldn’t produce anything business related to explain why he had $1.99M in cash in his apt in 2021.

Brendan Dunne probably has the best written article on this whole thing but even it is lacking a lot of info, presumably because there’s an active criminal investigation.

We also don’t know if Whitner stopped backdooring altogether in that 2-yr timespan or moved it to more legitimate platforms.

Social Status’ $32 Million Resale Scheme, Alleged Money L...

Prosecutor breaks down the flow of the money in explosive...

www.complex.com

I actually just finished reading this as I was looking for more info. The complaint is worded to heavily imply intent on the part of Whitaker and freeman. And just the way it worded presupposes a crime was committed. Like when they say he sold “unlicensed product” but that hinges on where or not who ever YG is, is acting in the capacity of a distributor. My assumption is Nike is probably siding with YG not being a distributor if they haven’t axed the contract yet. It’s also not clear if all of the money freeman got caught up in was exclusively tied to TWG cash shoe sales or if that was just part of the money he was involved in moving. The complaint reads as if Freeman is a money broker that did some shady stuff to move money for clients.

 

[trappedintime]

I actually just finished reading this as I was looking for more info. The complaint is worded to heavily imply intent on the part of Whitaker and freeman. And just the way it worded presupposes a crime was committed. Like when they say he sold “unlicensed product” but that hinges on where or not who ever YG is, is acting in the capacity of a distributor. My assumption is Nike is probably siding with YG not being a distributor if they haven’t axed the contract yet. It’s also not clear if all of the money freeman got caught up in was exclusively tied to TWG cash shoe sales or if that was just part of the money he was involved in moving. The complaint reads as if Freeman is a money broker that did some shady stuff to move money for clients.

I might agree with that if they didn’t have Whitner on tape talking about how shady he thought the courier was. He was communicating with the courier himself and relaying info back to Freeman.

I think the IRS investigation could be separate from the money laundering though. Which is why I said these cases can take a long time to bring charges forward. They’re analyzing financials and building a case which takes a lot longer than other types of crime. At they very least they have to be verifying his account.

The disingenuous statement doesn’t exactly instill confidence though when he claims this has nothing to do with the company or community. Hard to see how this wasn’t directly related to the sale of sneakers he was obtaining from Nike.

 

[frenchbreadbuilds]

I might agree with that if they didn’t have Whitner on tape talking about how shady he thought the courier was. He was communicating with the courier himself and relaying info back to Freeman.

I think the IRS investigation could be separate from the money laundering though. Which is why I said these cases can take a long time to bring charges forward. They’re analyzing financials and building a case which takes a lot longer than other types of crime. At they very least they have to be verifying his account.

The disingenuous statement doesn’t exactly instill confidence though when he claims this has nothing to do with the company or community. Hard to see how this wasn’t directly related to the sale of sneakers he was obtaining from Nike.

I don’t think Whitaker can walk into this situation and not think it’s shady. Unless he’s simply used to dealing with big money Chinese buyers. The complaint itself doesn’t look like it centers him though, its centers whoever that freeman guy is and how he hasn’t been forthright about the money he’s moving or at the very least about the money he makes from these transactions and other deals like this. What’s weird is why Freeman got involved to begin with. At some point Whitaker was dealing directly with YG and than it shifted to freeman being the go between.

 

[trappedintime]

What’s weird is why Freeman got involved to begin with. At some point Whitaker was dealing directly with YG and than it shifted to freeman being the go between.

I think it’s pretty obvious why he stuck a middle man in there after he’d been dealing direct with YG and began realizing he was directly involved with a foreign criminal enterprise. Probably also tough to meet a courier’s drop schedule in a city 500+ miles away when you’re running all over the country. Look at the results though. One guy has taken the fall so far and it isn’t Whitner.

 

[dgar08]

i can't believe two different collaborators, back to back, thought vintage midsoles and outsoles would be the move...someone at nike has an agenda

I just scrub it off but i agree the aged midsole on these is not the vibe. Makes the shoe look crusty

 

[d e beatup]

I just scrub it off but i agree the aged midsole on these is not the vibe. Makes the shoe look crusty

For the AMM I’m gonna disagree. Specifically because there’s already a base white/green Air Ship already so what differentiates the two pairs?

As far as EQL/raffle, I really don’t want to deal with it because it’s paying a premium to end up with slower shipping. But I’ve been raving about this color way since the first time I saw it and I’m not gonna take chances. Better to overpay for a shoe that ends up under retail than to overpay to a reseller

 

[brian8598]

For the AMM I’m gonna disagree. Specifically because there’s already a base white/green Air Ship already so what differentiates the two pairs?

As far as EQL/raffle, I really don’t want to deal with it because it’s paying a premium to end up with slower shipping. But I’ve been raving about this color way since the first time I saw it and I’m not gonna take chances. Better to overpay for a shoe that ends up under retail than to overpay to a reseller

Suede vs. Leather, and the white/green (along with the white/yellow) are the rare Air Ship exception that do not have good, soft leather. Piss stained midsole is not a selling point, IMO, unless it's a metaphor for the **** that TWG is wading through currently. In that case, it may be a suitable piece of storytelling.

 

[trappedintime]

$178 all in for a $140 shoe from the company exclusively releasing them sure is something.