Nike employee Jason Keating had been arresting for paying more than $20,000 for a pending shipment of stolen Nike sneakers. Former Nike employees Tung Ho and Kyle Yamaguchi were also a part of the ring but have yet to be arrested. And while Ho and Yamaguchi haven’t been arrested, the investigation isn’t closed and the Portland Journal reported today that more arrests may come.
The scheme allegedly began when Yamaguchi was employed by Nike and used his role as a manager of promotional products to place orders for sample products (referred to by Nike as “Look/See” shoes), some of which he smuggled out of the building and resold.
When Yamaguchi left Nike sometime in 2012 (possibly to launch his own sunglass line, also called Look/See), he recommended the spot be filled by Ho, who continued continue to smuggle out and resell stolen product, with Yamaguchi taking on the role of middle man. Ho also resold some shoes on EBay and told investigators he didn’t have a relationship with Keating.
The Smoking Gun has the affidavit related to the case and it’s packed with juicy details on evidence including video surveillance, records of Look/ See orders and “articles from [sneaker] trade/enthusiast websites related to Yamaguchi.”
The sneaker collector community is small, tight and obsessive so when news broke, it was quickly revealed that Yamaguchi had shown his Nike collection at sneaker convention SneakerCon.
In a YouTube video (see below), Keating is revealed as the person behind Instagram account @Artaphax, whose viewing status was changed to private over the weekend. Like many, the YouTube commentator found it hard to believe that Ho and Yamaguchi could be so careless given the high level of video surveillance that is known to exist on any corporate campus, not to mention showing rare Look/See shoes at events that Nike employees often attend or at the very least keep on eye on through image posts on sneaker sites.
Corporate theft is a common issue and no one believes Nike is immune, especially given the high resale value of and status connected with rare sneakers. Given how open Ko was to chat with investigators, the whole situation probably has some Nike employees and resellers sweating it out. Surely it will have a chilling effect on the high-end resell market. Time will tell if this action was shots fired by Nike or more arrests come. It seems as of late, Nike’s tolerance with people and retailers who mess with its marque product is at an all time low.