RAMPANT CRIME AND SNEAKER EPIDEMIC IN CHINA

 Nike targeted, unprecedented sneaker boom in China Criminal gangs involved?

This spring, the Metropolitan Police Department arrested a Chinese male student on suspicion of theft and violating the Organized Crime Punishment Act for allegedly using someone else's credit card information to buy sneakers from the famous sports brand Nike. In less than a year, the international student illegally purchased about 180 pairs of Nike sneakers and sent them to China. What are you going to do with your sneakers? Following the background, it became clear that Chinese criminal organizations are likely reselling at high prices to take advantage of the overheating sneaker boom in China.

In July 2021, the international student was arrested for conspiring with someone else to fraudulently purchase a pair of sneakers worth about 20,000 yen on the Nike Japan website using someone else's card information. The international students had transferred the sneakers delivered to their homes to China through a trading company in Osaka Prefecture.

According to investigators, the international students found a part-time job on the Chinese communication app WeChat to pick up packages and transfer them to China. He received instructions from someone on the app such as the forwarding destination, and received about 800 yen per pair as a reward.

It seems that he repeatedly illegally purchased and transferred about 180 pairs (about 5 million yen in total) in about 10 months from October 20 ~ July 21, and told the investigation of the Metropolitan Police Department, "I knew it was a victim of card crime." The student was charged with theft and violating the Organized Crime Punishment Act, and was sentenced to one year and eight months in prison (suspended for three years) in the first trial.

According to investigators, Nike Japan's website has confirmed a number of fraudulent use of cards in addition to those involving the international student.

The Metropolitan Police Department's Crime Proceeds Division believes that Chinese criminal gangs are behind the scenes. In addition to obtaining card information and purchasing sneakers, the roles of organizations seem to be subdivided, such as transferring products to China and reselling them in China.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters Building

SOME NIKE BACKGROUND

Before there was the Swoosh, before there was Nike, there were two visionary men who spearheaded an unrest in athletic footwear that reclassified the business.

Charge Bowerman was a broadly regarded olympic style events mentor at the College of Oregon, who was continually looking for ways of giving his competitors an upper hand. He tried different things with various track surfaces, re-hydration drinks and - in particular - advancements in running shoes. However, the laid out footwear producers of the 1950s disregarded the thoughts he attempted to offer them, so Bowerman started cobbling shoes for his sprinters.

Phil Knight was a skilled center distance sprinter from Portland, who selected at Oregon in the fall of 1955 and vied for Bowerman's track program. After moving on from Oregon, Knight procured his MBA in finance from Stanford College, where he composed a paper that proposed quality running shoes could be made in Japan that would rival more settled German brands. Yet, his letters to makers in Japan and Asia went unanswered, so Knight took a risk.

He settled on a chilly decision on the Onitsuka Co. in Kobe, Japan, and convinced the producer of Tiger shoes to make Knight a wholesaler of Tiger running shoes in the US. At the point when the primary arrangement of test shoes showed up, Knight sent a few sets to Bowerman, expecting to make a deal. All things considered, Bowerman dazed Knight by proposing to turn into his accomplice, and to give his footwear plan thoughts to Tiger.

NIKE SNEAKERS