Hey gang, after seeing this great post exposing TSM for B&S by u/trollunroon, I decided to do some investigative work of my own. Get out your tinfoil hats boys, because this one is juicy. Okay, you don’t actually need your tinfoil hats, because this one has clear evidence pointing to my claims.
Guest post by User u/anotha_01. Used with permission.
To give some background, I’m a full stack web developer, CS major, and Business major. I build, analyze, and deploy websites for a living.
So, to begin, the post by trollun got me curious, because I know TSM is on the TS list, so I decided to do some digging. I took a look around TSM’s website, trying to find any information that the person who made it might have accidentally left over. Besides all of the exif data on the photos (remember this), I couldn’t find much.
After taking a look at the trusted seller list, one name stuck out to me as being odd. I’d never seen a qc post or review from Sneakerahead, but they were still listed as a trusted seller. I decided to do a bit of digging on their website, and found a couple of things that struck me as odd. Not only did they use the same fonts and the same placeholder text in the search bar (which could just mean they used a template), but they also used the same naming convention for the image source folder. 6 digits for the date, with some followed by another 2 digits, like so: yyyymm/dd. The reason this is odd, is because everyone names their images differently. Everyone, regardless of where they come from, how they learned, etc… It’s basically like a signature. So, I decided to dig even deeper into the images. What do you think I found when I checked the EXIF data of the images?
They had the exact same camera make and model, same exact camera serial numbers, and the same exact lens serial numbers, as TSM.
Here’s a little lesson about EXIF data, for anyone who isn’t familiar with it. When you take a photo with a digital camera, the camera stores the metadata for that photo in the photo’s file. This metadata can be a lot of things, depending on the camera, but serial number, lens, aperture length, GPS coordinates, etc… are all things that are included in the metadata. If you want to learn more about it, search “What is EXIF data” in google, it’s interesting stuff. What this means for this post, is that the same exact camera took stock photos for both TSM, and sneakerahead. Maybe they’re using the same photographer, in the most populated country in the world. Yeah, right. I’ve included a video showing all of this, lower down in the post. You can check for yourself, go to their websites (Which are up at the time of this post), save their images, and run them through a free EXIF viewer on google.
But I know what you’re saying, so what. They’re the same people. It gets deeper than that my friends…
After finding this information out, I decided to investigate the rest of the Trusted Seller list websites. One website that matched the things that TSM and Sneakerahead’s websites had (Same placeholder text, fonts, and image naming convention) was, wait for it…
Cocosneakers dot ru… One of the most popular sellers on this website.
After checking the Exif data for some of the photos on Coco’s website, I know you can guess what I found. Same camera model, same make, same serial numbers. Cocosneakers also uses the exact same camera for their stock photos as TSM and Sneakerahead. They all use the same Canon 760d, serial number 124032005071. Check for yourself, it’s not that hard.
So, big bombshell right? Three sellers on the trusted sellers list use the same camera for their stock photos, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re run by the same person, right? I decided to dig even deeper, and I found an even bigger piece of evidence towards this. Take a look at some AJ1 shadows that Cocos and TSM used for their stock photos, with their individual nameplates behind them.
What about these chunky dunkys. Focal lengths, focus, and all of that can change how a shoe looks. But Chunky Dunky’s all have individual cow skin patterns on them. These two shoes are the same, even when used for stock photos by two different sellers.
But that’s TSM and Coco, what about sneakerahead? Here’s some blue oats, new products from both sellers. Notice the scuffs near the toebox on both pairs of shoes. Just for fun, I checked the EXIF data of both sets of photos. Looks like they upgraded their camera now, to a Canon 800D, with the serial number: 124021000209. Good for them, I guess business is good.
Here is the video showing the EXIF data from each seller:
I hope I’ve convinced you that they are all run by the same people, or at least run in the same office. For the people who might be thinking, “What if the middlemen just all got sent the same factory sample,” first off, these three middlemen are ones of hundreds who are selling these shoes. You think a factory is going to go through the trouble of having 1 sample pair be sent out to each one? Secondly, middlemen have to buy their shoes to get them from the factory. They don’t get to just borrow a pair, and then give it back. They hold that pair until someone buys that size from them, and then they send them that pair.
Now, you’re asking, “why is this a big deal, and why would the people go through the trouble of making and running three different sellers?” I don’t know the exact answer to that, but here’s my hypothesis:
Cocosneakers is seen as the premium sneaker middleman, with her “GD4.0” Travis Scott AJ’1s, and GP 350 v2’s. They don’t want to risk damaging “Coco’s” name by doing anything potentially risky or scummy as Coco. So, they used TSM to send reviewers great examples of batch shoes to advertise them as a sale, and then proceed to b&s the regular customers by sending them subpar batch shoes. All while damaging all of the middlemen who sell “PK BASF” shoes, because look at TSM, selling them for $89 while these other middlemen charge an insane $110-135 for them. TSM is also guilty of attempting to buy good reviews, with a $25 off coupon for posting a review to repsneakers, and a $30 off coupon for posting a “good” review. I know members of the community can attest to that here, and here’s one example of that:
Sneakerahead has already lost most of their credibility, due to being connected to another massive seller, known for B&S and just overall scummy behavior, so they moved onto Cocosneakers, and TSM, while running sneakerahead to pick up any stragglers who don’t know the history. Even now, sneakerahead is trying to win the subreddit back with their AJ1 Dior competition, with a no-name batch shoe. Really heroic of them. I’m not going to make any speculations that all three accounts are run by the guy mentioned above, since I don’t have clear evidence, but it is food for thought.
My bottom line here is the following: TSM has proven that they partake in scummy behaviors, behaviors that the people who run this subreddit swear they will not allow to protect the community. Sneakerahead is running TSM, or vice versa. Sneakerahead has not changed their behavior, and I don’t believe they will. Not only that, Cocosneakers is also run by the same people, and we’ve all seen the complaints coming out against their shipping and deception by renaming LJR batch shoes as their own exclusive batch in order to corner the market. Another seller, whose name I can’t say but it’s the name of the most popular Russian assault rifle, was b-listed for renaming batches, and b&s. He was also originally b-listed for paying for good reviews.
The LJR expose post, by u/oldaccountnotusable, shows that Cocosneakers is no longer the only place to get Coco’s GD4.0 sneakers, and other sellers are starting to create better batches of 350 V2’s, even as Coco swears that she is fixing the current flaws on 350 v2’s. Until I see a weight comparison from a PK BASF pair, a retail pair, and GP’s updated “Basf” boost pair, I refuse to believe that she has updated GP with BASF boost.
I’m calling for the b-listing of Cocosneakers, TSM, and Sneakerahead, as the office that is running those three sellers is guilty of doing the same things for which other sellers have been blisted. We have better, cheaper sources for the same services they were providing. Their deception does not belong in a community meant to protect buyers of replica sneakers.
tl;dr: Cocosneakers, Topshoemall, and Sneakerahead are all the same people, guilty of B&S, renaming batches for their profit, deceiving the community.
Edit: u/trollunroon pointed out the following: “
I pointed out to “TopShoeMall” that the photos of the Dior AJ1 on TSM, Sneakerahead, Tonysneaker, and Coco are all the same. Once I did this, they deleted the pictures I was referring to from the associated sites. This is essentially admission of guilt. See if you can do any digging on Tonysneaker as well!
Edit 2: Wow, this blew up. Glad ya’ll took the time to read the evidence with this, this community is dedicated to protecting each other, which it is important we catch the sellers doing the shady shit. And on that note of shady shit, there is a seller that has been messaging people who are engaging on this post, I’d absolutely disregard it for now.
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