George Kiel has taken his Open the Box series to SoCal to meet with Diego Gomez, the founder of Kickz 4 a Kauz. Gomez donates sneakers to those that need them, and how he began this cause is a fascinating story.
“2006, I was a senior in high school, and suddenly both my mom and my sister passed away,” Gomez told George Kiel. “I took it pretty hard. I was pretty lost, I didn’t know what I was doing, where I was going. But as soon as they passed I knew I was different, I just knew I had to do something that would always remind me of them. I needed to channel all of that bad energy I had.”
“I decided that going to work at summer camps would be the thing that would fill that emptiness I had inside from losing my mom and my sister that year,” continued Gomez in the video. While he was out working at summer camps, the ‘Space Jam’ 11s came out — it was the first he went to go wait in line for a pair of sneakers since he was a kid.
“The next day, I went to go visit the after school program I used to work for and I see kids with duct tape on their shoes. That same week, I put my shoes online, I sold my shoes, I went to the Nike outlet, got those kids shoes, and it just felt good. A couple more families started coming my way — it was starting something new.”
Gomez has several ongoing initiatives in Southern California including a program that gets kids to go to resident camps as well as Operation Purple Pack, an initiative that aims at helping homeless veterans by giving them everything a homeless person might need in one pack — shoes, food, clothing, sleeping bags, etc. Gomez plans on opening his own 501 non-profit organization as well as a shoe store.
“The Last Shot 14s is where my passion comes from…whenever I give anyone a shoe — the look on their face when they first open that box, it’s amazing. It makes me happy.”
This episode of Open the Box isn’t one to miss so check it out and share your thoughts in the comments. You can follow @kickz4akauz for more.
