When FBI Director Kash Patel arrived at a joint training session with the mixed martial arts league UFC over the weekend at the FBI Academy in Virginia, he was wearing a custom pair of Nike sneakers that past directors wouldn’t have dared to step out in.
Patel’s bespoke shoes were black, white, and yellow, and featured a number 9 on the side to signify that he is the bureau’s ninth director. A “K$H” logo on the tongue is Patel’s personal logo (FBI directors have personal logos now), and a skull from the Marvel character Punisher appeared across the back of the shoe, along with the FBI’s slogan “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity,” according to images that a source sent to William Turton, a reporter for ProPublica who covers federal law enforcement. However, Nike didn’t design or produce the customized embellishments, Fast Company can confirm.
A photo from a LinkedIn post that’s no longer public showed Patel color-coordinating his Nike shoes with a matching black-and-yellow hoodie and hat. The casual outfit was typical for Patel, who sold branded merch like hats and socks before taking his current job, and who showed up to the Winter Olympics in a team jersey, like one of the guys. It’s a stark departure from how his predecessors dressed, though. The FBI’s dress code, as set at the top of the organization, once symbolized strict professionalism. Now it screams podcaster-occupied government.
When former FBI Director Robert Mueller served under former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, not only did he not stray from his uniform of dark suits, white shirts, and red or blue ties, but he would chide aides who ever wore shirts that were pink or blue, according to Garrett M. Graff, author of The Threat Matrix, about the FBI under Mueller.
For Mueller, this conservative, professional dress was a matter of integrity, and it communicated continuity and tradition without drawing attention to itself. The only way you saw him was dressed for the job.
Though Patel wore a white shirt, suit, and tie on Wednesday, when lawmakers questioned him and other national security officials, his accumulating fashion faux pas in other situations communicate another message entirely. It’s more MrBeast than Mueller—which is to say it’s flashy and done with an eye toward self-promotion and juvenile tastes. Everyone is 12.
The tacky look of Nikes customized after-market with a personal logo and comic book character isn’t exactly what you’d expect from a 46-year-old in an important job overseeing a law enforcement agency that’s over a century old. (At least they’re not oversized Florsheims.) From an administration led by a president who has normalized casual, promotional branded dress in office, though, it’s really not that surprising.
