At other times, private equity firms simply hired the wrong people. In 2012, Golden Gate Capital and Blum Capital bought the discount shoe seller Payless.65 As described in a detailed profile in the New York Times, through a series of owners, Payless tumbled through bankruptcy three times in four years. Part of the problem was that for every one dollar in profit Payless made, more than a dollar went to its private equity owners and another quarter went to its lenders. This made the company susceptible to crisis when, for instance, a work slowdown by longshoremen left Payless’s shoes waiting on boats for several weeks. But part of the problem was who these owners put in charge. After Alden Global Capital (which describes itself as a hedge fund but engages in private-equity-like buyouts) bought Payless out of bankruptcy, it installed as CEO, not an executive from footwear, fashion, or even retail, but an investment banker: Martin R. Wade III. Payless middle management felt that Wade and his team treated them with contempt: “They became convinced that, ‘You guys don’t know what you’re talking about,’” one former midlevel employee told the Times.66 And yet, despite their inexperience, the new management enthusiastically pushed its own ideas, such as a plan to buy millions of World Cup–themed flip-flops. The problem was that the sandals didn’t arrive until after the World Cup had ended and even then often with flags of countries like Mexico and Argentina, where Payless had no stores. Ultimately, the company had to sell the flip-flops at a deep discount. Another idea was to shift quality inspections from a dedicated facility to individual factories. As a result, Payless received many shoes that were defective in various ways: size six shoes labeled as size three, for example. A former employee said that “missing one shoe can wipe out whatever you think you’re saving.”67 Ultimately, Payless returned to bankruptcy and closed all its stores in the United States. (In a statement to the New York Times, Golden Gate Capital said that “[w]hen we exited Payless, we left it with a right-sized store footprint and meaningful earnings opportunities for future owners.”)