The Paper Trail Behind Carlos Adams's Boxing Shoes

The Paper Trail, Part 2 of 7

Carlos Adams ran for mayor on a résumé. Boxer. Businessman. Built a boxing-shoe brand from nothing.

So I went looking for the business.

I found three names, four trademarks, a company nobody can find a record of, shipments from Pakistan, and a mailing address at a house in Yuma. What I didn't find was a straight answer from Adams about any of it.

Three names

On July 24, 2014, a small San Diego County paper, the East County Gazette, printed a legal notice for a business called Adams Boxing. California makes you publish one of these when you register a business name. As our archive transcribed it, the notice named Carlos Adams as the registrant and said the business hadn't started yet. The county's index shows that filing on July 21, 2014.

On May 17, 2017, a second name shows up in the county index: Adams Footwear.

And today, the company's own website says, in plain English: "This website is operated by AdamsFTWR INC."

Adams Boxing. Adams Footwear. AdamsFTWR INC. Same business? Three different ones? Did one replace the other? The records don't say, and Adams hasn't either.

The company nobody can find

That last one is the strangest.

"INC" means a corporation. Corporations don't just float around. They get registered with a state, and that registration tells you who's behind it.

So I went looking for AdamsFTWR INC. Arizona's business search shoved me to a login page. California's site wouldn't even load. I'm not going to tell you the company doesn't exist. I'm telling you I couldn't find it.

His own website doesn't help. It names the company, gives a Yuma address, and that's it. No owner. No state. No filing number.

A man running for mayor on his business should be able to tell you who owns it. One piece of paper settles this. He hasn't shown it.

The trademarks

On June 8, 2015, a Carlos Gil Adams applied to trademark AB ADAMSBOXING. It was an application to reserve a name you plan to use. He never filed proof he was using it, and the government marked it abandoned in October 2016.

He tried again in 2020. V registered Sept. 1, 2020. V ADAMS registered Nov. 24, 2020. Both claim first use on Jan. 31, 2017. That's his sworn date, not something the government checked. ADAMSFTWR registered July 6, 2021.

He renewed V and V ADAMS this year. So the trademarks are in a person's name, Carlos Gil Adams, while the website says a corporation runs the business. So does he own it, or does the company? Nothing on paper says.

My opinion: Carlos Gil Adams is the candidate. The names match, his campaign signature reads "Carlos G. Adams," and it's the same business. He's never confirmed it.

Follow the shipments

Every container that comes into this country by sea leaves a paper trail, and there are websites that sell it. One of them, ImportYeti, shows four shipments headed to Adams's business names.

• Sept. 30, 2015: To Adams Boxing, El Cajon, Calif., from Apparel Trade Co, Sialkot, Pakistan. Described as "Boxing Shoes." 172 kg, 15 cartons.
• Dec. 3, 2024: To Adamsftwr, from Starpak Martial Arts, Sialkot, Pakistan. Description garbled; martial-arts equipment. 4,719 kg, 517 cartons.
• Oct. 19, 2025: To Adamsftwr, from Starpak Martial Arts. Described as "Noof Sports." 500 kg, 67 cartons.
• March 21, 2026: To Adamsftwr Inc, from Apparel Trade Co. Described as "Sports." 1,130 kg, 50 cartons.

Look at the dates. One shipment in 2015. Then nothing in this data for nine years. Then three shipments in 2024, 2025 and 2026.

Look at the shippers. Starpak checks out: it's a real exporter in Sialkot that makes fight gear for other brands. Apparel Trade Co, the company that shipped Adams his first boxing shoes and his most recent load, we couldn't identify at all. No registration number. No owner.

And look at what's not there: any record of what was actually in those cartons after 2015. "Sports." "Martial-arts equipment." That's all the summaries say.

Now, fair's fair. This is a website's summary, not the customs paperwork. Another site shows more shipments than these four, and the two don't agree. So that nine-year gap might just be a gap in the data. If Adams wants to show me the shipping bills, I'll print them.

Buying fight gear from Pakistan isn't strange. Half the boxing world does it. What's strange is I can't tell you who owns this company, and the man who ran for mayor on it won't either.

What others reported

In 2018, the Mexican paper Periódico AM said the brand had started a little over three years earlier and that production had moved from Pakistan to San Francisco del Rincón, in Guanajuato, a big footwear town. An undated feature on a site called Undo Ordinary says it started with a broken wrist in a fight in Mexico in February 2014, and that Adams once worked as a representative for the glove maker Cleto Reyes. That's their story. I couldn't find anything to back it up.

The address

This is where the business trail and the family trail cross.

The website gives a Yuma contact address. The 2020 trademark filings give a Yuma mailing address. The shipping listings for Adamsftwr give a Yuma address too.

It's a house. And that house has a history that goes back to 2000, to a man with Adams's name. That's Part 3.

The scorecard

Verified

• Business-name filings for Adams Boxing (2014) and Adams Footwear (2017), from the county index.
• Four trademark filings to Carlos Gil Adams, their dates and the 2026 renewals.
• The website's statement that AdamsFTWR INC runs it.
• Four shipment summaries, Pakistan to Adams's business names.

Not verified

• Whether the three business names are one business.
• Where AdamsFTWR INC is registered, and who owns it.
• Who Apparel Trade Co is.
• What was in the 2024 to 2026 shipments, and where the shoes are made today.
• When the business made its first sale.
• The broken-wrist origin story.

My opinion

• Carlos Gil Adams is the candidate.
• For a man who ran on his business, he's told Yuma remarkably little about it.

Ask him yourself

I've asked Adams these. He dodged. Ask him yourself, in public, and if he answers, I'll print it.

• Who owns AdamsFTWR INC, and where is it registered?
• Are Adams Boxing, Adams Footwear and AdamsFTWR INC the same business?
• Who is Apparel Trade Co, and what did it ship you in 2026?
• What was in the 2024 and 2025 shipments from Starpak?
• Are you the Carlos Gil Adams on the trademarks?
• When did you make your first sale?

Next: The house on his paperwork, and the man who bought it. Two Addresses and a Name

Where this comes from

• East County Gazette, July 24, 2014. PDF. From our archive's earlier reading.
• San Diego County business-name index. Search. Official index; originals not seen.
• USPTO status pages: AB ADAMSBOXING, V ADAMS, V, ADAMSFTWR. Official records.
• AdamsFootwear USA terms page, live and archived. The company's own words.
• Arizona Corporation Commission search attempt, Oct. 1, 2026. Redirected to a login; no result.
• ImportYeti pages for Adams Boxing, Adamsftwr, Apparel Trade and Starpak, reviewed Oct. 2, 2026. Commercial summaries, not customs documents.
• Pakistan Trade Development Authority exporter list. PDF. Official record.
• Periódico AM, Jan. 16, 2018. Article. Reporting.
• Undo Ordinary, undated. Feature. Reporting.
• City of Yuma, Adams for Yuma Mayor statement of organization. PDF. Official record.
• Full details: source guide.