A 16-year-old from Independence Missouri wears shoes so big you could fit your arm in them—but they were too small.
That’s because young Jor’el Bolden wears a size 23, which essentially means he wears nothing because most companies don’t sell shoes that big.
The Independence community rallied around Bolden and his mother Tamika, raising $12,000 through a GoFundMe which attracted the attention of national news, and one very famous, very generous, and very large celebrity.
“Entertainment Tonight, they messaged me and she was like ‘someone special wants to talk to you’,” his mother, Tamika Neal, told KCTV 5 where the story originally aired.
NBA legend and renowned good-guy Shaquille O’Neal, who’s heard his fair share of bigfoot jokes, got abreast of KCTV 5’s story and organized to have a Zoom call with Jor’el.
In the call, Shaq told him to expect some goodies in the mail, and within three days there were several large boxes full of Shaq-sized, Jor’el-sized clothes, and 20 pairs of size 23 shoes.
“It’s better than Christmas morning. Santa didn’t send this, Shaq did,” Neal told KCTV 5.
The 6-foot-5, 380-pound lad wants to become an athlete, specifically a heavyweight boxer, but was never really able to train properly because all the size 22 shoes the family had managed to find on eBay hurt his feet.
This isn’t the first time Shaq has come through for fast-growing young man.
In 2019, GNN reported on Shaquille O’Neal bringing a young basketball player named Zack Keith to his favorite shoe store in Georgia to outfit him with 10 pairs of size 18 shoes.
The king of big-boy generosity struck again—this time in Michigan, when in 2023 Shaq had to work in concert with Puma and Under Armor to outfit Eric Killburn Jr. with “Eric Killburn-size” shoes. It’s believed, though not confirmed, that Eric has the largest feet ever recorded in a human teenager.
Puma declined to say whether or not they were size 23—noting that the custom dimensions that Eric needed were not those of a shoe one size larger than 22. Shaq himself wears size 23, but couldn’t send any of his own shoes to help the 16-year-old defensive tackle.
Eric’s mom had similar struggles providing footwear for her son to those of Tamika, at one point requiring a specially made pair constructed by orthopedic surgeons to the tune of $1,500.
It’s clear that if you’ve got a big, big boy under your roof, there’s only place to turn.
