Who wants to get their hands on Kash Patel's shoes?

Of the many terrible things that J Edgar Hoover, first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, did, designing, commissioning and wearing his own customised Nike footwear was not one. It is, all too predictably, something the ninth holder of the office has done, though.

Kash Patel, already roundly mocked for his undignified locker-room celebrations with the victorious US men’s Olympic ice hockey team last month, has been pictured wearing his own-design Nikes. The shoes feature the number nine to mark his period of office, a Punisher skull (the symbol of a vigilante killer from Marvel Comics), and his personal logo, K$H. The backs of the shoes show the FBI motto “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity”.

Patel was snapped wearing the Nikes at an FBI Academy event in Quantico, Virginia, where he signed autographs and met UFC fighters.

It is not the first time, though, that he has sought to add his own style to goods. Last year he ordered extra-large challenge coins – custom-made medallions handed out for special achievements – actually shaped like the Punisher skull symbol, with the back flaunting a Tommy gun alongside Patel’s full name, title, logo, signature and the number nine. The front simply reads “K$H”.

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It comes as Patel has faced questions about his use of the FBI’s private jet to attend performances by his girlfriend, an aspiring country singer, something which he has defended by saying he doesn’t attend all of her concerts.

“It’s ironic that they’re saying ‘oh, you’re going on vacation, you’re going to see your girlfriend perform’ and, if I was actually abusing it, I would go see every one of her shows. I think I get to, like, 15%,” he said by way of justification to The Katie Miller Podcast (a show hosted by a former Trump administration official and wife of Homeland Security advisor Stephen Miller).

And the Nike reveal comes just weeks after Patel turned up in the locker room of the US ice hockey team despite Ben Williamson, assistant director for public affairs at the FBI and spinner for its ludicrous director, having berated journalists who had said he was heading to Italy for the final.

Williamson, enraged at the suggestion his boss might be off to watch the icy bash-up at taxpayers’ expense, wrote to one correspondent, MSNOW’s Ken Dilanian: “Your rag outlet wrote that he went to hang out at the Olympics on the taxpayer dime – even when provided information that your theory was false. When you’re ready to correct that let me know. Won’t hold my breath.” The following day Patel was in the team’s Milan locker room, wearing a full kit and chugging a beer.

Kash Patel is 46 years old.