Brand battle: Steve Madden sues Adidas over design
Steve Madden - The first flagship store in Westfield Mall of the Netherlands, Liguster 202, 2262 AC Leidschendam. Credits: So PR US shoe brand Steve Madden has sued the German sportswear giant Adidas. In the complaint, Steve Madden stated that they were “fed up” with Adidas continuing to object to designs that they believe do not infringe on Adidas’ brand image. Steve Madden’s complaint was filed on Wednesday in the federal court in Brooklyn, New York. Reuters was the first to report this. The dispute concerns two recent Steve Madden models: the Viento, with two straps, and the Janos, whose straps resemble the letter K. Adidas allegedly demanded that sales of the Viento be stopped due to potential consumer confusion. Steve Madden referenced previous lawsuits against Adidas. In 2002, Adidas sued the company twice over shoes with two and four parallel stripes. This led to a confidential settlement a year later. This new conflict, found in the online legal news service Law360 under the name Steven Madden Ltd v Adidas AG et al, US District Court, Eastern District of New York, nr. 25-02847, is separate from that agreement. Adidas is known for taking action against the use of stripes in shoe and clothing designs that resemble their signature three stripes. A well-known example is the long-running conflict with H&M over the stripes on the Work Out collection, which lasted for 24 years. In 2021, Adidas ultimately lost. Other brands, including Thom Browne, K-Swiss, Fitnessworld, Nike, Isabel Marant and Sandro, also faced legal action from Adidas regarding the stripes. FashionUnited has contacted both parties for comment. This article was translated to English using an AI tool. FashionUnited uses AI language tools to speed up translating (news) articles and proofread the translations to improve the end result. This saves our human journalists time they can spend doing research and writing original articles. Articles translated with the help of AI are checked and edited by a human desk editor prior to going online. If you have questions or comments about this process email us at info@fashionunited.com
US shoe brand Steve Madden has sued the German sportswear giant Adidas. In the complaint, Steve Madden stated that they were “fed up” with Adidas continuing to object to designs that they believe do not infringe on Adidas’ brand image. Steve Madden’s complaint was filed on Wednesday in the federal court in Brooklyn, New York. Reuters was the first to report this.
The dispute concerns two recent Steve Madden models: the Viento, with two straps, and the Janos, whose straps resemble the letter K. Adidas allegedly demanded that sales of the Viento be stopped due to potential consumer confusion.
Steve Madden referenced previous lawsuits against Adidas. In 2002, Adidas sued the company twice over shoes with two and four parallel stripes. This led to a confidential settlement a year later. This new conflict, found in the online legal news service Law360 under the name Steven Madden Ltd v Adidas AG et al, US District Court, Eastern District of New York, nr. 25-02847, is separate from that agreement.
Adidas is known for taking action against the use of stripes in shoe and clothing designs that resemble their signature three stripes. A well-known example is the long-running conflict with H&M over the stripes on the Work Out collection, which lasted for 24 years. In 2021, Adidas ultimately lost. Other brands, including Thom Browne, K-Swiss, Fitnessworld, Nike, Isabel Marant and Sandro, also faced legal action from Adidas regarding the stripes.
FashionUnited has contacted both parties for comment.
FashionUnited uses AI language tools to speed up translating (news) articles and proofread the translations to improve the end result. This saves our human journalists time they can spend doing research and writing original articles. Articles translated with the help of AI are checked and edited by a human desk editor prior to going online. If you have questions or comments about this process email us at info@fashionunited.com
This article was translated to English using an AI tool.
