The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 171 — Fighting for the little guy
The big issue with Nike's lawsuit against John Geiger
Good morning, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear! Thank you so much for rocking with your boy on this fine Monday morning.
Hey. Listen. I know y’all still got beef with the SNKRS app. But, uh, I’m finna be on there today. So please go watch me talk about my favorite sneakers lol.
Alright, let’s dive in.
Nike picking on the little guy
(Photo by wu yi on Unsplash)
Nike’s legal team hasn’t rested all 2021 and they’re not finished yet. Warren Lotas, Lil Nas X, the Jordan 1 trademark. They haven’t let up.
John Geiger is their latest target. Nike added John Geiger Collection, LLC, to an existing lawsuit against La La Land Production and Designs Inc. saying that his GF-01 shoes infringe on the Air Force 1’s trade dress.
Geiger is a sneaker designer who dabbled in customization for a long time. He created the GF-01 — a sneaker that looks like the Air Force 1 but isn’t. The upper is similar, but it’s made of premium materials with a G logo instead of a swoosh. The big differentiator is the outsole’s mold, which is branded with the JG trademark.
While those differentiators make it clear that the GF-01 isn’t a Nike product, clearly that wasn’t enough for the Swoosh.
Per Law360, Nike claims Geiger “intentionally and knowingly created confusion in the marketplace and capitalized on Nike’s reputation” with the GF-01.
This should sound familiar. This the same lawsuit Nike brought against Warren Lotas — just expanded to include Geiger and without Lotas after they settled.
Geiger opened up about the case in a statement on Instagram. He basically called Nike out for taking inspiration from his — and other designers’ — works and thing turning that against them.
It sucks that this is what it’s come down to. But it’s not surprising in the least bit. The Lotas suit and the Lil Nas X and MSCHF suit made this direction clear. Nike was clearly going after anything remotely related to its product. If it wasn’t authorized, it wasn’t flying.
This is a slippery slope. While this may reduce the number of counterfeit shoes and replicas on the market, it also puts legit customizers and independent designers in quite a bind.
If your design is inspired by or looks anything like a Nike sneaker at all, they are coming for you. And, more often than not, you won’t be able to fight back.
They’re attacking legal grey areas here. Even if their arguments are flimsy, their money is longer. They can play ball way longer than the little guys.
Geiger is a bit different. He’s been at this for a while and seems prepared for this moment. We’ll see how it plays out.
Customization has long been a part of sneaker and streetwear culture. From the days of Dapper Dan creating custom high fashion wear in the 80’s and 90’s until, well, now.
Nike is trying to legally shut all of that down. And, as a result, we may get a world where the only customization route we may have is the Nike By You page. And, I don’t know about y’all, but that doesn’t sound too fun to me.
Why sneakers sitting is actually a good thing…for us
(Photo by Brianna Santellan on Unsplash)
So on Friday, I wrote about how Beyoncé’s latest Ivy Park drop was sitting. The hype has come and gone. The latest drop makes that pretty clear.
But that’s a bad thing for Adidas. Not us. And there’s obviously a pretty big distinction between the two sides. They are a corporation. We are consumers.
And as consumers, this is good. We should welcome this. This tweet from the OG Russ Bentson perfectly captured why Ivy Park — and anything else sitting, really — is actually great.
There’s an entire thread there worth diving into, but this captures it all perfectly for me.
This industry literally bombards us with drop after drop after drop every single week. They limit supply and keep different drops coming so you feel like you’re missing out if you don’t participate.
When something sits, that feeling doesn’t exist. You have time. You can take a step back and return to it. And that’s ultimately a good thing. You can legitimately think about how you want to spend your money. The power is yours.
Everything selling out sucks, man. That’s not fun. It’s frustrating as hell.
It’s cool to not have to rush to buy something or feel like you’re pressured into it. It’s honestly kind of soothing. I talked about that a bit with the Packer 4D drop on Special Delivery.
No, it’s not the greatest look for Adidas. But who cares? It’s not our job to worry about their bottom line which, ultimately, be fine. We only need to decide whether it’s worth giving them our time and our money.
That’s where our power lies. That’s what really matters.
SPECIAL DELIVERY: Fashion over function for the Air Max
Though it was initially born as a functional line, Air Max is all about fashion now. And while many of the OG sneakers in the lineage have functional aspects to them, the newer models completely dump that all together.
And that’s where the Air Max 2021 comes in. It’s a full lifestyle shoe just like it’s most recent predecessors — the Air Max 2090, 270, 720 and so on.
But do they veer too far away from the Air Max roots? We ask that in the latest episode of Special Delivery. Tap in to see what conclusion we reached.
Separating real friends from fake friends
Iight, so, quick question. If someone asks you if they should cop a pair of sneakers, do you ever tell them no?
If you do, please leave here. No, don’t actually do that. I’m joking. I love you. Just please change your problematic behavior. Friends don’t tell friends not to buy sneakers. It’s the law.
And that’s facts.
What’s droppin, bruh?
Nike Dunk Low “NY vs. NY” — Tuesday, August 31
Air Jordan 36 “First Light” — Thursday, September 2
Air Jordan 4 “Shimmer” — Friday, September 3
Air Jordan 6 “Bordeaux” — Saturday, September 4
Social Status x Dunk Mid “Free Lunch” — Saturday, September 4
Thank y’all so much for rocking with your boy! Y’all are really the best. Thank you for elevating me to this point I’m at. Wouldn’t be me without you.
As always, peace and love. Be safe. Be easy. Be kind.
-Sykes 💯