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Your favorite sportswear brands are going to war– in the courtroom, at least.
adidas has filed a lawsuit against Nike, claiming that the swoosh has infringed on several of their patents like the design of the adidas_1 sneaker and the Confirmed app, which ensures that fans of the three stripes can cop their coveted sneakers.
The element of the adidas_1 that Nike’s accused of replicating is that it’s the first shoe that “sensed and adjusted the comfort of the shoe while the shoe was worn.” An archived press release reveals that back in 2004, adidas announced the first intelligent shoe after taking three years to develop it.
“This product will change the entire sporting goods industry. It is a true first and establishes adidas as a clear leader in the field of innovation,” said Erich Stamminger, Executive Board Member responsible for Global Marketing and North America almost 20 years ago. “This is the product that illustrates to us, also when developing products, ‘Impossible is Nothing.'”
Sneakerheads will remember that more than a decade later, Nike would introduce its own hi-tech sneaker with an auto-lacing unit when paying homage to the classic 1989 film Back to the Future II.
Source: Nike / NIke
Now when it comes to buying exclusive kicks straight from a brand’s app, adidas is calling copycat on that platform as well. adidas launched the Confirmed app in early February 2015 to reduce purchasing bots and long lines. Then just days later, Nike announced the launch of SNKRS, which would eventually be available to everyone in May 2015.
“Nike has and continues to make, use, import, sell, or offer for sale mobile systems, software, or methods for detecting, evaluating, analyzing, storing, displaying, and sharing information about the activities, movement, and performance of a user, including at least the Nike Run Club Mobile Application (“NRC App”), and Nike Training Club Mobile Application (“NTC App”), and the Nike SNKRS Mobile Application (“SNKRS App”),” reads the lawsuit. “Nike has and continues to make, use, import, sell, or offer for sale mobile systems, software, or methods for controlling functionality on its lines of shoes with lace tightening controlled by a remote device, including at least Nike Adapt, HyperAdapt, and 2016 Nike Mag as well as other shoes with EARL, Adaptive Fit, FitAdapt, or similar technology controlled by a remote device.
You can read the entire lawsuit here as adidas attempts to get Nike to fess up for stealing several ideas that allegedly came from the German-born sportswear brand.
