Nike accuses MSCHF Product Studio, Inc. of trademark infringement over the designer's 666 pairs of modified Nike sneakers made in collaboration with the "Old Town Road" singer. All 666 pairs sold out Monday.
In its complaint, Nike asked the court to order MSCHF to "permanently stop" fulfilling orders for the "unauthorized" Lil Nas X Satan Shoes. The lawsuit notes that social media users have but threatened to boycott Nike over the controversial shoes.
MSCHF and its unauthorized Satan Shoes are likely to cause confusion and dilution and create an erroneous association between MSCHF's products and Nike," the sportswear company says in its complaint. "In the short time since the announcement of the Satan Shoes, Nike has suffered significant harm to its goodwill, including among consumers who believe that Nike is endorsing satanism."
The modified black and red Nike Air Max 97 sneakers — adorned with a bronze pentagram charm and a drop of human blood in the mid-sole — are the latest customized Nike footwear product to be released by MSCHF. The company also released a pair of custom-made "Jesus Shoes" in 2019.
In its complaint, Nike said the Satan Shoes prominently feature Nike's famous Swoosh logo.
You've got all kinds of artists that go out there and they take a shoe and they'll do a whole bunch of custom art on the shoe and maybe resell it for $1,000-3,000," Gerben said. "This is something Nike is well aware of and has done absolutely nothing to mess with because there's a sneaker culture here."
The problem for Lil Nas X and MSCHF inthis case, according to Gerben, is the hundreds of shoes that were sold, since individual works of art are easier to defend in court than items that have been mass produced.
"People are thinking Nike's behind something because there's so many of these [shoes]," he said. "It's not just a single piece of art that some artist took a shoe and made. It's that someone took a whole bunch of Nike shoes, customized them the exact same way and is selling them to a point in such sophisticated fashion that people think Nike's involved."
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