November 4, 2020 update: Now that Nike has released its lawyer hounds, it’s clear they’re not going to let up on Warren Lotas. Shortly after the Los Angeles-based designer announced he was offering customers a replacement shoe for his Dunk look-a-like shoe, Nike followed up with a continuation of its original complaint stating that even the replacement shoes are too similar to the Nike Dunk, setting up the possibility of confusion in the minds of the consumer. (Find the full suit here.)
While one could understand why Nike would hound Warren Lotas over the original shoe, this time the suit says Lotas’ replacement colorways imitate the trademarked Dunk outsole.
The November 2nd complaint reads, ” WL never presented the ‘replacement sneakers’ to Nike for its review or approval. If it had, Nike would have likely told WL that the ‘replacement’ sneakers are unacceptable because they appear to infringe at least some of Nike’s trade dress registrations.”
Using side by side illustrations of a “genuine” Nike Dunk, alongside Warren Lotas’ Pigeon and replacement sneaker, the athletic giant pointed out the outsole was the same as Nike, which is trademarked.
Some of described Nike’s lawyers as petty for taking the complaint this far, mainly because the company has ignored more egregious outsole copies, but behind the scenes Nike sends out design-related ceases and desists all the time for even smaller violations and in the case of Lotus, he opened the door and now Nike has more or less taken up residence in his living room.
Read the original story below.
Los Angeles-based designer Warren Lotas may be down but he is not out. After being sued down to the ground (understandably!) by Nike for copying the mega-brand’s Dunk silhouette, he’s offered a similar silhouette called the Reaper in one of three colors (chainsaw, clean slate and electric blue) as a replacement for customers who ordered either his Warren Lotas Pigeon sneaker made in collaboration with Jeff Staple (below) or Chanclas sneaker, which he’s not longer allowed to make per the Nike law suit.
On Instagram, he wrote, “The ‘Chainsaw’ colorway will only be offered as a replacement to customers who ordered either the Chanclas or Pigeons and will NEVER be released publicly. If you don’t accept the substitution, we will refund your order.”
Lotas followed up with a clean slate and an electric blue colorway as two more replacement option colorways. Under the blue colorway, he wrote, “This is option 3. We are going to dispatch a form for you to easily select your replacement colorway. I will provide the link shortly.”
Looking at the Reaper sneaker (below), the silhouette is the same but with three major differences. The Swoosh-shaped Friday the 13th Jason Vorhees logo is gone and has been replaced by a skull logo framed by the outline of a scythe. One could say the new logo alludes to Nike’s famed trademark but is not longer in the same ballpark as it once was.
As well, the famed black, grey and white colorway closely associated with Nike and Jeff Staples famed Pigeon Dunk is gone. Finally, the placement of the suede and leather panels have been modified.
Providing some background on negotiations with Nike over the lawsuit, Lotas added, “We tried to reach an early resolution with Nike and basically complied with everything they wanted, but we believe they are making unnecessary demands in order to intimidate other small businesses from exercising their creative freedom in the future.”
Indicating Nike stood fast in their settlement on claims it owned certain color combinations, Lotas concluded, “Look at it closely. Regardless of our actions, we believe NIKE’s claims, such as supposedly owning color combinations and functional, run-of-the-mill design elements, hurt everyone if we don’t push back. We believe they are using this lawsuit to suffocate small brands, customizers, and artists, not just WL. Even if you hate us, you need to understand the precedent this will set for creating as the little guy.”
While Lotas can claim Nike reacted in an overly punitive manner, in reality the athletic giant probably would have looked the other way had he not mass produced multiple sneakers bearing a barely modified Swoosh. Once activated, Nike’s lawyers of course proceeded to bring the hammer down.
Despite being forced to change up his design, Lotas plans to continue making sneakers. Under the clean slate colorway, he wrote, “Due to the overwhelming support and positivity on my last post, I want to give everybody a small peek into the future of WL footwear.”
