Adidas has been a leading brand in the sneaker industry since the 1940s, and its popularity has had lows and highs ever since. Recently, though, Adidas has caught the interest of the fashion world, especially with artist Kanye West becoming the fighting face of Adidas. Whether this rise in popularity has anything to do with the company’s confidence, the brand has certainly been doing everything in its power to take out the competitors, which includes Under Armor, Sketchers, and Nike.
Adidas has recently settled a two year long patent lawsuit against Under Armor for claims that Under Armor’s subsidiary, MapMyFitness, used Adidas owned patents on location and fitness tracking technology. The case was settled with Under Armor agreeing to pay a licensing fee for the use of the technology. The close of this suit does not mean Adidas has withdrawn from the legal system, though, as they have also sued Sketchers for copyright infringement on some of Adidas’ popular shoe products.
Adidas claims that Sketchers has gotten away with stealing Adidas’ intellectual property for long enough, and specifically looks to one of Adidas’ recent top sellers, the “Stan Smith” shoe. The white shoe with green detailing has been nearly identically replicated by Sketchers. To make things worse for Sketchers, the company has allowed customers to use search terms on it’s website, such as “Adidas originals” and “Stan Smith,” to lead the customers to these replicated shoes. The U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon granted Adidas’ preliminary injunction against Sketchers, a great success for Adidas, which Sketchers is currently fighting.
Finally, Kanye West, who partnered with Adidas for his Yeezy collection, has openly attacked Nike’s reputation in his new song “Facts”. The song not only praises West’s success with his Yeezy collection, but he further goes on to state that Nike would be nothing without its help from celebrities, such as Drake. West also has no shame in taking swings at every aspect of the company, as shown in his lyric “Nike, Nike treat employees just like slaves.” It is fair to say that West is standing strong with Adidas, and will happily join in the fight against the competitors.
It will be interesting to see where this persistence and confidence on Adidas’ end will take the company. As for now, it seems to be encouraging more and more people to put Adidas on the top of their shopping list.
Additional Reading:
http://genius.com/Kanye-west-facts-charlie-heat-version-lyrics
https://www.statista.com/statistics/227015/the-adidas-groups-footwear-production-worldwide/