Nike Sues Over Unauthorized ‘Satan Shoes’

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Nike is suing MSCHF, a small Brooklyn-based company, over its sale of 666 pairs of altered Nike Air Max 97s as “Satan Shoes” in collaboration with the rapper Lil Nas X.



“Satan Shoes,” a collaboration between the company MSCHF and the rapper Lil Nas X, will sell for $1,018 a pair.Credit...MSCHF
By Bryan Pietsch
March 28, 2021
Some workplaces encourage employees to donate blood as an act of charity. But six workers at MSCHF, a quirky company based in Brooklyn that’s known for products like toaster-shaped bath bombs and rubber-chicken bongs, offered their blood for a new line of shoes.

“‘Sacrificed’ is just a cool word — it was just the MSCHF team that gave the blood,” one of MSCHF’s founders, Daniel Greenberg, said in an email on Sunday. (Asked who collected the blood, Mr. Greenberg replied, “Uhhhhhh yeah hahah not medical professionals we did it ourselves lol.”)

A drop of blood is mixed in with ink that fills an air bubble in the sneaker, a Nike Air Max 97, Mr. Greenberg said.

“Not much blood, actually” was collected, he said, adding, “About six of us on the team gave.”

MSCHF started selling 666 pairs of the shoes — each pair cost $1,018 — on Monday as a follow-up to a line of Jesus Shoes, which contained holy water. They sold out in less than a minute.

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Mr. Greenberg noted that Nike was not involved in the process “in any capacity.”

In a statement on Sunday, Nike said: “We do not have a relationship with Little Nas X or MSCHF. Nike did not design or release these shoes, and we do not endorse them.”

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And on Monday, Nike sued MSCHF in U.S. District Court over the shoes, alleging that MSCHF’s “unauthorized Satan Shoes are likely to cause confusion and dilution and create an erroneous association between MSCHF’s products and Nike.”

“Decisions about what products to put the ‘swoosh’ on belong to Nike, not to third parties like MSCHF,” Nike said in its lawsuit, referring to its “swoosh” logo. “Nike requests that the court immediately and permanently stop MSCHF from fulfilling all orders for its unauthorized Satan Shoes.”

The Consumer Product Safety Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday about whether there were concerns or legal issues about the sale of the shoes.

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Rushcourt71

It would have been better if Nike had also expressed their disgust at being associated with Satan and Satanism. This way it gives the impression it is just a matter of patenting and copyright alone and second that the concept is something Nike may just create in future themselves.