Nike is suing Brooklyn art collective MSCHF over a controversial
pair of “Satan Shoes” that contains a drop of real human blood in the soles.
The $1,018 (£740) trainers,
which feature an inverted cross, a pentagram and the words “Luke 10:18”, were
made using modified Nike Air Max 97s.
MSCHF released 666 pairs of the
shoes on Monday in collaboration with rapper Lil Nas X and says they sold out
in less than a minute.
Nike claims trademark
infringement.
It has asked the court to stop MSCHF from selling the
shoes and prevent them from using its famous Swoosh design mark.
“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 sports shoe giant says in the lawsuit.
MSCHF “dropped” the black and red shoes on Monday,
coinciding with the launch of Lil Nas X’s latest song Montero (Call Me By Your
Name), which debuted on YouTube last Friday.
The song sees the rapper, who came out in 2019, celebrating
his sexuality while rejecting society’s attempts to shame him.
In the heavily stylised video,
he slides down a stripper pole from heaven to hell before dancing provocatively
with Satan, then snapping his neck and stealing his horns.
The imagery and the shoes both
reference the Bible verse Luke 10:18 – “So He told them, ‘I saw Satan fall like
lightning from heaven’.”
Each shoe also features a
signature Nike air bubble cushioning sole, containing 60 cubic centimetres
(2.03 fluid ounces) of red ink and a single drop of human blood, donated by
members of the MSCHF art collective.
In its filing with the US
District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Nike said it did not
approve or authorize the customized Satan Shoes.
There is already evidence of
significant confusion and dilution occurring in the marketplace, including
calls to boycott Nike in response to the launch of MSCHF’s Satan Shoes, based
on the mistaken belief that Nike has authorized or approved this product,” it
said.
The lawsuit cites a tweet by
popular shoe influencer @Saint from last Friday, which teased the upcoming
release of the shoes and drummed up publicity over the weekend on social media
and in the media in the US.
Some conservatives, including
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, and some religious followers, took offense
at the controversial design of the shoes and criticized Lil Nas X and MSCHF on
Twitter.
Lil Nas X hit back at the
governor and other critics on Twitter, and on Monday was tweeting several memes
on his profile in response to news of the Nike lawsuit.
Joseph Rasch of Tennessee, who
paid £1,080 for the trainers, says he is worried the conflict means his money
will be lost.
“I’m hoping I’ll receive them
since I paid for them,” he told BBC OS on World Service radio, adding that he
made the purchase not because he definitely planned to wear them but as a
political statement.
“I wanted to support a black gay
man who is attempting to show a different narrative in a majority Christian
country that currently is dealing with a lot of issues with black people. So
what better way to do that than to buy shoes that this person has collaborated
with?” he said.
Buyer McKenzi Norris of South
Carolina, a longtime follower of the MSCHF art collective, said Nike’s lawsuit
had disrupted her plans to resell the trainers for $2,500 on eBay, which
removed her listing.
“In general I think Nike’s lawsuit
and their intervention is pretty ridiculous considering how much damage it can
cause to everyday people like me who just like to customize and resell their
products legally,” she said.
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