The United States Postal Service might soon be serving Nike a sippy sip of their own right to protect the use of their brand. Earlier this week, USPS released a statement calling out the footwear company for one of their upcoming designs.
The statement came after USPS took notice of the similarities between their priority mail boxes and Nike’s ‘Air Force 1 Experimental’ shoe. The shoe in question features red, white and blue colors with faint words written all over. But the design element that really screams “USPS inspired” is the shipping labels attached to the back of the shoes. Nike, however, was careful not to include the postal service official logo or name.
In their statement, USPS made it clear that the agency doesn’t receive tax dollars for operation costs and instead rely on “the sale of postage, products and services.” They continued on to say that “sales of unauthorized and unlicensed products deny support to the hardworking women and men of the Postal Service.”
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This comes just days after Nike’s decision to file a lawsuit against MSCHF Product Studio for creating and selling a ‘Satan Shoes’ version of their Nike Air Max 97 shoes. The ‘Satan Shoes’ are a collaboration with Lil Nas X. They dropped as a follow-up to Lil Nas X’s controversial ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’ music video, which displays a hell bound strip pole and a lap dance for the Devil from the rapper.
“This is an unfortunate situation where a large brand such as Nike, which aggressively protects its own intellectual property, has chosen to leverage another brand for its own gain,” USPS said.
USPS also expressed disappointment in Nike over their “lack of response” to multiple attempts to find a solution. The mailing agency ended the statement by standing ten toes tall on behalf of their brand.
“The Postal Service will take whatever actions it deems necessary to protect its valuable IP rights.”
Roommates, what do y’all think about this flipped roles situation?
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