Nike Sues StockX for Selling Unauthorised Sneaker Pics as NFTs

Sportswear giant Nike is suing online sneaker reseller StockX for selling unlicensed images of non-fungible token (NFT) sneakers.

Reuters reported that Nike had filed a 50-page lawsuit against StockX in a New York federal court on February 3, demanding an undisclosed amount in damages and blocking the sales of the virtual collectibles on StockX’s platform.

StockX is one of the most popular online resellers, valued at more than US$3.8 billion. According to Nike, StockX had told its buyers that the NFT sneakers would be redeemable in “the near future”. The NFT collection is still online.

Nike did not approve of or authorise StockX’s Nike-branded Vault NFTs. Those unsanctioned products are likely to confuse consumers, create a false association between those products and Nike, and dilute Nike’s famous trademarks.

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Nike lawsuit vs StockX

The US footwear giant further stated that StockX had sold around 500 Nike-branded NFTs at “inflated prices and [under] murky terms of purchase and ownership”.

Nike and the Metaverse

On December 16, Nike took a step into the metaverse when it announced the acquisition of RTFKT Studios, a digital art studio focusing on NFT sneakers and other collectibles.

Nike was late to the party, however, as Japanese sports apparel multinational Asics launched its own digital footwear collection in July 2021, placing it one step ahead of the American behemoth.