Nike Sues BAPE For Trademark Infringement

[Professor Emeritus]

so can i refer to you as a monkey then

fukk around and find out.

 

[Bunchy Carter]

Don’t try and copy my style mane stick to them Nikes

You can still see dudes dressing like that in the south

 

[shopthatwrecks]

atleast they are consistent .. they went after kool kiy

now they goin after the chanks

shaq fat ass next

 

[Bunchy Carter]

fukk around and find out.

 

[At30wecashout]

Bruh, I been wondering when Nike would sue them. Bape been jacking they shyt since the early 2000's. Soulja Boy was cranking day in em and Hypebeast was posting them Air Force rips like mad. Why they wait so long?

 

[Gritsngravy]

We supported a brand called bathing ape

Are you trying to equate ape with black people

 

[Drip Bayless]

Damn, end of an era
I heard one of the reasons why they slightly changed the shape of the shoe in 2012 when IT group bought them is so they could avoid this lawsuit
I amongst many others personally didn’t like the look though and they ended up changing them back recently
To be fair the best Bapestas are already behind us
Nowadays you got guys on instagram making better bootleg Bapestas than Bape themselves

 

[Artificial Intelligence]

Nevermind ……I did buy a bootleg ice cream bbc hoodie back in the day…. I was apart of the problem.

 

[Gritsngravy]

There is a particular pair of bapestas I’m trying to get

 

[Drip Bayless]

I've had a pair since 2005 and hardly ever wore them, the patent white AF1 design, I still got the tissue paper they came in, I think I wore the 3 times then put them away...might have to flex on these young bloods right quick

The patent leather on the OG pairs cracks really bad after a few wears
Might as well sell that shyt, used Nigo era pair can go for upwards of 500 in good condition
Especially for a bigger size

 

[Peauxboy]

truth be told I don't think they were EVER really doing it like that

 

[Heavy_Handz]

This lawsuit was a long time coming. BAPE should have seen it coming

 

[trap101-ETHout-Allegri-In]

Nike’s patent only lasted for 20 years and the forces dropped in 82. Under japan patent law which also lasts 20 years ( cannot renew ) bape saw a door opening and dropped the bapesta in 2002 avoiding the lawsuit.

Idk what happened now that Nike got the patent renewed or what but they been wanting to get bape out the paint lol

Makes perfect sense... always wondered why they dudn't dead them from back then.

 

[TheMailMan]

Never wore these ... I'm still still rocking C. Webb dadas and Hakeem's Spaulding pumps . Damn I so fly

 

[L&HH]

...was this lawsuit on a backlog from 2005?

I think Warren Lotas, Kool Kiy, MSCHF, Omi in a hellcat and social media in general just forced their hand. In the mid 2000’s of Bapes peak Air Force one’s were just one shoe model and Nike probably didn’t want to sue because they would just be giving it more publicity and like others said since the patent expired if they lost that suit then it’s give Bapestas even more legitimacy. Nike has always been about pushing new product lines and back then probably knew bapestas would be a fad and just left it alone. However now you’ve got so many people stepping the line that they just have to do something. The thing about intellectual property is you have to protect it otherwise you risk your shyt just falling into the public domain. It’s like when brands like Google, Xerox, Kleenex, Vaseline, etc after a while actually fight to try to prevent their names from becoming eponyms as it risks them from suffering trademark erosion. I’ve seen so many upstart shoe makers on IG, tiktok, etc straight recreating Jordan1s and dunks.