The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
The German sportswear brand continues to be aggressively litigious about defending its slanted three-striped logo, filing a suit in New York against the Zegna-owned brand after it said a mediation process that began in November 2020 failed to resolve the dispute.
“Despite Thom Browne’s knowledge of adidas’s rights in the famous Three-Stripe Mark, Thom Browne has expanded its product offerings far beyond formal wear and business attire and is now offering for sale and selling athletic-style apparel and footwear featuring two, three, or four parallel stripes in a manner that is confusingly similar to adidas’s Three-Stripe Mark,” wrote Adidas’ lawyers in the complaint first reported on by The Fashion Law.
The sportswear brand also argued that Thom Browne’s partnership with FC Barcelona since 2018 is another point of confusion for customers.
In 2017, Bloomberg reported Adidas had filed close to 50 trademark lawsuits since 2012, targeting Nike, Skechers, Marc Jacobs and more.
A representative for Adidas declined to comment. Representatives for Thom Browne did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Practitioners of this historically behind-the-scenes profession are building powerful followings, riding a wave of interest in how the fashion sausage is made. But even the highest-profile PRs caution that the client still has to comes first.
Join us for a BoF Professional Masterclass that explores the topic in our latest Case Study, “How to Create Cultural Moments on Any Budget.”
When done effectively, a cultural partnership can rightfully earn its own place in the zeitgeist. But it’s not so easy as just hiring a celebrity to star in an ad campaign; brands must choose a partner that makes sense, find the format that fits best and amplify that message to consumers.
Calvin Klein’s chief marketing officer Jonathan Bottomley speaks to Imran Amed about the strategy behind the brand’s buzzy Jeremy Allen White-fronted campaign.