NKE Nike Inc

By Allison Prang 

Nike Inc. filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against a small marketing company that released a customized pair of its sneakers with satanic themes in collaboration with Lil Nas X to promote the rapper's new song.

The red-and-black Satan Shoes caused a social-media uproar on Monday and quickly sold out. The company that released them, MSCHF Product Studio Inc., said it made 666 pairs and sold them for $1,018 apiece.

The sneakers have a red liquid in the sole that MSCHF claimed included a drop of blood. There is a reference to the Bible passage Luke 10:18 stitched on the side and a bronze pentagram on the laces.

"The Satan Shoes were produced without Nike's approval or authorization, and Nike is in no way connected with this project," the company said in a statement. The apparel giant said it has no relationship with Lil Nas X or MSCHF.

MSCHF, pronounced "mischief," is a small Brooklyn-based company known for publicity stunts and viral product marketing. Its past projects include a pair of customized Nike sneakers that it called "the Jesus shoes" and said were filled with holy water, decapitated-swan pool floats and an app for stock picking based on astrological signs. MSCHF didn't respond to requests for comment.

The release of the Satan Shoes coincided with Lil Nas X's latest single, "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)," and a music video for the song. In the video, the rapper appears to be in the Garden of Eden and falls into hell, where he gives the devil a lap dance. The video was released March 26 has been viewed more than 43 million times on YouTube.

Lil Nas X, who rose to fame through social media and viral remixes of his megahit "Old Town Road" in 2019, appeared to address conservative Christian critics of his new song and video. He wrote on Twitter on March 27: "i spent my entire teenage years hating myself because of the s -- y'all preached would happen to me because i was gay. so i hope u are mad, stay mad, feel the same anger you teach us to have towards ourselves."

Days after his "Montero" video premiered and MSCHF tweeted the sneakers, Lil Nas X posted a video on YouTube entitled, "Lil Nas X Apologizes for Satan Shoe." Rather than apologize, the rapper cuts to a clip of the lap dance from his music video. On Monday he tweeted about a contest for someone to win the 666th pair of Satan Shoes.

Lil Nas X didn't respond to a request on Twitter seeking comment.

Nike's lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York, asks a federal judge to prevent MSCHF from selling customized Nike sneakers and seeks unspecified financial damages. It doesn't name Lil Nas X, born Montero Lamar Hill, as a defendant.

"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," according to the complaint.

Mark McKenna, a professor at the University of Notre Dame's law school who specializes in intellectual property, said it is a close call as to who would win the lawsuit. MSCHF purchased Nike's products and then altered them for resale.

"There are nontrivial legitimate things that the defendants are going to be able to say here that puts them in the zone of the first-sale doctrine," Mr. McKenna said, referring to the rule of trademark law that allows the resale of purchased items. "Whether the changes they're making...are creating material differences is also not a trivial question."

Win or lose, he said the lawsuit could benefit Nike. "They're going to get the [public-relations] benefit of showing their customers that they don't want this," Mr. McKenna said.

MSCHF was officially launched in 2016 when its young founder, Gabriel Whaley, a former BuzzFeed staffer, developed a marketing campaign for online mattress brand Casper Sleep Inc. MSCHF created a way for people to trick their Snapchat friends into thinking they were having a fun night out and released a chatbot for insomniacs.

In a podcast interview in 2019, Mr. Whaley described his company as "an attention and fame machine." He said he was "addicted to trolling people online in a healthy, positive, uplifting manner" and sought ways to take "technology and devices around me to create experiences that just get a ton of attention."

MSCHF drops a new stunt or campaign on its website every two weeks. The company has raised venture capital from Founders Fund and Canaan Partners, according to PitchBook. Mr. Whaley didn't respond to a request for comment.

Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, said the buzz that has surfaced around the Satan Shoe is what MSCHF wanted to happen.

"The more excitement and the more controversy they generate, the more they're successful at doing what they set out to do," he said.

Publicity attempts can be taken too far by becoming too polarizing, Mr. Calkins said. "They're pushing the line a little bit," he said. "The idea that there's a drop of blood in the shoe is a little bit disturbing and yet not in a gross or really polarizing kind of way."

Write to Allison Prang at allison.prang@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 30, 2021 16:29 ET (20:29 GMT)

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