Nike Blasts StockX for Selling Counterfeit Shoes

Update May 11 2022: StockX have issued a statement in response to Nike’s court filing and claim that they sell counterfeit products, in which they accuse the Swoosh of pursuing a ‘baseless’ and ‘curious’ lawsuit. The statement mentions that hundreds of Nike employees, including senior executives, buy and sell products on the platform, and that StockX view the suit as an attempt for Nike to ‘resuscitate its losing legal case against our Vault NFT program.’ See the statement and the original story below, and stay tuned for further updates.

‘We take customer protection extremely seriously, and we’ve invested millions to fight the proliferation of counterfeit products that virtually every global marketplace faces today. Nike’s latest filing is not only baseless, but also is curious given that their own brand protection team has communicated confidence in our authentication program, and that hundreds of Nike employees – including current senior executives – use StockX to buy and sell products. This latest tactic amounts to nothing more than a panicked and desperate attempt to resuscitate its losing legal case against our innovative Vault NFT program that revolutionizes the way that consumers can buy, store, and sell collectibles safely, efficiently, and sustainably. Nike’s challenge has no merit and clearly demonstrates their lack of understanding of the modern marketplace.’

In what appears to be an ongoing legal feud between Nike and StockX has now flared up once again! According to Bloomberg, Nike has requested (to a federal judge) that they add ‘claims of counterfeiting and false advertising’ to their existing trademark-infringement lawsuit with the secondary marketplace platform. These additional claims are the result of Nike alleging that they have purchased four pairs of fake shoes from StockX.

As per the court filing, Nike stated: ‘Those four pairs of counterfeit shoes were all purchased within a short two-month period on StockX’s platform, all had affixed to them StockX’s ‘Verified Authentic’ hangtag, and all came with a paper receipt from StockX in the shoe box stating that the condition of the shoes is “100% Authentic”.’

Nike originally filed the lawsuit earlier this year in February over StockX’s ‘Vault’ NFTs which featured the Swoosh’s sneakers. Then in April, the resell giant hit back, saying that the claims made ‘lack merit, disregard settled doctrines of trademark law (including those of first sale and nominative fair use) and show a fundamental misunderstanding of the various functions NFTs can serve.’

Prior to that and in defence of their NFTS, StockX responded, with an excerpt reading, ‘The benefit of taking possession of the Vault NFT…is that the owner can make a future trade without incurring transaction costs, delay, or risk of damage or loss associated with shipping physical sneakers to StockX and then to the ultimate recipients.’