Nike sues former senior shoe designers

Sportswear giant Nike has filed a lawsuit against three of its former
senior shoe designers, accusing them of stealing the company’s commercial
secrets and joining German rival Adidas, which announced in September that
the new staff members – Denis Dekovic, Marc Dolce and Mark Miner – would
lead its new urban footwear design studio in Brooklyn.

The lawsuit, filed in Oregon where Nike has its headquarter, claims at
least 10 million US dollars in damages. The sportswear giant stated that
the former designers started consulting for Adidas while still working at
Nike, thus violating their non-compete agreements, which bar the designers
from working for Adidas or any other competitor during their employment and
for one year after. Nike also claims that Adidas knew of these agreements
and promised to pay for any legal fallout.

The three designers are also accused of stealing “a treasure trove of
Nike product designs, research information and business plans” and trying
to hide their tracks by erasing incriminating emails and text messages from
their work-issued cellphones and laptops. The confidential material
includes drawings for an unreleased shoe made for one of Nike’s sponsored
athletes.

New design studio based on Nike’s ‘Kitchen’

Nike also claims that Adidas’ new design studio was their former
designers’ idea, simply coyping the company’s own design lab, which is
called the Kitchen, and that it would use Nike’s plans for the next few
years in its running, sportswear and soccer lines that the designers shared
with Adidas illicitly.

Adidas claims its new studio, called Brooklyn Creative Design Studio, is
aimed at exploring new design directions and developing new brand concepts.
“This facility will be an open-source creative center allowing us to
connect and collaborate with consumers in a way we’ve never done before,”
said Adidas global creative director Paul Gaudio in a statement in
September.

In response, an Adidas representative iterated that the company attracts
top talent and has “no interest in old work or past assignments”. The
designers have since defended themselves against the allegations in a
statement posted by Dekovic on Twitter, claiming the allegations to be
“either false or misleading half-truths”.

A spokesman from Nike declined to comment further but promised the
company would protect its intellectual property “vigorously”.

Photo: Nike innovations