Eddie Van Halen Sues Nike For Custom Dunks (IDIOT)
The messed up part is that Van Halen recently released their own shoe with the Frankenstein stripes but it looks exactly like the Converse All-Stars. Nike now owns Converse so it seems llike they could just as easily flip the lawsuit and claim that they are infringing on the classic Chuck Taylors. The only issue there may be the fact that the shoe and it's patent have been around for so long that they no longer have the rights to that patent and/or other vendors can now make generic versions. I've definitely seen other sneaker companies releasing a bootleg Chuck Taylor and they seem to stay on the market legally. Who F'n knows though. I'm definitely not a patent lawyer so I am just throwing some thoughts out there.
Either way, this is some crazy ish. I am surprised this is the first time I have heard about Nike being sued for one of their special edition shoes. Usually artists and others that are used as inspiration for a shoe don't mind the concept because it often makes them relevant again and the shoe is usuallyl dope. A lot of these peope are even part of the design process.
Eddie Van Halen is missing the boat on a potential collaboration and a way to make him relevant again with the younger Sneakerhead generation. He is also inadvertently causing the price on these shoes to skyrocket because everyone is going to want a pair now because of the controversy. Good luck getting a pair of these kicks any time soon. It shold be interesting to see where this goes because it could affect the sneaker game drastically in the near future.
