A New York-based independent fashion brand is suing Nike and Michael Jordan for using its logo without permission. Rocco Giordano, founder of Faded Royalty, is seeking a whopping $30M in damages for the unauthorised use of his own 'six-point star' symbol.
The star appears on several items in Nike's Jordan Chicago Collaborators' Collection, revealed in January. Giordano claims that the symbol is almost identical to his own, created as far back as 2000, and trademarked in 2012. If Nike's designers were stuck for ideas, they could have checked out our logo inspiration guide.
Faded Royalty’s star logo (left) & Nike/Hudson’s star logo (right) (Image credit: Nike/Faded Royalty/Future Owns)
According to Fox Business, Giordano only discovered Nike's design after he received "congratulatory messages from friends in the fashion industry". In his complaint, Giordano says Faded Royalty's logo is well-known throughout New York, and he was "flabbergasted to learn that the fruits of his labour were being used without his consent for profits by one of the largest apparel companies in the world".
One of Nike's hoodies featuring the design (Image credit: Nike)
In a news post introducing the line, Nike says it was designed by Chicago-based creative director Cody Hudson, who was inspired by "his fascination with motion-inspired graphics." The offending star is said to be "a reimagining of the six-point star from the Chicago flag".
There's no denying the striking similarity between the two stars, and we're not surprised that Giordano's fashion pals mistook Nike's new line for a collaboration with Faded Royalty. Whether or not there was any deliberate foul play on Nike or Cody Hudson's part, we can't help but admire Giordano's audacity for trying to take the world's largest sportswear brand to the cleaners.
This isn't the first time a lifted logo has landed a fashion brand in hot water. The Canadian rapper Drake recently took luxury accessories brand Bellroy to court for using an unbelievably similar owl logo to his own clothing brand, OVO. For any brands that might need reminding: none of the best logos of all time are easily mistaken for another.
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Daniel John is Senior News Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of art, design, branding and lifestyle tech (which often translates to tech made by Apple). He joined in 2020 after working in copywriting and digital marketing with brands including ITV, NBC, Channel 4 and more.
