Nike Sues Former Designers, What Does This Eventually Mean?
In Portland the two brands, Nike and adidas are a measly 13 miles apart. This is like the equivalence to a subway series here in NYC between the Yankees and Mets or now the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks. The feud for supremacy will always be there.
The three designers who are Denis Dekovic, Marc Dolce and Mark Miner were supposed to stay employees of Nike until September of 2015 on a noncompete contract but with the cat getting out the bag early that the trio would play host to a Brooklyn located center of operations for a new design studio backed by adidas, things got a bit uncomfortable.
Yeah when this news broke bystanders like myself and even Nike kept a wary eye to the situation, as they should simply because the 3 stripe is the swooshes biggest competitor.
This past Monday, December 8th, 2014 a lawsuit was filed. Now to me lawsuits and the allegations that were made public like this are something I would think only takes place in like movies or something. In a nut shell Nike is accusing the three former shoe designers of stealing valuable information of Nike which could damage the Brand for the next 3-4 years. Damage meaning, for any athletic product that is developed, adidas, remember they’re a competitor, could counter any development in Nikes athletic department. Yikes.
Nike is putting a $10 Million Dollar lawsuit on the three designers head. I would think, with the chances of damages lasting in the range of 3-4 why not sue for more? I say this considering the fact it is being said the three designers are designing a replication to Nikes’ Innovation Kitchen where everything basically goes down. I mean if anybody stole from out of my kitchen I would be pissed too, I could imagine what type of vital information is behind those walls. One is to think though, is this replication what is leading to the design lab in Brooklyn? The dots are slowly connecting, or is this pure speculation.
Lets also check the backgrounds of the three designers for Nike and see how them ‘allegedly’ providing information to adidas would ultimate hurt as well. Denis Dekovic was the SENIOR DESIGN DIRECTOR for Nike soccer, Marc Dolce had dealings with the signature shoes for LeBron and Kobe as well as being the one who managed the Nike Air Force One and Nike Dunk. Lastly we have Mr. Mark Miner who was the senior footwear designer for Nike running. Two designers who were apart of Nikes highest grossing shoe lines. FLAG ON THE PLAY.
Now I am not the one to point out the obvious here but this does seem just a bit peculiar, don’t you think? Ever since the announcement do you think some of the new product from adidas looks influenced by Nike, as if they almost have a rebuttal for their releases? Let us know down in the comments your thoughts on everything.
While you get familiar with this situation you can head over to ESPN as Darren Rovell has gone into even more detail about this situation that is unfolding.
Also, apparently since the accusation Denis Dekovic took to his Facebook to address somethings.
“During our entire careers at Nike, we gave nothing but our maximum effort. We collectively poured in hours, passion and dedication beyond what was asked or expected of us, often prioritizing our jobs over our families.
Until the very end, we stayed engaged, loyal and committed. We have a tremendous amount of respect for our colleagues and Nike and would never do anything to harm them.
We find Nike’s allegations hurtful because they are either false or are misleading half-truths. We did not take trade secrets or intellectual property when we departed in September. We are looking forward to bringing new and innovative ideas and designs to adidas when our non-competition agreement expires.”
via: ESPN/HS
