Nike Alleges Sneaker Marketplace StockX is Selling Fake Shoes

Nike is continuing its legal battle with StockX, a sneaker marketplace, alleging that the latter company sold fraudulent shoes, Bloomberg wrote Wednesday (May 11).

While StockX promised it only sold legitimate footwear for athletes, Nike claimed it had bought four pairs of counterfeit shoes on the platform.

“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 said in a court filing Tuesday.

Nike had asked a judge to let it add claims of counterfeiting and false advertising to its existing lawsuit, which is about trademark infringement.

The lawsuit originated in February, when Nike accused StockX of “blatantly freeriding” on Nike’s trademarks and goodwill through its Vault NFTs service. StockX said its non-fungible tokens (NFTs) aren’t digital sneakers, but rather “listings for physical sneakers that are stored in a vault.”

In a statement on its website, StockX said it takes customer protection “extremely seriously.” The company also said it has spent “millions” fighting against counterfeit product proliferation.

“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,” the statement said, calling Nike’s actions “panicked and desperate.”

PYMNTS wrote that StockX has denied Nike’s claim about its tokenized digital images violating Nike’s trademarks. StockX said its products weren’t “virtual products or digital sneakers,” and said they were more like virtual receipts.

Read more: Refuting Nike’s Trademark Suit, StockX Stakes a Claim For NFT Fair Use In the Metaverse

The main issue at the time came down to the NFTs holding an image of Nike sneakers, with NFTs being “unique and highly collectible.”

In addition to reselling rare sneakers, StockX also sells various collectibles and trading cards. The NFT receipts come with all of the company products sold.