Vans and a Brooklyn art collective reach settlement to end long-running trademark lawsuit Tyga“Wavy Baby” sneakers – a parody of the company's classic Old Skool.
Vans claimed the shoe, released in 2022 by a group called MSCHF, was a “blatant” infringement. The creators argued that it was a legal parody protected by the First Amendment, since it was designed to criticize the consumer culture of the “sneakerhead”. But federal courts have repeatedly ruled against Vans.
On Tuesday, lawyers for both sides told a federal judge they had agreed to settle the lawsuit. MSCHF agreed that “Wavy Baby” had infringed Vans' trademarks and agreed never to sell it again. Other terms of the “confidential settlement agreement,” including a potential cash payment, were not disclosed in court filings. Neither side immediately returned a request for comment.
Tyga announced the Wavy Baby in April 2022, generating plenty of buzz as well as direct comparisons to Vans. Footwear news said the shoe “appears to be loosely based on the classic Vans Old Skool” that had been altered with a “wave-like aesthetic.” The site High Snobiety went with a bolder headline: “MSCHF & Tyga's Crazy Skate Shoes Look Like Liquid Trucks.”
Three days before the shoes were set to launch, Vans filed a lawsuit – claiming that MSCHF's sneakers infringed on its trademark rights and seeking an immediate restraining order. The lawsuit only targeted MSCHF itself and did not name Tyga (real name: Michael Stevenson) as defendant.
Legal troubles were nothing new for MSCHF: the band had previously teamed up with Lil Nas X to release a “Satan Shoe” that resembled a pair of Nikes — and were promptly hit with a similar infringement lawsuit from the sneaker giant of shoes. Quickly they reached a settlement which saw MSCHF issue a voluntary recall on the shoes and offer a buyback program.
In the Tyga sneaker case, Vans argued that consumers would believe Wavy Baby was an authorized artist endorsement deal rather than a parody by a separate company. The label has cited previous collaborations with A$AP Rocky, Metallica and Foo Fighters.
“Given Vans' history of collaborations with music artists, information and beliefs, the partnership between MSCHF and Michael Stevenson is intended to mislead consumers into believing they are purchasing a product manufactured by, sponsored by, endorsed by, or otherwise associated with Vans,'' the company's lawyers wrote at the time.
Unlike the Nike case, MSCHF contested the case filed by Vans. He admitted that the Wavy Baby was based on the Old Skool, but said he had a legal right under the First Amendment to use the shoe as a “cultural and physical anchor in the creation of his art.” The company said it wanted to criticize the “consumerism inherent in sneakerhead culture” and “the phenomenon of sneaker companies partnering with anyone to gain influence and shoe sales.”
But a federal judge quickly rejected those arguments and issued a restraining order barring MSCHF from selling any more Wavy Babies. In issuing his ruling, Judge William F. Kuntz said he — and, more importantly, consumers — didn't get the joke.
“Whatever the actual artistic merits of the Wavy Baby shoes, the shoes do not qualify as a successful parody,” the judge wrote in his decision in April 2022. “While the manifesto accompanying the shoes may contain protected parody expression, the Wavy Baby shoes and packaging alone fail to convey the satirical message.”
A federal appeals court later upheld that decision.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/tyga-wavy-baby-sneakers-vans-mschf-case-settled/
