Adidas claims that sneaker website Sole Retriever stole images of upcoming Anthony Edwards and Donovan Mitchell shoe releases and used them to try and extort the company for special treatment.
The lawsuit, filed March 12 in Oregon federal court, names as defendants Sole Retriever, its founder Harris Monoson, and five unidentified individuals—who Adidas believes could include its own employees. It alleges that Sole Retriever conspired last summer with the unnamed individuals to steal “confidential proprietary designs,” including for upcoming Edwards and Mitchell sneaker releases. (Edwards and Mitchell both have signature shoe deals with Adidas.)
The complaint also claims that Sole Retriever sought to leverage the information to extract preferential treatment from Adidas. Specifically, Monoson emailed a group of Adidas employees in August making a “last attempt” to get the company to “make good” on its relationship with Sole Retriever, according to a screenshot included in the complaint. In the email, Monoson said that if Adidas did not “start getting treated with the level of respect” it deserved, he would not “hold back on posting these kinds of things,” referring to images of the upcoming shoe releases.
When Adidas declined, Sole Retriever published the sneaker designs on social media, the suit says. According to Adidas, this infringed upon “exclusive” copyrights it owns.
“All indications are that the Sole Retriever defendants intend to continue misappropriating Adidas’s confidential designs and other sensitive commercial information and use those misappropriated assets to promote their business at Adidas’s expense,” the lawsuit says. “Adidas brings this action to put an end to this theft once and for all.”
The lawsuit, which includes counts of unjust enrichment and copyright infringement, seeks more than $150,000 in damages, although it does not specify an exact amount. Adidas says that companies in the “highly” competitive sneaker industry invest “tens of millions of dollars” to research and develop technology, designs, marketing campaigns, and more. It says there is “no doubt” Sole Retriever coordinated with one or more people who had “access to Adidas’s files to unlawfully obtain confidential and proprietary trade secrets,” about the company’s pipeline of future sneaker releases.
Sole Retriever, which publishes news about sneaker releases, responded with a social media post saying the suit “is an attack on the protected speech of an independent publisher for reporting on the culture we love, and it sets a dangerous precedent for every sneaker media outlet, creator, and journalist who covers this industry.”
“We deny these claims in their entirety and stand firmly on our rights as a media platform and behind the first amendment protections afforded to the press,” the company said. “We thank the sneaker community for its continued support, and we look forward to a full and vigorous defense of this matter in court.”
The company has not yet responded in court, according to the docket. Adidas says that what Sole Retriever did is more than exerting its first amendment rights. It says the theft and release of confidential information could do significant harm to the company, including damaging its relationships with athletes and dampening excitement around the actual release, which could result in “reduced sales and wasted resources spent on marketing plans and communications strategies.”
It also says the actions taken by Sole Retriever could give competitors like Nike and Under Armour insight into its “trade secrets.”
“Armed with this confidential information, competitors could attempt to undercut adidas by copying its designs or beating it to the market, for example,” the complaint says.
Representatives for Adidas and Sole Retriever did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
