Cart is empty

Go to SF Shop

Converse Send The Lawyers In On Chuck Taylor Imposters

Thumb Converse Copyright
Converse Copyright

You’ve seen the sneaks around town before; vulcanised midsoles with coloured stripes, ridged toe bumpers in the front sitting under a rubber toe cap, while up top stands the thin canvas upper with contrasting stitching surrounding the laces – but no All Star branding in sight. Yep, there’s impersonators everywhere – your thrifty father probably wears a pair to the mall. As you can imagine, Converse is none too happy about this fact and though we’re still seeing the wannabes on shelves at every cheap shoe store, apparently the brand has been doing a bit of work behind the scenes to shut the racket down. They’ve sent the lawyers in! Shoe copyright is a somewhat vexing issue, it seems almost impossible to patent a shoe shape, but Converse are attacking it from a slightly different angle, they’re arguing that the copy-cats aren’t just using the All Star as an inspiration, they’re actively attempting to deceive consumers that they’re buying Converse (and what the brand represents) when they're not. Converse have apparently sent more than 180 cease and desist letters, but the receivers don’t seem too phased, pushing on with production. The One Star brand has now filed lawsuits against a massive 31 companies, including Skechers, Ed Hardy, Ralph Lauren and Fila. Damn son! We’ll be interested to see what happens with this, there may be some serious precedent setting going on. Stay tuned. News via The Conversation.

Subscribe to our Newsletter