Nike: On Air Finalist Accused of Plagiarism

Created to celebrate of talents of aspiring designers, has unfortunately been tarnished with accusations of plagiarism. London participant  Lorenzo Federici has taken to social media to call out competition finalist Jasmine Lasode for allegedly stealing his concepts.

Sitting next to the accused at the workshop, Federici believes his concepts were blatantly bitten and incorporated into Lasode’s ‘London Summer of Love’ Air Max 97 (pictured above). To make things worse, Lasode’s design was chosen as one of 18 finalists to be voted for by sneakerheads around the world.

At first glance, there’s not many visual similarities between the two AM97 designs. However, Federici claims his ‘Support Your Local’ convenience store concept and the use of the word ‘Bossman’ — both featured in Lasode’s design — were ideas which he had refined over months of work.

So far, Nike:On Air judges  Skepta and  have come out in support of Federici, but there’s been no official word from Nike. We’ll keep you updated as the story develops.