Supreme has been sued for copyright infringement

This week ASAT Outdoors LLC filed a complaint against Supreme in a federal court in New York for copyright infringement. The charge is "unauthorized reproduction and public display" of its copyrighted-protected camouflage design, used as a print by the streetwear brand on a series of jackets, sweaters, cargo pants and hats from its FW19 collection.

The Montana-based clothing company claims that it has not licensed the design to Supreme and, therefore, asks the brand founded by James Jebbia for compensation for monetary damages from Supreme, including but not limited to any profits that it made from the use of the allegedly infringing pattern, or “statutory damages up to $150,000 per work infringed for [Supreme’s] willful infringement of the design,” whichever is greater. 

As The Fashion Law notes, a similar episode happened in March 2018 to Yeezy, sued in court by Jordan Outdoor Enterprises ("JOE") which found the graphics in the Yeezy Season 5 collection too similar to some of its copyrighted camouflage prints. The case was closed after Yeezy and JOE came to "a separate agreement to settle the claims and defences."

Supreme's originality of design has always been a controversial issue. Haters and even A$AP Nest have repeatedly accused the company of being too "inspired" by the work of other brands. According to many people, cultural appropriation has always been in its DNA, as proved by the @supremecopies account that collects all the sources of inspiration or references used by Supreme New York in its collections.