Thom Browne addressed adidas' accuses of plagiarism

Thom Browne is one of the most recognizable designers of the industry, fame built around distinctive elements, such as the genderless use of sartorial codes, the fact that all his collections use only grey as the main colour, and his striped logo both white and tricolour. It was the latter that aroused the ire of adidas, which decided to sue the brand as it "despite Thom Browne’s knowledge of adidas’s rights in the famous Three-Stripe Mark […] he is now offering for sale and selling athletic-style apparel and footwear featuring two, three, or four parallel stripes in a manner that is confusingly similar to adidas’s Three-Stripe Mark", as The Fashion Law reports. Another point in the dispute concerns FC Barcelona's off-field uniforms designed by Browne and decorated with the striped pattern. However, the situation was not taken well by the New York brand, which pointed out categorically how the use of the striped logo was agreed with adidas 10 years ago. Here are the words of Thom Browne's representative:

«What is important to understand is that Adidas gave its consent to Thom Browne over 10 years ago and in fact suggested that Thom add an additional stripe [...]. Thom hasn’t altered his design philosophy which apparently is working well if one looks at the global markets. But for Adidas to claim it has lost value in its trademarks or that somehow they have lost sales due to Thom Browne’s use of a four-striped design for over 10 years, which Adidas has been more than aware of, is simply nonsense».

But is confusion really possible?

Beyond the legitimacy of adidas' accusations, which will be established by a court, the idea that two such different brands could be confused with each other sounds a little implausible. Firstly because Thom Browne is a fairly unique designer who has based his success on many distinctive traits but certainly not on sportswear. Looking into Browne's e-shop, there is in fact a sports suit decorated with stripes that could resemble adidas – if it were not entirely made of cashmere and didn't cost a total of just under 3200€. In short, there is a fairly substantial and obvious difference in terms of manufacture and target. But the problems don't stop there and the situation could actually be more complex. 

adidas' lawsuit explicitly referred to sportswear garments - which, among other things, were among the protagonists of the brand's recent fashion film presented during the Paris Fashion Week. Here the similarity between the Three-Stripe Logo and Browne's so-called 4-Bar Logo becomes quite borderline: a sports polo shirt with stripes on the collar, accessories such as wallets and striped smartphone covers, black cotton jackets and a series of jackets and synthetic ripstop pants evidently sporty decorated with four white stripes appear ambiguous at the very least. If confusion is impossible on knitwear or more sartorial garments, the similarity is strong on the items listed above. The same problem remains, however: confusion could exist if the consumer bought Thom Browne's garments in the same stores where adidas buys, but the differences in positioning and price are so abysmal that it is almost impossible to create confusion in consumers. The issue turns in Browne's favor when you consider, moreover, that adidas would have consented to the use of the logo a decade ago - also demonstrating Browne's goodwill in avoiding the infrigement of trademarks. 

What now?

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adidas defends fiercely its Three-Stripe Logo, arguably its most important intangible asset of all. As Business of Fashion reports, since 2012 the cases for plagiarism filed by the German brand are about fifty, for an average of about five a year, and have even involved Marc Jacobs as well as other competitors such as Nike or Puma. As we read in a Bloomberg article of 2017, the adidas logo is so simple that any imitation, even unintentional, could damage its image. The brand does not have exclusive rights on all stripes, however, but only on their specific use: in Browne's case, for example, adidas trademarks could come into play on the stripes on the sleeves of jackets and athletic garments, actually very similar. At the same time, however, if the documents that Browne's team said they have proved the existence of this agreement there will be little to do for the German brand, also considered as the position of brands in the market could not be more different.