Kanye West is suing Walmart over shoes available via its website that he claims are knock-offs of his Yeezy Foam Runners.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles, the rapper’s reps allege "Walmart is flagrantly trading off of his and Yeezy brand’s popularity by offering for sale an imitation version of the Yeezy Foam Runner.”
West’s shoes – which were compared to Crocs when they were introduced last year – sold for about $75 (all figures U.S.) but the lookalike shoes on Walmart’s website sell for as little as $21.99.
“Consumers likely would have purchased the Yeezy Foam Runner were it not for the cheaper, knock-off imitation shoe,” Yeezy claims in its filing. The brand claims the shoes available via Walmart are “indistinguishable” from West’s shoes but are of “subpar quality” and therefore causing damage to the “reputation and the goodwill of the Yeezy brand.”
In a statement, Walmart said: “The product referenced in the complaint is not sold by Walmart, but rather by third party Marketplace sellers. We take allegations like this seriously and are reviewing the claim. We will respond in court as appropriate after we have been served with the complaint.”
Two months ago, Walmart filed a complaint with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, alleging that a proposed logo for the Yeezy brand is too similar to its logo and “likely to cause confusion” among consumers and damage its “goodwill.”
Yeezy filed a trademark application for a sun-shaped logo made up of eight lines of three dots in January 2020. Walmart has used a sun design of six solid spokes since 2007.