Nike Takes Legal Action Against Clot for Alleged Contract Violation

Nike initiates a legal battle. The U.S. sports giant has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court against Clot brand founder Edison Chen for breach of contract. Nike, which filed the complaint earlier this week, is demanding collection of more than $125,000 “for products Nike provided to Juice,“ another of Chen’s owned brands.

The complaint has been formalized, moreover, two years after the creative put an end to his collaboration with Nike and began working with Adidas, by whose hand he has already launched a series of collections. Chen, who worked for more than two decades with the U.S. giant, announced the change of partner at the Shanghai Fashion Week 2023, even setting a date for the launch of a first inaugural collection, dubbed Adidas Originals by Edison Chen.

The creative, through Clot, began his relationship with Nike in 2006, with the launch of a first sneaker together. Since then, the relationship between the two grew, to the point that Clot became one of the giant’s main partners in Asia, where the brand is headquartered, specifically in Hong Kong.

Nike and Chen stopped collaborating in 2023 without making public the reason for the termination

Since the sudden 2023 change, however, Clot has already announced three new releases this year in collaboration with Adidas, such as the Clot x Adidas Gazelle line in March and its upcoming collaboration with basketball player Anthony Edwards, due out August 23.

Nike, on the other hand, is going through a low point. The Oregon based company, which at the end of last year launched a crash plan after closing 2023 with the smallest increase in a decade, closed its last fiscal year with a 44% plunge in net income and a 10% drop in sales.