Boston based shoe company New Balance is in a heated court battle with luxury clothing line
Vuitton, accusing the luxury goods company of copying its best-selling casual sneaker. New Balance claims Louis Vuitton’s Minstrel shoe is virtually identical to its 574 sneaker introduced in the mid-1990s.
LV needed a nice lawsuit for this fuckery anyways because…
1. LV’s sneaker retails for $590, while you can score a pair of 574’s for less than $60 @ Shoe Carnival, as its one NB’s lower-priced but best selling models (20 million-plus pairs sold since 2002). I’ve owned a couple of pairs of LV’s and the leather is always beautiful. Yet there’s no way I’d pay that exorbitant amount for anything less than the finest Italian cow ass.
2. The shoe’s name is “The Minstrel.” There’s virtually no way that word can ever be evoked without a negative connotation. But looking closer, even its name is almost a “catch us if you can” swipe @ NB.
3. Turnaround is fair play. LV has been aggressive about disassociating itself with people bootlegging their goods (See: Diddy & Rick Ross). If a company is going to attack others for copyright infringement, that same company should not engage in the act themselves.
4. By tradition, New Balance is an American-based & made company. I root for the home team.
The zinger of this whole situation is that New Balance adopts a snooty attitude that usually might be reserved for LV by stating, “Indeed, it is possible that had New Balance authorized Louis Vuitton to design a special Louis Vuitton edition of the iconic New Balance 574 shoe, the Minstrel might have been a highly successful collaboration,” the suit says.”
Whamp whamp! Score one in New Balance’s PR department. Info courtesy of the smoking section.com