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Kanye West is known for a plethora of things: his status as an iconic rap music mogul, his established and self-titled “Yeezy” brand, his broken-off marriage with former-wife Kim Kardashian, the notable church which exists under him and his name, his 2020 presidential candidacy, and of course, his sometimes comical, always assertive, “don’t mess with me” attitude. But what happens when you cross West’s dominant persona, passion for business, and short fuse with brand-degrading designer dupes? As of Thursday, Kanye West has filed a lawsuit at the Los Angeles County Superior Court against massive retail corporation, Walmart, for its possession and sales of Yeezy Foam Runner counterfeits.
Kanye asserts that the lawsuit is valid under California’s Unfair Competition Law which serves to forbid the sale of fraudulent products and outlaws deceptive imitation business practices. West claims that the real and replica Yeezy Foam Runners are “virtually indistinguishable,” and is, therefore, outraged by the large revenue losses that his fashion brand and business have had, and will continue to have to endure at the hands of the retail tycoon, Walmart. According to West, the Yeezy brand can face a loss of potentially hundreds of millions of dollars due to individuals opting for the spot-on $30.00 dupe rather than purchasing the originally $75.00 authentic shoe. Additionally, Walmart’s fake is of notably worse quality, as is typical of duplicate designer items, thus tarnishing the Yeezy brand name, associations, and quality reputation. In fact, complaints of the Walmart shoes’ poor fit and laughably short lifetime, as they have been known to rip after only 20 minutes, has lead to mass advising of the public not to purchases this product. And when the dupes look eerily similar to the originals, it is too simple to mistake unfavorable reviews of Walmart’s pair for those of Kanye’s own.
Not only is West enraged by the potential negative impacts of these unlawful sales, but he also claims that Walmart is leeching off of his own personal success and widespread brand popularity in order to guarantee easy sales.
Kanye alleges that his team had sent several legal warnings prior to filing the lawsuit to which Walmart did not respond. Though Walmart claims to take these allegations very seriously and to have removed the counterfeit Foam Runners from their site, various pairs, as well as other seemingly falsified Yeezy merchandise, could still be found on Walmart’s website as of Thursday afternoon. In reference to these listings, Walmart replies that these are not sold by their corporation, but instead, listed by third-party Marketplace sellers.
Kanye’s pejorative perception of Walmart is quite long-standing, as he and the company have had their fair share of copyright-based feuds. Accusations have been made in both directions, though Kanye finds the idea of his billion-dollar luxury brand siphoning off of Walmart preposterous. However the case closes there is one thing we can say for certain, there will not be any Yeezy and Walmart collaborations to expect in the future.
