Judge sides with Nike to halt sales of MSCHF's 'Satan Shoes'

Yahoo Finance’s Reggie Wade joins the Yahoo Finance live panel to discuss the latest with Nike as the judge sides with Nike to halt sales of MSCHF's 'Satan Shoes’.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: And some of the names that we tie back to culture, not just sports, but also artists, and Lil Nas X definitely made some headlines with his so-called Satan Shoes that Nike took issue with. They had sued to make sure that they were not associated with those shoes, made it very clear that that was all on him. It seems like they've won their battle, at least for now. I want to bring on Yahoo Finance's Reggie Wade back into the program to discuss how that battle has gone between Lil Nas X and Nike. Reg.

REGGIE WADE: Yeah, we're seeing Nike won the battle. But have they won the war? The jury's still out on that. I spoke to a trademark lawyer and professor, Carmine [INAUDIBLE]. He's at the Cardozo Law School in New York City. And we spoke a little bit about that. And he said yes, Nike was well within its rights to sue on trademark infringement. And of course, the judge sided with them.

The thing is, MSCHF is saying that they've already shipped out all of the so-called Satan Shoes, except for one pair. So what this does is really up in the air. Now, Nike can sue for damages, [INAUDIBLE] tells me. But he says it's interesting to see if Nike is willing to go through the legal fees that come with that.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, and to my point, I mean, this is obviously, we've talked about this company and the company that was behind this kind of doing this in the past, right? Like, they run into these issues. It kind of seems like part of the viral marketing piece of it to really egg them on.

I'm not sure if they want-- I'm not sure anyone ever wants to get sued. But maybe in the marketing world, it might make sense if you're driving a lot of clicks, getting a lot of attention out there for MSCHF. So I mean, if you think about it, could it have been a positive thing for this company to really go out there and push the envelope with Lil Nas X?

REGGIE WADE: I really think so. Because I mean, look at the company name, MSCHF. This is what they're all about. They're about stirring the pot. They're about getting their name out there. So I think this is exactly what they wanted to do-- not get sued in the process, but really make a name for themselves and their brand.

But what's interesting is that the tables turned for Nike because Nike was set to come out on a shoe that had the United States Postal Service logo on it. And the United States Postal Service actually came back at Nike and kind of said that the company was hypocritical. They actually said in a statement this is an unfortunate situation where large brands such as Nike, which aggressively protect its own intellectual property, has chosen to leverage another brand for its gain. So it's going to be interesting to see if the Postal Service will actually take Nike to court over this.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, I mean, this is all really interesting for me, Reggie, because when you think about the collector market, especially the resale market, I mean, it seems like it thrives on having very limited edition, sort of these collector sneakers that are out there. And so, I guess, it sort of exposes the fact that so much of this is really just driven by Nike, but the last time we had a conversation about these shoes. And was there any indication about the types of prices that it would dictate or that it could command in the resale market?

REGGIE WADE: Well, the shoes sold for a hefty price, 1,000-- over $1,000. I believe the exact price was $1,018. I haven't really been seeing them hit the resale market, but I will be on that as soon as I can. But I think this could probably go for double or even triple, just because of the novelty of it. People always want that exclusive shoe. And especially when it's tied to controversy like this shoe was, it's going to be a hot seller.

AKIKO FUJITA: I mean, you could argue it was already a win for MSCHF. They've gotten the publicity they wanted out of this. And we're talking about it still, right? Reggie Wade, always appreciate you bringing us these stories to us.