Adidas has taken one of Australia’s best-known youth fashion labels to court. The German sportswear group has filed a trademark infringement claim in the Federal Court of Australia against White Fox Boutique, a Sydney-based online retailer popular with teenagers, ABC News reported on 12 October.
The dispute is over four parallel stripes on White Fox shorts and track pants, promoted on buses, bus stops and social media since March. Adidas says they are deceptively similar to its three-stripe mark, which it says it has used in Australia for more than 65 years.
What each side says
Adidas also complains that White Fox used genuine adidas shoes in promotional material, which it says could suggest a link between the two brands. It asked White Fox in March to remove the garments; White Fox declined.
White Fox is defending the claim. Its barrister, Ed Heerey KC, argues the stripes are decorative rather than a trademark, and points to similar striped clothing sold by Princess Polly, Glassons and Shein.
A test for the three stripes
Legal academics quoted by the ABC see the case as a possible test of adidas’s rights in Australia. One noted that adidas’s Australian registration reportedly does not cover one- or two-stripe designs, so a four-stripe design may probe its limits; another questioned whether such a simple pattern is distinctive enough to work as a trademark at all.
Adidas has fought four stripes in Australia before. In 2013 it sued Pacific Brands over designs on Dunlop and Grosby shoes, and the court found three of 12 designs deceptively similar. Abroad, it lost its US case against designer Thom Browne, which it is now pursuing at the Supreme Court.
A fourth stripe has become the fashion industry’s favourite question for adidas’s lawyers.
What to watch
- The hearing in early 2027 and whether White Fox challenges the validity of adidas’s registration.
- Whether adidas targets other retailers named in White Fox’s defence.
