The United States Postal Service has announced it will officially license Nike’s USPS-inspired Air Force 1.
Still yet to be released, the sneaker set off a short dispute over intellectual property rights that saw the government agency call out Nike for its hypocrisy. Just a week prior to the USPS’s public statement, Nike had initiated legal action against MSCHF for its custom Air Max 97 “Satan Shoes” made in collaboration with Lil Nas X. The Postal Service pointed out that while Nike is quite hawkish in protecting its own copyrights, it was using USPS’ own iconography without express permission.
Now that the USPS has come to an agreement to license the Air Force 1, it’s possible the design will change to make the references even more overt. Then again, Nike may have already produced the sneaker, meaning it just needed the USPS to sign off on it before releasing to avoid any legal issues. Whatever financial arrangement is part of the deal, we may never know because it was settled out of court.
USPS and NIKE, Inc. announce officially licensed footwear – Newsroom – About.usps.com