Nike’s ongoing lawsuit against StockX, a popular sneaker reselling platform, has taken a new turn after Nike lawyers submitted a heavily redacted document on Wednesday that sheds light on the source of fake sneakers referenced in the lawsuit. The lawsuit began as a dispute over how StockX was using Nike trademarks for its NFTs but has since grown to include challenges to the authenticity of products traded on the platform. Nike’s letter revealed that a sneaker collector and reseller purchased 38 pairs of counterfeit sneakers from StockX between March and July 2022. Nike contacted the reseller, who was later identified as Roy Kim, to inspect the sneakers and confirmed that they were fakes.
In an interview with Complex, Kim shared his experience of buying a batch of 62 Air Jordan 1s from StockX as an investment last year, only to later discover that over half of the pairs were showing as fake on popular apps used to check shoes’ authenticity. Kim posted about the issue on social media, and eventually, he got StockX’s attention and a full refund, but he was also pulled into the lawsuit between Nike and StockX.
StockX defended its process for verifying sneakers in a statement, stating that they rejected more than 330,000 products worth nearly $100M in 2022 alone and had a buyer promise in place. Kim still buys from StockX but believes that there are fundamental flaws to the business. Nike did not comment on Kim’s ordeal or the ongoing lawsuit.
