Adidas is suing Australian label White Fox for selling and advertising clothes with a four-striped design, arguing it is “deceptively similar” to the German brand’s distinct logo.
The sportswear giant said it had repeatedly asked White Fox to stop selling and promoting the clothes since March, but the Sydney-based company refused.
The fast-fashion online retailer is popular with teenagers and young adults in Australia, the UK and the US, and has relied on billboards, bus advertising and influencers – often university-aged – to grow its profile.
The Australian law firms representing Adidas and White Fox both declined to comment on the case, the first hearing due to begin on Friday.
In Federal Court documents, Adidas states that its three-striped design has a “substantial and valuable reputation” in Australia, where it has been trademarked since 1957.
The company says since at least March, White Fox has been selling and advertising clothes with four parallel stripes of equal width, which it claims is an infringement of Adidas’s trademark.
White Fox’s designs are “substantially identical with or otherwise deceptively similar” to Adidas, the company claims.
It also argues that White Fox’s advertisements for its four-striped clothes and White Fox-branded socks feature people wearing “genuine” Adidas items.
This might lead Australians to think Adidas is associated with White Fox and has approved of the design, the documents claim.
The company says White Fox is “taking advantage” of Adidas’s reputation, “drawing an association in the minds of consumers” of the two brands, or at least “sailing close to the wind”.
Adidas, which reported €24.8 billion (£21bn; $28bn) in revenue in 2025, is also seeking damages, saying White Fox must pay them the profit from the products plus interest and costs.
