Skechers Is Apparently Suing Adidas For Creating An ‘Unfair Disadvantage’ In Signing NBA Prospects

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The college basketball world was rocked by the FBI’s widespread investigation into payments made to players that reportedly impacted a number of high profile programs, coaches, and athletes.

The Louisville program was most effected by the investigation and claims of payments to players, resulting in coach Rick Pitino stepping down alongside athletic director Tom Jurich. Among the alleged ways Louisville paid players was through adidas, who is the apparel provider for the school’s athletic program.

There hasn’t been much on that front since the initial reports on the investigation’s findings, but on Thursday, adidas found itself being sued by the unlikeliest of competitors for their role in allegedly paying players. Skechers has filed a lawsuit against adidas, according to Gentry Estes of the Courier-Journal, alleging they have been put at an “unfair disadvantage” in signing potential NBA prospects due to adidas’ alleged payments to players which came with an implication they would sign with the sneaker company after they left school.

If this sounds absurd to you, you aren’t alone, because Skechers has never been a player in the basketball sneaker market. But then again, that’s what makes them the perfect company to go after adidas in this kind of legal battle. According to Estes, Skechers is seeking an “award of the profits” from adidas and to make it so adidas cannot pay any high school or college athletes without public disclosure.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in California, argued that “illicit payments denied competitors like Skechers who play by the rules a fair opportunity to compete for the cachet of having trend-setting high-school and college athletes seen in their products.”

Skechers claimed it “has been harmed due to increased advertising and marketing costs and lost sales, market share and goodwill” as a result of Adidas’ actions.

Some may wonder why Skechers would be the shoe company to go after adidas and not one of their direct competitors in the basketball sneaker marketplace like Nike, Jordan, or Under Armour, but the answer there is fairly simple. None of those companies would want to enter into a legal battle over this because they probably have some skeletons in their respective closets when it comes to amateur athletes that could turn up in court.

It will be fascinating to see how far this lawsuit goes and its outcome, but maybe we should prepare for the day we see an NBA player out there warming up in Shape Ups.

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