Nike’s Requested Temporary Restraining Order Granted, MSCHF Ordered To Stop Sales

CBS News reports that a judge granted Nike’s motion for a temporary injunction to stop MSCHF from selling its controversial Satan shoes.

The Brooklyn-based product studio, MSCHF, is barred from fulfilling orders for its custom, blood-injected Air Max 97 sneakers, and the shoes must be taken off the market, The Hollywood Reporter reported.

On Monday, Nike sued the company saying the studio misled their consumers into thinking their custom shoes were an official Nike product and that they were endorsing satanism.

However, the shoes are already off the market, which brings one complication to the order. MSCHF says the shoes sold out within seconds of going on sale on Monday. Out of the 666 pairs of shoes, 665 have already been shipped to the customers that purchased them.

But that’s a claim Nike’s legal team isn’t buying. According to CBS News, lawyers for the giant shoe company have “some serious doubts” that MSCHF fulfilled all the orders in a matter of a few days.

Several social media posts have since confirmed some of the shoes have already been delivered to those that purchased them.

MSCHF identifies itself as a “conceptual art collective known for interventions that engage fashion, art, tech, and capitalism in various, often unexpected, mediums” and posted a response on Thursday following the order was granted. The company argues that since Nike didn’t seek legal action against them when they dropped their 2019 Jesus sneakers, Nike shouldn’t be able to do so now.

“Over a year ago we released the Jesus Shoes,” reads the statement. “As a manifested speculative artwork Jesus Shoes conflates celebrity collab culture and brand worship with religious worship into a limited edition line of art objects. Last week’s release of the Satan Shoes, in collaboration with Lil Nas X, was no different. Satan Shoes started a conversation while also living natively in its space. It is art created for people to observe, speculate on, purchase, and own. Heresy only exists in relation to doctrine: who is Nike to censor one but not the other?…We were honestly surprised by the action Nike has taken, and immediately after Nike’s counsel sent us notice we reached out but received no response. MSCHF strongly believes in the freedom of expression, and nothing is more important than our ability, and the ability of other artists like us, to continue with our work over the coming years.”

Now that the judge has granted the ruling, MSCHF announced the 666th pair, which was set to be given away by Lil Nas X’s Twitter giveaway, will be postponed indefinitely.