Artist files against Dick’s Sporting Goods for alleged stolen design
NORWALK — Local artist 5iveFingaz has filed a federal lawsuit against Dick’s Sporting Goods and Reebok for allegedly stealing his T-shirt design.
The suit, filed Sept. 11, alleges that Reebok ripped 5iveFingaz’s “Love More than Ever” design and put it on T-shirts, which have been sold at Dick’s Sporting Goods.
According to the suit, despite being advised in July that the design had been lifted, Dick’s and Reebok have “proceeded in arrogant disregard of the harm it caused” the artist.
5iveFingaz is seeking damages, including profits, from the two companies.
“I have been spreading these 4 little words around the world for almost 3 years and I’ll be damned if some big 1% corporations are going to just take it away from me .... or from you!”
5iveFingaz wrote in an August Instagram post.
Citing the ongoing litigation, he declined to comment for this story.
5iveFingaz uses the stenciled phrase commonly in his work and has sold his own T-shirts, and various other kinds of merchandise, bearing the image since
2017 from his online store, lovemorethanever.com.
On Aug. 1, representatives for Dick’s told 5iveFingaz the store had purchased 13,000 shirts and intended to sell through the inventory, according to the lawsuit. On Aug. 27, Dick’s claimed to pull the shirt from the store, though the suit alleges is was available online as recently as Sept. 8.
The shirt sold at Dick’s bears a striking resemblance to those produced by 5iveFingaz. On both, the slogan is spelled in red block letters with the four, four-letter words stacked on top of each other. In place of the “O” in love is a heart-shape. On both shirts, the phrase is boxed by a red border.