5IVEFINGAZ BATTLE
Norwalk artist sues Reebok, Dick’s Sporting Goods for allegedly stealing design
NORWALK — Local artist 5iveFingaz is locked in a legal battle with Reebok and Dick’s Sporting Goods for allegedly stealing his intellectual property.
The artist has posted several times in the last week to his Instagram account in an attempt to rile his nearly 40,000 followers against Reebok, which he says stole his own “Love More Than Ever” Tshirt design to make its own, and Dick’s, which purchased Reebok’s design and is selling it.
“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 Aug. 7 post. Citing the ongoing litigation, he declined to comment for this story.
According to the post, 5iveFingaz had been working with attorneys over the past five weeks to stop the sale of the shirts, including issuing ceaseanddesists letters to both companies. Attorneys for Dick’s responded that the company had “bought 13,000 shirts printed with LOVE MORE THAN EVEN... DICK’s plans to sell through the existing inventory.” Reebok has not responded to 5iveFingaz’s attorneys.
The shirt sold to Dick’s by Reebok bears a striking resemblance to a shirt created by 5iveFingaz in 2017. On both, the slogan is spelled out in red block letters with the four, fourletter words stacked one on top of another. In place of the “O” in love is a heartshape and the words are boxed in with a red border, which is only slightly different in the Reebok’s iteration.
The artist first posted a call for support from his followers June 26.
“Welp, it’s happened a few times with small companies and they recognized it and stopped but how do you go after a machine like Reebok for stealing your art?” 5iveFingaz wrote. “I would never want my message to be diluted by a corporate machine! I think if we make enough noise we can reach the leaders at Reebok and make them understand what really is behind these 4 little words.”
5iveFingaz began painting the slogan in 2017 and quickly built a “Love More Than Ever” movement out of the hashtag. The artist has since put the words on sweatshirts, Tshirts, hats and other merchandise and has painted the logo in public places around the country.
In the notice to ceaseanddesist, 5iveFingaz’s lawyers cited titles 15 and 17 of the United States Code, which are antitrust and copyright laws, respectively, the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 and “local statues which prohibit Unfair Trade Practices, and protect the Artists’s Right of Publicity.”
5iveFingaz’s attorneys could not be immediately reached Monday for comment Monday.
“These 4 little words mean nothing to billion dollar companies but “LOVE MORE THAN EVER” is a movement...a powerful movement for people of all ages from around the world!” the artist wrote in a Friday post to Instagram.