Another day, another sneaker brand embroiled in a legal battle. This time, it involves the second biggest sportswear brand in America, Under Armour, and a brand that it says is "likely to cause confusion, mistake and deception" and "dilute the distinctiveness" of its image.
The Washington Postreports that the main target in Under Armour's crosshairs is a small, Maryland-based company named Armor & Glory. According to its founder, Terrance Jackson, Armor & Glory was launched in 2013 to provide "inspirational apparel" for young athletes. Jackson says that one morning, a Bible verse containing the phrase "the full armor of God" jumped out at him. "When God gave this [name] to me, I never thought once about those guys. We don't even spell it like them," Jackson said.
But Under Armour doesn't seem to care about how it's spelled, as it has launched a full-on legal assault calling for Armor & Glory to pay UA's attorney fees and damages of $100,000, destroy all of its product, and forfeit its domain name and any profits. To give these numbers some perspective, Armor & Glory has actually made less than $100,000 since its launch in 2013, which comes in at 0.003 percent of what Under Armour made in 2014.
"It's trademark bullying at its finest. I'm the little kid in the group and they're trying to kick dirt on my new shoes," Jackson said.
