In brief
Short‑fuse legal action has erupted as Adidas accuses White Fox of copying its trademarked three‑stripe motif with a new four‑stripe line, provided the company has been selling these garments online and through billboards. Evidence presented by the German giant includes side‑by‑side product comparisons and screenshots of advertising featuring White Fox items worn alongside Adidas footwear. The case builds on an earlier 2013 lawsuit against Pacific Brands, and White Fox, which was founded in 2013 and flourishes in the U.S. and U.K., has seen sales quadruple to AU$542m in the year to June 2025. The Federal Court will hear the dispute beginning Friday, with Adidas seeking damages for profit and reputational harm.
Adidas is suing Australian label White Fox over a four‑stripe clothing line it says imitates its iconic three‑stripe logo.
The German sportswear manufacturer threatened to sue in March after White Fox launched a range of gym apparel and accessories featuring four parallel stripes of equal width and promoted them on billboards, bus stops and through university‑aged influencers.
White Fox, which began trading in 2013 in Sydney and now has a presence in the United States and the United Kingdom, refuses to halt sales and advertises its products as distinctive. Adidas argues that the similarity is “substantially identical or otherwise deceptively similar” and could convince Australian consumers that the two brands are linked.
Evidence supplied by Adidas includes side‑by‑side product photos and screenshots of White Fox’s marketing that place its design alongside genuine Adidas items. In one example, a June 2025 online listing shows a pair of White Fox socks being modelled by someone wearing pink Adidas shoes. The Berlin‑style ten‑stripe pattern on the shoes was allegedly digitally altered in a subsequent image, then all three stripes were removed a week later.
Adidas also points to an earlier 2013 case in which it successfully sued Pacific Brands for selling shoes with four stripes, arguing that this strengthens its position. The current case will be heard in the Australian Federal Court, with the first hearing scheduled for Friday.
White Fox’s owners, Georgia and Daniel Contos, raise capital privately and launched the brand in 2013. The company reported AU$542m in revenue for the year to June 2025 – a four‑fold increase from the 2022 figure of AU$121m.
