Sportswear giant Adidas is suing Australian fashion label White Fox over clothing featuring four parallel stripes, claiming the designs are “deceptively similar” to its iconic three-stripe trademark.
Adidas alleges that White Fox continued selling and advertising the products despite repeated requests to stop dating back to March. The German company has now taken the Sydney-based retailer to the Federal Court of Australia, with the first hearing scheduled to begin on Friday.
White Fox, a fast-fashion online retailer popular among teenagers and young adults in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, has expanded its profile through billboards, bus advertisements and influencer marketing.
In court documents, Adidas said its three-stripe design had built a “substantial and valuable reputation” in Australia, where the trademark has been registered since 1957.
The company claims that since at least March, White Fox has marketed clothing featuring four parallel stripes of equal width, which it argues infringes on Adidas’s trademark.
According to Adidas, the designs are “substantially identical with or otherwise deceptively similar” to its own.
The sportswear company also alleges that White Fox advertisements featuring its four-stripe clothing and branded socks have shown models wearing genuine Adidas products.
Adidas argues that such marketing could mislead Australian consumers into believing the two brands are associated or that Adidas has approved White Fox’s designs.
The company further accuses White Fox of taking advantage of its established reputation by creating an association between the brands in consumers’ minds.
As part of its legal action, Adidas is seeking damages, including profits White Fox allegedly made from the disputed products, as well as interest and legal costs.
The evidence submitted by Adidas reportedly includes side-by-side comparisons of the two brands’ products, including sweatpants and lounge shorts, alongside photographs of advertising displayed on buses and at bus stops.
One example cited in the documents involved an online listing from June 2025 featuring White Fox-branded socks modelled by someone wearing pink Adidas shoes.
Adidas alleges that several days after the legal proceedings were filed last month, the Adidas logo on the shoes was digitally altered to remove one stripe. A week later, all three stripes had reportedly been removed from the image.
Both Australian law firms representing Adidas and White Fox declined to comment on the case.
Adidas reported revenue of €24.8 billion in 2025, equivalent to approximately £21 billion or US$28 billion.
The company has previously taken legal action over similar designs in Australia. In 2013, it successfully sued Pacific Brands over shoes featuring four stripes.
White Fox was founded in 2013 by Greek-Australian couple Georgia and Daniel Contos, alongside Daniel’s mother, Melina Maceri. The privately owned business has since expanded its presence in the US and entered the UK market in 2024.
According to the Australian Financial Review, White Fox generated AU$542 million in revenue in the 12 months to June 2025, nearly four times its 2022 figure of AU$121 million.
