Full details of Nike's lawsuit against their former designers Denis Dekovic, Marc Dolce & Mark Miner, who switched allegiances to bitter rivals adidas, have been revealed.
The $10 million lawsuit was posted by the Portland Business Journal and reveals in detail the claims that Nike are making against their trio of ex-employees. The 50-page document reads out a number of accusations including purchasing social media followers to increase perceptions of their popularity to brands such as adidas, copying laptops, taking Nike trade secrets and a side project to release a shoe called the Moonwalker.
Of course, this is currently just one side of the story and at present are just accusations with all three designers denying Nike's claims in a statement from their lawyer: "We have a tremendous amount of respect for our colleagues and Nike and would never do anything to harm them," the statement said. "We find Nike’s allegations hurtful because they are either false or are misleading half-truths. We did not take trade secrets or intellectual property when we departed Nike in September. We are looking forward to bringing new and innovative ideas and designs to adidas when our non-competition agreement expires."
All three employees reportedly had non-compete agreements preventing them from working for a competitor within a year of their employment with Nike. But, according to the lawsuit, Dekovic allegedly met with adidas executives about opening the design center in June, while he was still employed with Nike as a senior design director. The lawsuit also claims that Nike paid more than $50,000 to relocate Dekovic and his family to Italy in June with the idea of him staying with Nike for the long-term.
The full 50-page document can be read below:
