On December 8, Nike filed suit against three of its former designers after they left to work for Adidas. According to Nike’s suit, Dennis Dekovic, Marc Dolce, and Mark Miner violated their non-compete agreement and stole trade secrets from their former employer.
The lawsuit seeks more than $10 million in damages and an injunction preventing the trio from opening a new design center called Brooklyn Design Studio. Allegedly the studio is a replica of Nike’s Innovation Kitchen. Nike claims it will suffer irreparable harm and will be unable to compete if the three are allowed to move forward.
Dekovic was the senior design director in Nike’s soccer division. Much of the complaint concerns soccer as Nike and Adidas have a tumultuous history in that arena. Although once known as the top dog in soccer shoes and gear, Adidas has since lost ground to Nike in recent years. The two are now close to even.
The other two designers were also of importance to Nike. Miner was the senior footwear designer for Nike running. Dolce helped with shoes for LeBron James and Kobe Bryant in addition to managing top shoe lines like Air Force One and Dunk.
Nike alleges the three took “important and highly confidential information” with them. As high level designers, they had access to secrets that were only available to a select few. Allegedly, they copied design and business documents from their computers before leaving. Nike contends the documents included unreleased designs such as team uniform designs for the 2016 European Championships and shoes created for Nike-sponsored athletes as well as sensitive financial information.
Specifically targeting Dekovic, Nike alleged that he met with Adidas while still employed by Nike to pitch the design studio idea. The complaint contends the studio was created as a work around to the non-compete clause as they would not be working directly for a competitor. In addition, Nike claims Dekovic tricked Nike into paying to relocate his family to Italy despite plans to leave the company. In part, Nike asserts Dekovic
“gloated to his co-conspirators within a month of his move that ‘Italy is one of those’ countries … where [the] non-compete is difficult to enforce.”
The designers stated that the allegations are “hurtful” and are “either false or are misleading half-truths.” They claim they “did not take trade secrets or intellectual property” upon their departure.
A spokesman for Adidas said the company has “no interest in old work or past assignments” because it is more interested in “shaping the future.”
In its claims, Nike also alleges that Adidas knew of the non-compete clauses and agreed to pay for any legal fallout incurred by the three.