Fakes, Copycats, Dirty Rats and La La Lawsuits

Fashion has long been obsessed with remixing, recycling and finding creative inspiration from myriad sources. The spirit of constant reinvention is precisely what makes it such a thrilling and dynamic business, but the temptation to appropriate someone else’s hard work for nada and polish that uncredited kernel of creativity until it ker-chings like a diamond is often too hard to resist. From Dapper Dan to Warren Lotas, Supreme Italia to Skechers, here’s a fast-paced – and way longer than anyone imagined – history lesson chock-a-block with bittersweet sneaker lawsuits, the most heroic trademark infringements of all time and even a few cornball copycats who laughed all the way to the bank.