Calling USATF imperfect is like calling leprosy a little skin problem.
After what's Nike has done to the sport I'm surprised Prefontaine and Bowerman too aren't haunting the headquarters.
When Pre signed on years ago, Nike was a niche company.
Calling USATF imperfect is like calling leprosy a little skin problem.
After what's Nike has done to the sport I'm surprised Prefontaine and Bowerman too aren't haunting the headquarters.
When Pre signed on years ago, Nike was a niche company.
I don't think that Nike spoke in defamatory terms regarding Oiselle, but Oiselle emerged with the concept that they had a higher moral ground than such companies as Nike who was one of the major supporters of track for the last few decades.
I hope that Oiselle can support runners over the next few decades, but I doubt they will exist in a few years.
J.R. wrote:
The USATF reprimand was two days after Lauren Fleshman's blog about USATF hiring a doper, i.e. it was retribution for the article.
Beyond that, I'm not aware that Oiselle has any agreement with Nike or USATF to promote the latter's wares on apparel worn by Oiselle sponsored athletes, and either do the athlete's. A stipulation to wear such advertisements in competition is NOT an agreement. I also doubt that Nike and USATF are paying Oiselle and/or the athletes for continued display of the logos.
I personally remove logos from shoes and other apparel that I own, cut them off, grind them up, and do anything else with them that I like.
The USATF and Nike are grossly overstepping their bounds and need to be set way back on their heels.
You are wrong. Athletes are given gear to wear while representing the USA at world championship events. That gear has NIKE logos on it because NIKE paid for those rights. Athletes agree to wear the team gear while representing the USA at such events.
The oiselle and brooks athletes have gone out if their way to hide the Nike logos on their team gear as posted on their social media pages
I have seen the posts so if they are no longer available they have been purposely removed by the athletes recently and probably because of this controversy
I hope the USATF takes note of the athletes who are breaking the uniform rules. They agreed to these rules when they accepted the invitation to represent the USA at the world relays and they will need to follow the same rules at other Team USA meets if they have the talent to make another team
It's an honor to run on a world team and a business that has rules in place. Stop acting like spoiled brats and grow up. If you don't like the rules then find a new job (which will have it's own set of rules, BTW)
Their sh!t be on discount.
I agree 100%.You bring up an interesting point with your comment that if they "don't like the rules then find a new job (which will have it's own set of rules, BTW)."Most of these immature athletes have never had a real job or worked in a subordinate position while trying to make a career out of something. No, being yelled at by AlSal doesn't count.As a photographer I would also be looking at possible lawsuits also for unlawful doctoring of my images. Photographers depend on the accurate representation of their work and many contracts between image makers and news outlets are based on trust and if an image is found to be doctored without permission, it can damage both the photographers name and the publisher. In other words, if Oiselle isn't careful things could get very, very ugly.
Yep...
I'm sure oiselle has plenty of picts of it's athletes wearing oiselle gear to put on up instagram. An NFL can't put of picts of their team with the Nike Logos covered up by some local car dealer.
Once again, oiselle want to reap the benefits of the sponsoring track but doesn't want to pony up the $$ to USATF which allows companies like Nike to take the whole pie.
Also Groucher's rant is stupid and immature. The legal/ marketing dept is different from the rules committee. She sounds like a child
One example of purposely covering up logos on team USA gear
instagram.com/p/oEfTiALYec/
Michael jordan covered up the Adidas logo at the Olympics award stand. Runners just have to be smarter, it was ok for him to do that.
Except they weren't selling the photo to anyone, they just posted it to Instagram. It's pretty obvious that USATF has a legal intern watching Oiselle's social media to try to catch them on stuff like this. Why else would they have seen this and reacted so quickly? USATF has a long-standing beef with Oiselle, which has made little secret that they don't mind making USATF look like buffoons. Good for Oiselle. I'll agree with other posters, I'd sooner be seen in anything with an Oiselle logo than Nike or USATF. They're showing, to quote Oiselle-sponsored athlete Lauren Fleshman, some real balls.
othergal wrote:
Could be good "publicity". But it's infringement.... they violated Nike's exclusive rights... if they're small enough (which I am pretty sure they are at this point), they could go bankrupt if Nike/USATF decide to take action....
Urine idiot wrote:
You retards are missing the point.
USATF was so fast to act on reprimanding Oisille and did so within hours, but can't make a statement on Bumby months later.
This sport is so messed up. To have actual losers support nike is and chastise Oiselle, proves that nike will continue to prevail and everyone is hostage to USATF and nike. If you're not Rupp, Hasay or Eaton are you really being helped?
Perhaps you are the idiot, USATF and NIKE have contractual demand to defend their agreements, brand and trademark immediately upon seeing a violation.
Not the same on Bumpy review.
Prove she covered them up on purpose....
Team USA gear wrote:
One example of purposely covering up logos on team USA gear
instagram.com/p/oEfTiALYec/
Your housing analogy fails, because you are the owner of the house, and because you want me to pay for damages caused by another party. It would be more like I damaged your house, but your neighbor sends me a letter, informing me that I damaged your house, and furthermore, I diminished the value of his/her relationship with you, and because your neighbor is your prime sponsor, he demands I repair your house, or he/she will follow up with legal action to the full extent allowed in order to protect his/her rights.I'm not attempting to defend Oiselle's artistic, promotional, publicity stunt. But I'm really questioning why USATF should be using its legal staff and organizational letterhead if it was not damaged. I'm thinking that the USATF is some kind of national sports governing body and a non-profit organization, formed for a very limited purpose, and as such, they are also under restrictions into which kinds of contracts they can enter.
othergal wrote:
Because it's more than likely that in contract Nike's guidelines are that USATF must PROTECT Nike's logo and name. It's just as if I owned a home, and you decided to lease it. Then you sublet it without my knowledge and there are damages to my home... Who is liable? You.Who must do the dirty work? You.
Athletes that compete in USATF gear are only obligated to show the Nike logo during the meet. Any photos of those athletes in the Nike gear can (should) have the logos removed. Oiselle using a doctored photo of athletes wearing Nike gear is not illegal if the image doesn't imply Oiselle marketing Nike products. Oiselle is marketing the sport and the individual athletes. A possible lawsuit is one thing Oiselle brass must've discussed prior to the images publication.
Did Oiselle actually photoshop their logo onto the uniforms or just remove the Nike logos. Both are horrible but replacing the nIke logo with the Oiselle logo is close to criminal and may show us the type of company they truly are.
Are these photos available anywhere?
Are you suggesting they could exist longer if they stay under Nike's radar?You didn't speak of "defamatory terms" against Nike, but only Oiselle's lack of interest in expanding the sport, and primary interest in selling apparel.Does Nike want to expand the sport, or are they always acting in their own interest.Nike has supported T&F, but they have also made "exclusive" deals which eliminates "competing" support from T&F. What about making the same deals, without exclusivity? That would expand the sport.People act like, without Nike there would be nothing, but it seems more like with Nike, there is nothing else. Without Nike, there would be Brooks, Adidas, Asics, Reebok, Skecher, Hoka-One-One, Oiselle, Under-Armor, etc., ...
DaveW wrote:
I don't think that Nike spoke in defamatory terms regarding Oiselle, but Oiselle emerged with the concept that they had a higher moral ground than such companies as Nike who was one of the major supporters of track for the last few decades.
I hope that Oiselle can support runners over the next few decades, but I doubt they will exist in a few years.
Of course legal details matter. What are the legal details?Does USATF have any standing to sue for infringing Nike's rights?Is the USATF obligated to scour the internet in order to protect Nike's rights?Should a national sports governing body and non-profit organization enter into agreements that require them to spend resources protecting the rights of multi-national public corporations?
othergal wrote:
The legal details do matter.. Oiselle could vanish. And if I were one of their athletes I would certainly want to know this kind of information. I'd be scared as hell.
And yes. The story you have observed is certainly correct. We need smarter brands and people in our sport...
Are you kidding me??? They're promoting the fact that the USATF is nothing more than a subset of NIKE. This issue needs to be made public for our sport to grow. Do some research and figure out why the US can't produce top tier athletes because NIKE has a stranglehold on the sport. Good for Oiselle! Why should 4 non-nike athletes have to wear a nike kit?? It makes no sense.
USATF uses amateurs for video and photography. Thus fair use rules apply. Oiselle can tear out blemishes and unwanted graphics. To be safe Oiselle might label the resulting changed pictures as 'artists renditions'.
Victorious88 wrote:
Wow @usatf, you do this in less than 12 hours, but can't give an answer on @abumbalough DQ 2 1/2 months later?
http://t.co/fXrxMMYflL#sad— Kara Goucher (@karagoucher) May 25, 2014
https://twitter.com/karagoucherReprimanded for apparently doctoring photos of team USA members' uniforms at world relay champs.
Notice "Birdzilla" never posts a message where she can receive any pushback, only likes.
Let's see...USATF...controlling, check, Nike...controlling, check, Oiselle Sally...controlling, check.
Again, USATF and NIKE surely have legal obligations to defend agreements and brands...
Sit on a company board sometime and listen to the person who handles the legal aspects of defending your TM's etc.
It's a fvcking picture on instagram. They are not selling the picture. No one if being hurt by this.
This does not affect Nike at all. They are just bullies