The Naval Academy has won its battle against the blatant rip-off of their logo by one of Nike’s partner companies, UNDEFEATED.
After Nike released the logo to the public via Twitter, there was a swift backlash on the social media platform. After being hit with a cease & desist letter from the Naval Academy, Nike withdrew the logo from usage and apologized. I truly hope that Nike was unaware of the co-opting and that UNDEFEATED was the instigator of this design. Either way, it is an egregious violation by a major brand.
The Naval Academy was very kind when they said there were “similarities” between the designs — they should have said it was a carbon-copy!
Besides being a blatant rip-off, it’s really poor design work. The trophy, Nike swish, and the UNDEFEATED 5 logo do not work with the original crest. The lines are clean and crisp with no waver. The graphics are bold and heavy compared to the original crest’s overall lighter feel — they just don’t belong together. They could have at least re-built the original crest to match the style of these other graphics. Instead, the designer stole another designer’s work and used it verbatim.
Take a look at our little animation and judge for yourself.
Here is a link to the original article in the ANNAPOLIS PATCH.
