Respect Authority

Who knows how a gigantic clothing company like Levi’s expects to get away with this, but for some reason I have a feeling the words “huge out of court settlement” will be involved.

Levi’s teamed up with small-time company and obvious dogshit conveyor belt GMI-USA to produce a run of sneakers. The idea behind the relationship is that the line would ultimately cost Levi’s less than if the brand had headed the project itself, while at the same time, the smaller company got to slap Levi’s ubiquitous logo on their shameless bootlegs to help push the product. Everybody wins, right? Heh, well… kind of… nobody does, actually.

Unfortunately for Levi’s, while they may have saved a few bucks, they got a slew of pathetic knock-offs of the Supra Skytop, Vans Authentic and Converse Chuck Taylor in return. Of course, copying three of the most easily recognizable models in the entire shoe industry only makes it that much easier to spot your illegitimate clones. So nice work, morons, but there ain’t no more room for half-steppin’ in the shoe game. You get what you pay for, bitch.

What’s that other saying? “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” Levi’s probably should have brushed up on its caché of cliché proverbs, but instead, ended up with a slew of easily recognizable knockoffs that only belong in cramped ratholes on Canal Street collecting dust along with the piles of fake designer bags, and not on anybody’s feet. There’s yet another old saying that applies to this situation — “imitation is the most sincere form of flattery” — but frankly, the phrase was probably coined by a fucking copycat.

Basically, this is how a well-respected brand eventually becomes what Airwalk is today. Whoever headed up this project clearly never went to college, or got kicked out of one due to plagiarism, for that matter. And it’s not just because blatantly ripping off three incredibly popular and iconic sneakers is stupid — it’s because if there’s one thing college actually taught me, besides the best way to sneak GHB in a girl’s drink that is, is that if you’re going to write a paper using only Sparknotes, you’d better at least disguise your reference material pretty fucking well. …Or have parents willing to write really big donation checks.