Adidas sued White Fox Boutique in Australia over white-striped and four-stripe clothing, saying the products were substantially identical with or otherwise deceptively similar to its three-stripe trademark. The case puts White Fox, the retailer co-founded by Georgia Contos and Daniel Contos, under direct legal pressure in Australia.
Adidas said White Fox generated A$542m in Australia and the US in the year to June 2025, even as the brand was accused of selling allegedly infringing products. The company also spent $52m on marketing in that period, giving the dispute a commercial scale that goes well beyond a narrow design fight.
Adidas files in Australia
Adidas first filed the claims in September in the federal court of Australia and updated them on Thursday. It said White Fox had breached its three-stripe trademark and had been associating itself with Adidas, creating a false impression that Adidas produced, permitted or approved the clothes.
The filing says Adidas representatives bought a dozen contravening items and photographed advertisements on Sydney bus network buses. Adidas also alleged White Fox promoted socks and pants in pictures with three-striped Adidas shoes, then digitally altered the photos to remove a stripe.
White Fox sales and evidence
19 March was the date Adidas said it asked White Fox to stop selling the products. An Adidas representative bought white-striped plum-coloured lounge shorts from White Fox the next day, and from April to June Adidas representatives collected more evidence by photographing advertisements on buses and bus stands.
May to July brought another set of purchases, with White Fox allegedly supplying 12 more items with four stripes to Adidas representatives. That sequence matters because it shows the dispute is not about a single product drop; Adidas says the pattern continued after it had already objected.
White Fox, Stripe disputes and risk
White Fox launched in 2013 and was founded by Georgia Contos and Daniel Contos; Georgia Contos, Daniel Contos and Melina Maceri privately own the business. In April, White Fox took down a social media ad after Ad Standards found it depicted women promoting heavy drinking and encouraging unsafe behaviour to the brand's strong youth audience.
Adidas has held trademarks over clothes with three stripes since 1952 and in Australia since 1973, and it won a 2013 case against Pacific Brands for selling Dunlop and Grosby shoes that bore four parallel stripes. It also has faced setbacks in the UK and the European Union, which is why the White Fox case now sits inside a broader pattern of trademark enforcement rather than a one-off complaint.
Adidas is seeking an order that White Fox stop selling the products, along with a declaration that it broke the law and payment of profits, damages, interest and costs. Gilbert and Tobin said it could not comment on a matter before the court, and White Fox faces the practical choice of defending the case or changing its product designs before the dispute moves further.
