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Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Legal Questions Surface Over Walmart's Hoka Dupe
Dupe culture's the trend, and there may not be much that brands can do about it. The latest example is a pair of Avia shoes that sold out on Walmart. Some shoppers say the style is a Hoka dupe. One reviewer named Ashley said her daughter's podiatrist recommended the Hoka brand, but noted that 'they are a bit pricey for an elementary age child. I saw these are considered DUPES and when I got them I was so impressed.' More from WWD Do Crocs Shrink in Heat? The Issue Is at the Center of a New Lawsuit Shoe Executive Richard Kirschenbaum and G-III Trade Legal Barbs EY Report Urges Retail Firms to Reclaim Their Relevance Another named Jackie wrote: 'This line of Avia shoes are inexpensive copy cats of Hoka shoes, which I cannot afford. Not only were these shoes on clearance, they are similar in fit and comfort to Hoka but for only $8.24 on clearance.' Bridget said she's an avid Skechers buyer, but tried the Avia shoe because the 'clearance price made it worth the gamble.' Still, all the reviews weren't positive. Another reviewer, KCShopper, wrote about the excitement of purchasing shoes for $12, but wore the shoes only once because 'both heels were bleeding with the worst blisters.' While top-tier footwear brands have long been subject to knockoffs, the so-called dupe trend has put the issue in the spotlight. Last year, Walmart sold a 'Birkin' handbag dupe called the 'Wirkin' for $60 that went viral on TikTok and sold out. And shoe designer Steve Madden, whose firm has been around since 1990, remains unapologetic about his brand's propensity for knocking off designer looks. So what can brands do about the latest duping craze? 'Dupes of this sort are typically legal so long as they are not infringing on the trademark, or logo/branding of the shoe,' observed Mark Brutzkus, partner and chair of the consumer products practice at the law firm Stubbs Alderton & Markiles. 'If Hoka does have a trademark, they will have to prove that Walmart's Avia shoe or its packaging has caused reasonable consumer confusion.' Brutzkus did raise one potential legal claim. 'What is most likely to be at play is the issue of trade dress, which focuses on the acquired distinctiveness of the shoe design as opposed to its functionality,' he said. But Hoka would have to prove that stitching, silhouette, and other nonfunctional features are associated with their branding by customers and cause confusion when imitated, he explained. 'As these cases can be difficult and expensive to prove, a settlement is far more likely in any case,' the attorney concluded. Hoka brand executives did not provide a comment by press time. BTIG retail analyst Janine Stichter said earlier this month in a note to clients that 'dupe culture continues to grow.' Luxury bag dupe posts on social media in April grew by nearly 10 times versus earlier in the year, with Louis Vuitton and Hermès the two most mention handbag brand mention in connection to dupes. 'The growth in dupe culture reflects the increasing demand for mid-tier products that offer strong value propositions following large post-COVID price increases from luxury players. This is particularly true for younger generations, which have a more supportive view of dupe culture,' Stichter wrote. Jaqui Lividini, founder and CEO of brand strategy firm Lividini & Co., said the growth in dupe culture 'speaks to an economic reality that not everyone can afford to buy into a product that is at a certain level of expense and iconology.' However, the knockoffs allow consumers to participate in that trend and people embrace that, she said, adding that the dupes are 'just a more fun expression of these iconic things…. I don't really think it takes away from the original,' Lividini said, noting that the dupe iconifies the 'original even more.' One Wall Street observer said anyone buying a dupe knows that he or she is not buying the authentic item from the brand. This person doesn't see these sales taking away from the brand because anyone willing to spend the money for the original branded version, such as a true Hoka shoe, is buying more for comfort and quality and not necessarily for its looks. A study from authentication firm Entrupy Inc. on the 'State of the Fake' concluded that the line between a dupe and fake is blurry, making enforcement both murky and uneven. According to the report, the most 'faked brand' overall in sneakers is Alexander McQueen. In Great Britain, it is a Dior sneaker, while in Netherlands, it is New Balance. And in Germany, Adidas is the most copied sneaker brand. It also said that fabrication has moved beyond logo placement and sole shape, and that there's been refinement at 'every level of construction.' The Entrupy report also noted the rise in what it calls 'rep culture,' a high-quality, intentional fake sneaker designed to closely imitate the original release. It also noted how across TikTok and YouTube there were detailed guides last year telling one how to 'upgrade' reps by swapping insoles and other modifications, a 'subculture of normalizing rep customization as a kind of sneaker DIY.' Most recently, Nike Inc. fought back, and its settlement with Shoe Surgeon has set some boundaries on sneaker customization. Best of WWD All the Retailers That Nike Left and Then Went Back Mikey Madison's Elegant Red Carpet Shoe Style [PHOTOS] Julia Fox's Sleekest and Boldest Shoe Looks Over the Years [Photos]
The Spinoff
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
‘Out of this world': Becky Manawatu on the Blackball Readers and Writers Festival
Blackball Readers and Writers Festival might be the smallest festival of its kind in New Zealand, restricted to just 50 guests. Writer Becky Manawatu was among them. Festival organiser Paul Maunder sits opposite esteemed guest, award-winning poet and national taoka Tusiata Avia. He describes how she 'burst onto the scene' with Wild Dogs Under My Skirt. Avia grins, and replies, 'Like out of a cake. At a bachelor party, sort of thing, Paul?' The crowd of readers and writers filling every seat in the classroom at Blackball's primary school roars with laughter – and one of the tones for what will be one of the most memorable literary festivals of my life is set. Over her 90-minute session Maunder prompts Avia to read poem after poem, the pair traversing the whenua of her career like giants on a Pacific journey – Paul citing landmarks, pointing to the next destination, the poet animating them. The result is hypnotising. Everyone is here for it. Between poems there's short commentary on craft and writing. Politics. She takes a chance to acknowledge activist and national organiser of Halt All Racist Tours, John Minto, who is among the crowd. In miserable contrast, David Seymour's name comes up. 'Aww, bub,' she says, reading one of her poems in response to his vitriol against her. Afterwards there is homemade baking, including a mind-blowing pumpkin spice cake and a ripper ginger crunch. People spill out of the classroom, make cups of tea, grab feijoas from the box offering them. 'Enjoy those,' one attendee says to me as I fill Avia's purse with fruit. 'They're under threat because of that disease.' Myrtle Rust. The festival is magic, uplifting, of course, but there is – given its theme: the role of the writer in a time of crisis – a sense of urgency. Not even our feijoa are safe. The readers come to hear what we have to say for our roles as writers, and respond to many problems presented by lifting their hands and yelling out – 'So, what can we do? When should we march? Who should we confront?' There's a sense of urgency met with a desire for action. There are calls for bravery, love, compassion and fight in equal measure. Prolific author Mandy Hager offers some practical advice while on the panel examining the writer's role in a time of crisis: Find, engage in, and lean on community; and importantly, make a submission on the regulatory standards bill. 'It's evil,' she says. Journalist Rebecca Macfie calls cynicism lazy and passive. This resonates with the audience. I know this because I'm told so several times by members who think that I said it. I thank those people on Macfie's behalf so as not to make anyone feel awkward. It is, after all, one of the most intense literary festivals I have ever been to. United we stand. A coalescence of all the words said as if they've been dropped into a witch's cauldron. It is a festival virtually impossible to dip in and out of. The conversations come in waves, the next arriving before we make it to shore. The format mirroring the same potent and hypnotising format of Avia's session. Gluing us to our seats, making the seven layers of my own skin lift – ever so slightly – away from each other. Several times over the weekend, in an effort to ground myself, I take the risk of turning my head to watch the rain pattering on the classroom window, and look at the mist covering the forest on the foothills of the Paparoa Ranges. (Will I be told to 'pay attention please, Becky?') We're on a class trip together. Only it's more akin to those from one of my favourite childhood books: The Magic School Bus. Destination: the human conscience – in crisis. I have my five-year-old niece along for company. She's a hero and an emblem. She sits in on almost every session, joins us for each hot meal (lunch and dinner is provided for all attendees, both days) which parades an abundance of potatoes, swathed in butter or roasted. Beans and lentils, creamy cajun sauce. Pork belly. She sits in on a moving poetry reading by Kāi Tahu poet and award-winning musician Ariana Tikao. The event is made by an undercurrent of taonga pūoro pulling our senses further towards the acuity of her kupu. She reads a poem which will be included in her upcoming collection Pepeha Portal. The poem, 'Settling', is dedicated to Palestinian Bilal Saleh who was shot in the chest by an Israeli settler while harvesting his olive trees in the occupied West Bank. The poem asks in refrain and double entendre, 'Is this settling?' Over the weekend my niece entertained herself, listening and tattooing te Rā onto the palms of people's hands in blue biro. Minto sat next to her and pointed out a large mural of the solar system spread across the back of the classroom wall. 'What's your name?' she asked. 'John,' he said. 'Hello John.' She turned to publisher Mary McCallum. 'Mary, this is John.' Paul Maunder played Lego with her on the floor during one session; Tusiata applied lip-gloss onto her lips. Mandy played countless games of trickery with her which involved the hiding of notepads and pens beneath large bowls. Mary brought Gavin Bishop's Hinepau to read to her. The festival moved beyond being a class trip and soon felt more like a noho marae, only by night we were dotted about Blackball in various accommodations. Mary, Mandy, my niece Ariah and I stayed at the Brian Wood cottage. It had a fire, heaters in each room, almost a dozen hot-water bottles, a large claw-footed bath, a bucket to catch pesky drips from the ceiling and a morning view of the hills from the window above the kitchen sink. We found coffee, vegetable soup, bread, eggs, wine. Landfall Journals and a book of interviews on women writers in New Zealand including Keri Hulme, Rachel McAlpine and Patricia Grace, which I read of a night thanks to an auspicious lack of wifi. My niece called it our 'pretend home' in this 'other world.' Several young readers were part of the crowd, which was limited to 50 people. Greymouth High students came flanked by two dedicated teachers. One teenager took an opportunity to admit to the room that fear of failure caused them problems with turning in assignments. I got sad about that, for them. James Norcliffe's session was encouraging and down to earth. The award-winning writer read from his young adult book The Crate in which four teenagers experience the most terrifying night of their lives beside a West Coast lake. Interviewer Katrina Brown said, 'Thank you. We don't read aloud enough to each other. I was taken back to my school days.' Novelist Saige England's session with Ariana Tikao included a microphone debacle which made for a theatrical start. Once resolved, England hauled the bus quickly around the funny-bone bend to share some of her research for her historical novel, The Seasonwife, which examines grotesque colonial violence. 'The abduction of women in the Pacific was rife.' She read correspondence between rich murderers trading in body parts. She told the audience these read like, 'Hey, killed someone last night. I have a head for sale if you are interested.' When buying heads became illegal it just bumped up the price. Later in another session England shared details of her writing life. Up at 4am each morning to begin! She needs a fire, hot water bottle and pets around. 'And I've got my beautiful man. I've gone through my Heathcliff phase, and here I am.' A poem, really. Iona Winter was there. She read a new poem, published in Tarot – a journal of poetry for Aotearoa. The poem 'Confessions of importance' examines her grief after losing her son, Reuben Winter, to suicide. It describes survival in this tino pōuri stanza: Face outward to go in – return to a body that craves sunshine in its bones, when death has rechartered the map of you People cried as she read and continued to cry well after she finished. Poet and novelist Majella Cullinane was beamed in via Zoom to speak about Meantime, her 2024 poetry collection that reflects on the loss of her mother to dementia during the pandemic. I saw people happy, and belly-laughing and people grief-stricken throughout the weekend. They'd come to the school near the foothills of the Paparoa Ranges to seek answers, to close ranks. They'd come to be sure they were not alone in this time of crisis. You couldn't have felt alone, it was a hybrid of class trip (all aboard the geeks, no bullies) and wānaka. The books there were being sold as sort of an afterthought. There was no rushing authors to the tables for sales and signings. After each session there was a strange feeling – almost awkward, in a good way I suppose – of having to carry on sitting together. Kōrero mai, grab a cuppa, a bit of slice and get your arse back in your seat for the next. Back at our cottage one evening I mentioned a woman at the festival who seemed very heartbroken. My five-year-old niece asked, 'Do you mean the woman with the beautiful long black hair?' Āe, tamahine. Tamariki are always listening, always watching. One morning after my car failed to start and we were running late, I ran towards the road hearing the sound of a Blackball's morning traffic – a lone vehicle – and I thrust my thumb out. A silver sports car pulled over. The woman with the 'beautiful long black hair' opened the door. On the passenger's seat I saw evidence of an artist. Wood, feathers, stone, a felt hat. 'Becky,' she said with a bright smile, and wet eyes. She took my breath away and in a flash of silver she boosted Mandy to the festival, while Mary, Ariah and I ambled down Main Road, waiting for rescue. Several minutes in, my niece said, 'We've been walking for hours.' 'Yes,' I said. Maybe we have. I hoped the woman with the beautiful long black hair found something at this intimate and intense festival to buoy her up, some wisdom in the wānaka, a sense of community in a time of crisis. Ngā mihi maioha to the organisers and people of the Blackball Readers and Writers Festival, it was out of this world.
Irish Examiner
21-04-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Irish aviation firm warns airline passengers will face higher fares due to US tariffs
Irish aviation services firm Avia Solutions Group is pencilling in higher maintenance expenses from potential tariffs that would affect its aircraft charter business, with those costs eventually being passed on to airline passengers. The firm specialises in short-term leasing of aircraft and crew to airlines, which typically use Avia to boost capacity during busy seasons. It is carrying out a 'stress test' by calculating 12% higher costs on maintenance services across its fleet, chairman Gediminas Ziemelis said in an interview. Avia is exploring ways to access more spare parts from Europe if tariffs drive up the cost of imported products like engine components, he said. His comments shed more light on how the aviation industry — which has mostly been shielded from tariffs in the past — is contending with uncertainty caused by US president Donald Trump's bid to rewrite the rules of global trade. 'It's a mess,' Ziemelis said. 'If you don't know the size of the disaster or problem then it's very difficult to forecast.' Trump has placed tariffs of 10% on goods coming into America from dozens of countries including the EU, and hit other nations with higher rates. The fee is set to rise to 20% on EU manufacturers sending products the US if a 90-day pause expires without a deal — raising the prospect of retaliatory EU tariffs on US-made goods. Others in the industry are nervous about uncertainty around the aviation supply chain, Ziemelis said. Airlines cannot swallow additional costs if they do not increase their ticket prices, so ultimately any added fees will be borne by passengers, he said. 'If prices go above what the consumer is willing to pay, of course it can slow down traffic and number of the passengers overall,' he said. Others are also preparing for disruption. Delta Air Lines has said it will not pay tariffs on planes from French manufacturer Airbus SE, while Ireland's Ryanair Holdings has said it may delay aircraft deliveries from Boeing should the EU retaliate. So far, the tariff war has hit airlines hardest in China, where reciprocal levies have more than doubled the price of Boeing products, and any parts coming into the US from the Asian nation also cost more than twice as much. Bloomberg News reported Beijing told Chinese carriers not to accept delivery of any more Boeing aircraft and asked them not to buy US-made aircraft parts. There is also evidence the tariff talk has rattled travellers and slowed demand across the lucrative transatlantic route. Dublin-based Avia placed an order late last year for 80 Boeing 737 Max jets to add into its fleet of 220 aircraft. The company plans to grow the fleet to 700 planes by the end of the decade. Read More Tariffs fallout sees jet bound for Chinese airline sent back to Boeing
Associated Press
14-03-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Nemysis Limited Announces Collaboration With Avia Pharma AB as IHAT Distributor in Nordic Region
DUBLIN, IE / ACCESS Newswire / March 14, 2025 / Nemysis is pleased to announce signing of a Distribution and Supply Agreement (the 'Agreement') for its unique oral iron supplement, Iron Hydroxide Adipate Tartrate ('IHAT'), with Avia Pharma AB ('Avia'), which will act as distributor. Under the Agreement, Avia is appointed as the exclusive partner to Nemysis for the promotion, marketing, distribution and sale of Nemysis' proprietary IHAT product under the Tolfer brand, under license. Avia's appointment is exclusive in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, as well as being semi-exclusive for Germany, where Avia is expanding its reach, including through the addition of IHAT to its product portfolio. This collaboration provides sufferers access to this important and revolutionary product for the safe and tolerable treatment of iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia, without the adverse risks. This agreement marks a further strategic milestone for Nemysis and Avia, expanding the footprint of Tolfer outside its existing market of Italy, where IHAT has three distributors, and further strengthening the product portfolio of Avia with an innovative and differentiated product and the Tolfer brand. Commenting on the Agreement, Marco Cartolari, Chief Operating Officer remarks 'We are pleased to add this collection of territories to IHAT's footprint and that of the Tolfer brand and to be working with a fast-growing partner such as Avia and its team. This collaboration is a robust strategic fit for both parties and we look forward to all stakeholders benefitting from Tolfer in the covered territories. ' Fredrik Warstedt, Avia Pharma AB Head of M&A and Business Development, states: 'We are excited to bring Tolfer into our product portfolio and by its prospects in our markets. We believe this unique product will support many of our customers and strengthen our ability to fulfil our mission of making Northern Europe a healthier place, and in particular within our Women's Health market focus.' About iron deficiency Iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia are the most widespread nutritional deficiency, affecting ~1.2 billion people globally, and are associated with a slew of symptoms, including tiredness, lack of energy and shortness of breath and, in more severe cases, an increased risk of serious morbidity and impaired immunity. About IHAT IHAT is a nanoparticulate ferric iron supplement that respects the physiology of natural iron. It was developed as an analogue of dietary ferritin, the natural iron storage protein, and follows its route of absorption. Like ferritin, IHAT is absorbed as whole nanoparticles in the intestine and does not release 'free' iron, a highly redox reactive form of iron and the culprit of the gastrointestinal side effects seen with conventional oral iron supplements. IHAT is efficacious and well-tolerated, with no negative impact on the gut microbiome. About Avia Pharma AB Avia Pharma AB is a Swedish pharmaceutical company with a focus on five therapy areas: women's health, urology, dermatology, allergy and everyday healthcare across Northern Europe and in particular Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Germany. Birger Jarlsgatan 27 111 45 Stockholm Sweden
