Ivanka Trump Footwear, and its licensee Marc Fisher Footwear, received a cease-and-desist letter Wednesday from fashion brand Derek Lam. The legal missive gave Ivanka Trump seven days to pull her Cadie wedge sandals from shelves.
According to DL CEO Jan-Hendrik Schlottmann, “We have seen very similar copies before but we have never seen a shoe that perfectly copied the Ayami wedge. It’s such an investment to make a shoe … we had to protest this.”
One of Schlottmann’s shoe designers was shopping online at bloomingdales.com when he saw the ‘knock-off’ and immediately reported back to headquarters. Lam’s lawyers are currently reviewing sales records of Trump’s Cadie wedge, presumably to determine whether a lawsuit for damages is warranted.
Marc Fisher Footwear, the collection’s distributor, had this to say about the shoe dust up, “There is nothing iconic about the appearance of the Lam sandal. It is a popular design type that has been used by numerous manufacturers for many decade. The Ivanka Trump sandals prominently display her name, and there can be no confusion as to the source of the sandals.”
The Lam wedge sells for $780 and Ivanka’s Cadie sandal is a bargain at $150.
Check out a photo of the side-by-side sandals after the jump:
Photos: WENN, NYMag