Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) and tight end Travis Kelce (87), who are being sued by a Chinatown-based sneaker shop on trademark infringement claims.
AP Photo/Ed Zurga
Can a business claim exclusive use of a four-digit number?
That question is being punted to Manhattan’s federal court with a dispute between a Chinatown-based sneaker company and Kansas City Chiefs stars Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes.
1587 Sneakers, an Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) luxury apparel company, sued Kelce and Mahomes in February for trademark infringement and unfair trade practices, claiming that their jointly owned restaurant and apparel brand — 1587 Prime — encroaches on their business’s name in a way that hurts their sales, driving traffic and attention away from their site and obscuring the reputation they’ve built.
“The company was understandably concerned that such a high-profile project choosing a brand name virtually identical to that of its own would overshadow it and cause irreparable damage,” their suit says. “It did. And continues to do so up to this very present day, forcing the AAPI company towards the cliff of collapse.”
1587 Sneakers, which opened in 2023, says the number holds deep significance for them — it’s the year Asians first came to the United States. As a brand focused on uplifting New York’s Asian American population — it donates profits to various Asian aid groups in the city and bills itself as the first sneaker company catering specifically to the AAPI community — having a name that shines a light on their history is important to them, their suit claims.
Kelce and Mahomes say they came up with their 1587 namesake by combining the numbers on the backs of both of their jerseys.
Attorneys at firms Amster Rothstein & Ebenstein and Loeb & Loeb representing the football players didn’t respond to a request for comment. In court filings, they’ve argued the suit should be dismissed because the Manhattan federal court isn’t the right one for the case to be brought in, as 1587 Prime is located in Missouri and neither Kelce nor Mahomes lives in New York.
In court papers filed yesterday, 1587 Sneakers, represented by Ezra Salami of Ezra Law, argued the Southern District of New York was the proper place for the suit, as their business is based here and Kelce and Mahomes have shipped products to New York through their online store, meaning they’ve done business in the court’s jurisdiction as well.
The Chinatown business claims New York consumers are “actively confused and deceived” by Kelce and Mahomes’ business name, resulting in lost sales and goodwill, their suit claims— New Yorkers have contacted 1587 Sneakers with the mistaken belief that they’re affiliated with the football players and their shareholders, who have embezzlement claims against them, and their sales have “measurably declined” since Kelce and Mahomes opened their attire-selling steakhouse, which runs run targeted ad campaigns in New York, late last year.
1587 Sneakers also argues the products the football players are selling bear high resemblance to their own — and that the NFL athletes’ steakhouse menu has a strange amount of Asian influence.
“Clear Asian-inspired and influenced dishes and ingredients are peppered throughout,” the suit claims. “Taken as a whole, Defendants mirror and invade the same thematic commercial space that [1587 Sneakers] occupies without regard.”
U.S. District Judge Naomi Buchwald will decide whether the case can move forward in the coming weeks. She declined to issue a temporary restraining order against Kelce and Mahomes’ use of the number last month and noted it wasn’t clear whether the 1587 Sneakers had properly served the football players.
The Chinatown company is seeking monetary damages for lost sales and for the NFL stars to change the name of their restaurant and stop selling apparel with the 1587 logo.
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