Did Ex-Nike Designer Steal a Victor Cruz NSW Project?

Nike alleges that Marc Dolce stole designs for a sponsored athlete, was it Victor Cruz?

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by Brendan Dunne

Court documents from Nike’s $10 million lawsuit against three ex-designers who moved to adidas suggest that one of them was working on a Victor Cruz x Nike Sportswear project.

A declaration submitted to courts by Benjamin Cotton of CyTech Services, the computer forensic analysis firm Nike tapped for help in retracing the steps of the three designers prior to their departure from the company, details Marc Dolce’s alleged theft of future Nike designs. In his declaration, Cotton says that Dolce sent himself an email full of company files in a folder called “FINAL VICTOR CRUZ.zip” with the subject line “Victor Cruz final cads” (CADS are “computer aided designs," which are often used in footwear production).


Above, an excerpt from Cotton's declaration in the Nike lawsuit

Marc Dolce was a design director at Nike Sportswear, so if he was working on a Victor Cruz project, it’s likely that it would have been for that category. A cad could also be used in apparel design, but Dolce’s output with Nike Sportswear was focused primarily on footwear. It's important to mention that the designs aren't necessarily of a signature shoe–remember Dolce has spent plenty of time remixing classic Nike silhouttes, and something like a Cruz Air Force 1 seems more feasible.

This possible Victor Cruz x Nike Sportswear project is presumably the one referenced by Nike in their allegation in the lawsuit that “Dolce sent an email to his personal email account with highly confidential design drawings related to an as-yet unreleased shoe designed for one of Nike's sponsored athletes.” Their wording here is ambiguous on whether the shoe will eventually release, although Nike certainly has reason to pull the project now if they think that adidas has seen the design–not to mention Cruz’s current injury hurts his visibility and marketability.

Nike could not be reached for comment on the possibility of an upcoming Victor Cruz x Nike Sportswear release.