The North Face drops Futurelight logo following legal battle

By

Jennifer Braun

Published
Jul 6, 2021

The North Face is ready to put its legal battle with legendary artist Futura behind it, as it publicly announces plans to drop the logo used for its Futurelight apparel.

The VF Corporation-owned brand was brought to court by the renowned street artist over alleged copyright infringement, in a lawsuit filed in California Central District Court, back in January. 

Futura claims that the outdoor brand knocked off its atom graphic that has appeared in his artwork for years to promote Futurelight—a waterproof fabric created by The North Face. The two have worked together in the past, but Futura says he never gave permission to use his atom motif. Moreover, there are clear similarities to his own name and the Futurelight brand. 

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While The North Face and its parent company filed a motion in April to dismiss the complaint, Futura since took his struggle to the public in an open letter on Instagram, which got a reaction from the company. 

Despite the lawsuit and the new agreement, The North Face continues to deny claims of infringement. 

“Our Futurelight apparel technology launched October 1, 2019, and its logo was conceived and designed by our internal creative team to represent the nanospinning technology used to make Futurelight products. The logo was also inspired by the shape of the geodesic dome tent, which has been a key icon of The North Face brand for nearly 50 years. Any resemblance to Futura’s signature atomic element design was entirely coincidental and not part of our internal design team’s inspiration,” the company wrote in a statement.

“While The North Face is confident there has been no infringement in this case, we are committed to supporting creative artists and their communities. As a sign of that commitment and a sincere gesture of goodwill, we will begin to phase out and discontinue the use of the Futurelight circular nanospinning logo design out of deep respect for Futura and his work.”