A London court has sentenced a father and son to years in prison for shamelessly hijacking the skateboarding streetwear giant Supreme.
The shameless knock-off Supreme Italia brand got away with counterfeiting operation for a while in connection with a criminal case filed against by the famed streetwear brand.
According to Bloomberg, the bootleg brand founded by Michele Di Pierro, 53, was sentenced to eight years in prison, and Marcello Di Pierro, 24, was ordered three years after a private prosecution by the New York-based streetwear company, which said the two went so far as to act as if they were the real owners of the proprietary name. Michele’s U.K.-based International Brand Firm Ltd. fined 7.5 million pounds ($10.4 million).
Samsung revealed, in late 2018, that it was collaborating with cult US streetwear skateboarding brand Supreme. It came as quite a surprise. But there was a problem: It was not Supreme. Not the New York-based one.
It was, instead, an entity known as Supreme Italia. With roots in Italy, the label is run through a limited company in the UK and has opened physical stores in Spain.
Shortly after, Samsung said it was reconsidering the collaboration and eventually canceled it entirely.
Supreme has been battling the Di Pierros across European courts for many years after the registration of the Supreme Italia brand name across southern Europe and when they opened the branded term stores in Spain and China.
"When I filed for registration in Italy, I did it in good faith," Di Pierro told Wall Street Journal in 2019. "I didn’t know Supreme even existed. It wasn’t popular in Italy. There wasn’t even a store."