Sneakers and heels inspired by Jeffree Star are on their way soon, but so is a potential lawsuit…? An indie shoe brand, Lunar Studios, unveiled a series of shoes inspired by Jeffree Star and his makeup company. The brand founder, Cheyenne Reed, even informed Jeffree Star about the new sneakers that he inspired. Unfortunately, Star was less than pleased by the sartorial tribute and decided that he would be seeking counsel from his lawyer about how to proceed legally.
Get more details about how that unfolded ahead.
Lunar Studios tweeted Jeffree Star to let him know about the shoes inspired by his namesake and branding.
"@JeffreeStar we are working on a line of shoes called Star Fall that is inspired by your color [palettes]. When they launch, we will let you know," the brand wrote to him.
No matter what Jeffree Star's response would have been, presenting a tribute collection in this manner is pretty strange. Why would you create an entire collection of ANYTHING inspired by a person's brand and tell that person *after* the fact? Why not reach out to the person to collaborate or at least inform them beforehand so that any legal conversations can happen privately?
As expected, Jeffree Star revealed that he wasn't flattered by the shoe collection at all.
"You are using my images and copyrighted palette names to sell your products. My lawyer will have fun with you after the holiday. Get the pen & the checkbook out, talk soon," Star wrote to Lunar Studios. Clearly, he planned to sue the company over the shoe collection.
The creator of the shoe collection did emphasize to Jeffree Star that no harm was meant.
"I wasn't trying to be disrespectful or use your names. I apologize. I will change the names. I just thought you would think it was cool," she wrote. Based on previous tweets, it does seem that the person running Lunar Studios is a huge Jeffree Star fan. Additionally, just because a person is a huge fan and has access to create products doesn't mean the person has the most business savvy. Anyone well versed in launching products and brands would know that the best way to handle this would be to reach out to Star beforehand just to make friendly contact.
Although the Jeffree Star shoes may have been created in bad taste , they're likely not violating any legal protections that Star has in place.
The thing about laws is there are ways to wiggle around them. Lunar Studios was lucky enough to do this with its Star Fall show collection. The brand made sure to note that the shoes are inspired by Jeffree Star and not in collaboration with Jeffree Star. While a court could likely rule that the mere mention of his name could warrant Lucky Studios having to cough up some money, it seems that the brand did try to make sure it wasn't assumed that Jeffree Star himself was involved.
Star may not have all of the copyright and trademark protections he needs to sue Lunar Studios.
Copyright and trademark protections are often limited to the specific products that you register them for. Per Justia, Jeffree Star has Blue Blood trademarked for "Cosmetics; Eyeshadow palettes; Eyeshadows; [and] Lipsticks." There are also other cosmetic uses listed under the "international class" section of the trademark registration. Since sneakers are not on this listing, it appears that Lunar Studios is in the clear for creating Blue Blood sneakers. This is likely the case for the majority of Jeffree Star's palette names. Yikes.
When Star first called out Lunar Studios, the brand seemed to pull every single shoe design from the website out of fear.
Lunar Cosmetics has Jeffree Star–inspired sneakers named after literally all of his major makeup products. There's a sneaker dedicated to the Alien, Blue Blood, Blood Sugar, Jawbreaker, and Androgyny palettes. It seems like fan dedication was taken a little too far, and it's unfortunate that Star's trademarks do not protect him from this. The only reason people would be buying these shoes from a random person with a few hundred followers on Twitter is that they are attached to Jeffree Star — trademark or no trademark.
Now things have clearly changed for Lunar Studios.
"I came here to see if you ended up using the names and I’m so glad you didn’t get rid of what you were working on!! Your designs are amazing and I’m really sorry you had to deal with all that backlash. Keep at it," one person wrote to Lunar Studios.
"Thank you so much! Yes, all 4 shoes are keeping their names and designs and we couldn't be more proud to re-launch them just as they are," Lunar Studios wrote back.
Welp! It looks like Jeffree Star lost this one… for now.
