Amidst Max Verstappen-Nike Dispute, Shaquille O’Neal ‘Stealing’ Michael’s Jordan’s ‘Jumpman’ Logo With $187 Billion Company Comes To Light

Max Verstappen has risen to fame quite quickly due to his constant rivalry with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. He’s since use this popularity of his to start merchandising but unfortunately for him, he’s had to give it a second thought as he’s gotten himself into a legal dispute with Nike, a company worth $187 billion. 

Max wants to start his own clothing brand called ‘Max 1’ but the word ‘Max’ in the sporting realm has already been claimed by Nike. Their ‘Air Max’ technology has become an iconic part of their sneaker history and is still used to this day despite being introduced in the 80s.

Nike has put a stop to Max Verstappen’s ‘Max 1’ clothing brand as they believe the name is too similar to their Nike: Air Max shoe range.

Besides the name, there also seems to be an issue with the styling.

The report by The Benelux Office for Intellectual Property states: “The… pic.twitter.com/poK1Mipajv

— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) March 26, 2023

With the F1 superstar dealing with a dispute regarding him potentially ‘stealing Nike’s intellectual property, Shaquille O’Neal perhaps doing the same has come to light.

Also read: “I’m an Alien”: Did Shaquille O’Neal Take a Shot at Aaron Rodgers on the Pat McAfee Show?

Shaquille O’Neal copied Michael Jordan’s ‘Jumpman’ logo 

Shaquille O’Neal has always been a businessman at heart. During his business class at LSU, he realized that he was quite the marketable man given his ability to make people laugh. Also, the fact that he was one of the most dominant college players of all time helped his case. 

So, he decided to center a lot of his merchandise around himself and what he does. What Shaq does, is dunk the ball. So, the symbol he would come up with for his shoes while he was with Reebok was the ‘Dunkman’ logo where it would be a silhouette of him dunking the ball. This same silhouette would be used to construct a statue of him outside Crypto.com Arena. 

However, what makes this logo interesting is the fact that its concept is eerily similar to Michael Jordan’s iconic ‘Jumpman’ logo. Michael, who performed his offensive brilliance in the air, was right to have his logo be him jumping in the air with the ball. Shaquille O’Neal and his logo were completely different from MJ and so his logo isn’t a complete rip-off of the 6x Chicago Bulls champion. 

Except, Shaq would eventually go on to admit that he did in fact take inspiration from Jordan on the ‘Dunkman’ logo. So it’s safe to say that speculation surrounding him ‘stealing’ the logo was true and rather than stealing it, he simply made it his own.

Also read: “Damn Shaquille O’Neal, you’re looking good”: Lakers Legend Reveals Secret Supplement That’s Helped Him Lose 50 Pounds