By: Andrew Cammarano
“It was a hell of a round, Tiger” – the last line of the Tiger Woods and Nike Story. On January 8, 2024, Nike announced, via their Instagram account, that they would be parting ways with arguably the best golfer of all time. Tiger Woods, through his on-course dominance and off the course drama, is one of the most recognizable athletes ever, and up until January 2024, he was synonymous with Nike, specifically for wearing a red Nike polo on Sundays of tournaments. Not only was Tiger’s red shirt a marketing phenomenon that Nike was able to capitalize on for the price of nearly $500 million dollars over their 27-year partnership, but the classic red and black pants are so recognizable that it has become a Halloween costume and internet meme, almost always containing a little Nike swoosh. Now that Tiger Woods is no longer a Nike athlete questions arise as to the future of his famous red polo on Sundays.
Enter TaylorMade, Tiger’s equipment sponsor since 2016, the same year Nike stopped manufacturing golf clubs. In December of 2023, three trademarks were filed by TaylorMade Lifestyle Ventures LLC, a separate entity from Taylor Made Golf Company, Inc., the manufacturer of Tiger’s golf clubs. The trademarks included “SUN DAY RED”, a tiger-esque logo, and “SDR” surrounding the same tiger-esque logo, suggesting that TaylorMade may be Tiger Woods’ new apparel sponsor. This was confirmed on February 12, 2024 when Tiger Woods and TaylorMade announced their official partnership creating the life style brand “Sun Day Red”.
Tiger left Nike in a unique situation. He owns the trademark to his “TW” logo, the logo that was used on all his Nike branded signature apparel items. Many athletes have unique signature logos and have their own brand within the brand of their sponsorship, in essence something like Air Jordan and Nike, but on a smaller scale. Generally, athletes that have unique signature logos face the same issue that Kawhi Leonard confronted when leaving an apparel brand. These athletes do not own the trademark to their logo, rather their primary sponsor owns the trademark; and, therefore, the athlete cannot use their individual logos with a new company. When Leonard left Nike for New Balance in 2018, he wanted to bring his signature claw logo to the new brand. Nike, the owners of the claw logo trademark, objected and after a lengthy lawsuit Nike retained ownership of the claw logo, forbidding any use of the claw logo on New Balance products. Tiger is in a unique situation. Because he owns the trademark to his “TW” logo he has the opportunity tonot only start his own apparel brand with TaylorMade, but also incorporate his older iconic “TW” logo into the new brand.
However, Tiger Woods and TaylorMade might have a problem with Tiger’s signature red polo being the face of their new brand. Under the trade dress doctrine of copyright and trademark law, a company might have rights to a certain product, symbol or style, without a registered trademark, if that thing has accumulated so much popularity that it is commonly associated with the particular company. Trade dress refers to the total image and overall appearance of a product or service. It may include features such as size, shape, color or color combinations, texture, graphics, sounds, scents, flavors, motion and moving images, particular business techniques, and the look and feel of a website. It embodies the arrangement of identifying characteristics or decorations connected with a product, whether by packaging or otherwise, that makes the source of the product distinguishable from another and promotes its sale. Things like the red sole on Louis Vuitton shoes or the Tiffany blue box have fallen under the trade dress doctrine. Because this new Tiger Woods apparel brand is going to be centered around Tiger’s iconic red polo, there is a possibility that Nike tries to claim this symbol as theirs.
Setting aside all reports that the breakup was amicable, and both Nike and Tiger have left the relationship with nothing but praise for the other side making a lawsuit between the two seemingly unlikely, by Tiger and his team anchoring their brand identity on Tiger’s Sunday red it reinforces the reality that for the last 27 years a red polo meant Tiger, and Tiger meant Nike. Tiger did wear different shades of the shirt, from the bright red at Augusta National to capture his 15th major championship in 2019 to the maroon shirt pointing at the whole after he made a putt in the playoff during the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla, making the Sunday red more of an idea and inspiration than rigid brand identity like Louis Vuitton red sole or the Tiffany blue box. Tiger also wore red on Sundays in college while at Stanford, before his partnership with began. Regardless of any potentially impending litigation over a golf polo, Tiger Woods’ iconic red polo on Sunday of a Major will continue on replacing the Nike logo with a “Sun Day Red” tiger.
Student Bio: Andrew Cammarano is a second-year law student at Suffolk University Law School. He is a staff writer on the Journal of High Technology Law and is the President of the Christian Legal Society. Andrew received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Wheaton College IL.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are the views of the author alone and do not represent the views of JHTL or Suffolk University Law School.
