7-Eleven on July 1 sued Nike over the company’s latest sneaker launch, the Air Max 95, planned for July 11.
The Irving, Texas-based convenience-store chain each year promotes July 11 as its birthday, calling it 7-Eleven Day—as well as Slurpee Day—and gives out a free small Slurpee to customers.
The Nike shoe features orange, green and red stripes—and in the same order as 7-Eleven’s “famous and distinctive 7-Eleven design mark, which incorporates the distinctive and nonfunctional combination of the colors orange, green and red,” according to the lawsuit.
- 7-Eleven is No. 1 on CSP’s 2026 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.
In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Texas, 7-Eleven said Nike’s Air Max 95 bears “a confusingly similar imitation of 7-Eleven’s Tri-Color Mark—without authorization from 7-Eleven.”
7-Eleven has used the Tri-Color Mark in commerce since at least as early as 1987, according to the lawsuit.
“7-Eleven’s use of orange, green and red stripes is iconic, famous and immediately recognized by consumers in the United States and around the world; and consumers exclusively associate the use of orange, green and red stripes with 7-Eleven,” the lawsuit states. “In addition to 7-Eleven’s longstanding common law rights in the Tri-Color Mark, 7-Eleven owns several incontestable federal trademark registrations incorporating the distinctive and nonfunctional combination of orange, green and red stripes constituting the Tri-Color Mark.”
The lawsuit also states that because of years of continuous and exclusive use of the combination of orange, green and red stripes, the c-store giant has “acquired strong and protectable common law rights in the Tri-Color Mark. 7-Eleven further has acquired significant goodwill, and consumers readily recognize the pattern of orange, green and red stripes as signifying 7-Eleven as the exclusive source of goods bearing the Tri-Color Mark.”
According to Nike’s e-commerce mobile app “SNKRS,” the company has scheduled the release of the shoe “for July 11, or 7/11, which is also well known as ‘7-Eleven Day’ or ‘Free Slurpee Day’ in honor of 7-Eleven,” the lawsuit said.
CSP has reached out to Nike and 7-Eleven for comment, but has not heard back as of press time.
7-Eleven—known for its Slurpee, Big Bite and Big Gulp brands—operates, franchises or licenses more than 13,000 stores in the United States and Canada. In addition to 7-Eleven, the company operates and franchises Speedway and Stripes c-stores and the Laredo Taco Company and Raise the Roost Chicken and Biscuits restaurant brands.
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