Updated Oct. 21, 2026
Skechers and Kizik are both claiming victory after a panel of judges in Munich, Germany, issued a ruling late last week regarding an ongoing patent lawsuit filed last year.
On Oct. 17, the panel of judges agreed and ruled that some Skechers step-in shoes infringed on a Kizik parent company HandsFree Labs’ patent, according to a copy of the decision reviewed by FN.
In the decision, Skechers is ordered to cease making, distributing, and selling those styles of step-in shoes in Europe. However, the judges narrowed the scope of the decision to cover only sneakers that incorporate a specific design with elastic side panels and a heel stabilizer. In doing so, the court rejected the claim against certain Skechers styles listed in the original complaint.
The judgment, issued by the Unified Patent Court in Munich, applies to the 18 European Union states that are under the court’s jurisdiction.
In a statement sent to FN on Monday, Gareth Hosford, chief executive officer of HandsFree Labs and Kizik, said that this decision “shows that the system works.”
“We’re pleased the court recognized the strength of our patent, and we’ll keep defending the technology our team built,” Hosford noted.
In its own statement on Wednesday, Skechers claimed its own victory. “Skechers won on three of the four styles, with the fourth being a minor and commercially insignificant style for Skechers,” the statement said. “In its ruling, the Munich Court stated that Kizik’s infringement claims are ‘largely unfounded.’”
The patent battle between the two shoe brands in the U.S. is still ongoing.
Originally reported on Aug. 12, 2025 at 2:51 p.m.
Kizik parent HandsFree Labs has taken its beef with Skechers USA to a court overseas in Germany.
The complaint was filed on Wednesday with the Unified Patent Court in Munich by Fast IP, LLC, the intellectual property holding company of Hands Free. While the disputed amount is stated as having a preliminary estimate of 1 million euros, or nearly $1.2 million at current exchange, that number is more likely a “holding” tally just to get the lawsuit filed and before the German patent court. Also named in the patent infringement suit were the German, Swiss, Belgian, Italian and French arms of Skechers operations across Europe.
Essentially, the complaint follows similar patent infringement claims in the U.S. Kizik lawsuit filed last month regarding the slip-in shoe technology. Hands Free is also seeking an order barring Skechers from selling its alleged infringing shoes across 18 European countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and/or Sweden. The complaint is also seeking a recall of products already placed on the market since July 9, 2025. And there are requests for provisional damages in the amount of 200,000 euros ($232,694), as well as a penalty payment to the court in other amounts under certain circumstances.
“As the holder of more than 200 patents and applications worldwide, HandsFree Labs is committed to protecting our hands-free footwear technology from those who seek to profit from our intellectual property and duplicate our cutting-edge products,” said Hands Free CEO Gareth Hosford.
While Hosford is making a show that his company is bent on protecting its patents, whether it can win on the merits of its claims here and abroad remains to be seen.The Kizik parent’s U.S. patent infringement suit was filed on July 24 in a federal district court for the Eastern District of Texas. It also alleged that the Skechers Hands Free Slip-in debuted a few years ago, fueling “astonishing growth” that fueled a “windfall $9.42 billion acquisition announcement.” That announcement that Skechers would be acquired by 3G Capital is now the largest buyout in the shoe industry.
Skechers said on July 28 that the hands-free concept is a “century-old idea” and that it has developed its own “unique Slip-ins technology.” The company also said in a statement that it has obtained more than 140 utility and design patents worldwide and will vigilantly enforce its patent rights.
Skechers president Michael Greenberg also noted that the company has been advertising and selling its slip-in shoes since December 2021, without any contract from Kizik. He suggested that the recent angst by Hands Free amounts to nothing more than a money grab as it follows the $9.42 billion merger agreement with 3G Capital.
“We believe that, after all these years of silence, the true motivation for this lawsuit might be found right on the face of Kizik’s complaint, where they state that they are looking for a share of the $9.42 billion being paid for Skechers, money Kizik did not earn and does not deserve,” Greenberg said. He added that the company has become the market leaders in the hands-free footwear space by innovating and not imitating the idea of hands-free fit using its own technology.
Greenberg said the company is “undeterred by transparent litigation efforts to thwart competition,” adding that Skechers “will aggressively challenge both the validity of the patents and the infringement claims.”
As for the overseas complaint, a Skechers spokeswoman said the company will have “no further comment beyond” its July 28 statement.