brad 15 Nov 05

Can we see a Sony version instead?

Meri 15 Nov 05

So glad you pointed out how your surname is pronounced. Otherwise it could have been an apt, but sad, commentary on modern eating habits.

Jamie 15 Nov 05

Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

Kap 15 Nov 05

How does this dovetail with your previous post:

“Tongue-in-cheek or not, there�s nothing awesome about IP/brand theft.”

Mike Monteiro 15 Nov 05

Hey Jason, long time reader, first time caller.
In a previous post you mention:
” When it becomes ok to steal someone�s brand, copy someone�s product, or blatantly rip off someone else�s design for your profit, well, we�re all in trouble.”
However, in this post you mention that Nike is one of your favorite companies. That’s fine.
I’m wondering how you reconcile the two when Nike doesn’t share your views on the sanctimony of intellectual property, as was made clear by their Minor Threat misstep not too long ago.

Jamie 15 Nov 05

Re: Minor Threat. Nike apologized. It wasn’t created by their in-house “Creatives” :P. It was created by fanboy skaters on their team. At least that’s what I heard.

Steve 15 Nov 05

Not everyone agrees with the less concept.

Rabbit 15 Nov 05

@Steve: Mr. Uzish’s post doesn’t provide a lot of meat.

In fact, it seems like LESS would help him out. =P

Don Wilson 15 Nov 05

I don’t get it.

Jason 15 Nov 05

these posts are turning into trash.

Anonymous Coward 15 Nov 05

these posts are turning into trash.

The posts are fine, it appears to be the comments that are trash. See above.

Anonymous Coward 15 Nov 05

No, its the posts

JF 15 Nov 05

No, its the posts

Then stay away.

Another Jamie 15 Nov 05

Good for you Jason. This is pretty funny and a great follow-up.

Yeah, some of your posts can rub me the wrong way sometimes. Others are brilliant. I keep coming back for both. Who wants to just read things they agree with?

Keep it (all) up!

Mark John B. 15 Nov 05

Seeing that Nike is one of my favorite companies, I�m honored.

Yeah, talk about using Nike’s logo as “awesome”?

JF 15 Nov 05

Ed, come on. There’s clearly a distinction between someone having a little fun with a logo among friends on Flickr and someone putting a pirated Nike logo on a pair of shoes to pass them off as the real thing.

Jason 15 Nov 05

Just like theres a clear distinction between sharing a few songs with your friends online and a pirate?

Grey is the new black.

Justin 15 Nov 05

Looks good

steveo 15 Nov 05

Obviously it’s a little curious that JF posted a logo right after his kottke rant. But that aside, it’s funny when people criticize the value of the content here. Are we paying them for this stuff? Do they owe us anything? If you buy their book and don’t like the content, then write them. But don’t have a pissing contest when they post something they feel like posting. It’s theirs, no?

Don’t get me wrong: I often take SVN posts with a grain of salt, have been an on/off member of the 37bandwagon, and have a love/hate relationship with JF. But it seems like they have been getting unnecessarily attacked an awful lot lately…

Anonymous 16 Nov 05

”[‘having a little fun with a logo among friends on Flickr’] or not, there�s nothing awesome about IP/brand theft.”

Sorry for posting anonymously. I just wanted to point it out. I really admire your work and your blog, but this post/ these comments should get trashed immediately.

Stephen 16 Nov 05

I originally assumed people were just trying to yank Jason’s chain a bit, given his recent comments about the Kottke post, but so many commenters have made reference to this post consituting some sort of brand theft that I’m beginning to think that at least some of them are serious.

Now, maybe I’m missing something here, but I really fail to see the validity of the argument that this post constitutes brand theft.

Nobody’s attempting to pass this logo off as the real Nike logo. Nobody’s attempting to launch a “Fried” competitor brand, that uses the Nike swoosh as part of its logotype. And nobody is attempting to make any money out of this.

The logo is just a bit of laugh. Whether or not you actually find it amusing is another matter entirely, but it can’t be described (seriously) as being “brand theft.”

Anybody who attempts to argue otherwise is either overly sensitive about brand theft (I don’t think Nike would really be that bothered by this “infringement”), or is willfully trying to make an issue out of what is really nothing more than a piece of whimsy.

Andrew 16 Nov 05

I think you all missed the point. If anything is the focus of Jason’s post, it’s most likely the “Just do it like I do it” tagline.

Jason’s enthusiasm for 37signals philosphy and brand positioning has brought him a lot of flack. The reality is that “simple” doesn’t always work in every aspect of life. Reasonable, intelligent people will take ideas like Jason’s, analyze it for use in their lives, take what works and discard the rest.

The “logo” was obviously making fun of Jason and rides the backlash he’s receiving.

It takes guts for Jason to post this as it acknowledges the crap he’s been getting recently. And, truthfully, if I were to be publically teased on Flickr, I’d want a good logo to be there, too!

To those calling Jason a hypocrite based on his intellectual proporty post…the day Jason slaps this fake logo on a t-shirt and starts making a profit (which was one of the points of his post), I’ll join you in giving him hell. But until then, go back to your own plans for trying to change the world.

benny 16 Nov 05

I suspect this means Nike is buying 37s. Now we can expect very simple sneakers.

dusoft 16 Nov 05

Europeans of course have known spelling of your name for long time - some German-speaking is always nearby.

dusoft 16 Nov 05

correction: some German-speaking country, that is

MH 17 Nov 05

Jason (not Fried): Just like theres a clear distinction between sharing a few songs with your friends online and a pirate?

There’s no actual product exchanged in this case.