Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Albuquerque Tribune Online: Z-Coil Footwear endures knockoff accusation (March 2001)

Albuquerque Tribune Online: Business: "Sometimes it just doesn't pay to be the originator.

Z-CoiL Footwear Inc., the Albuquerque developer of Z-CoiL Shoes for Pain Relief, learned its biggest shipment of shoes to date was being held in El Paso. It seems the U.S. Customs Service was concerned that the shoes, which feature a coil under the heel, were a knockoff of Nike Shox.

If anything, say the Z-CoiL makers, Nike Shox athletic shoes, introduced last year, are a knockoff of Z-CoiLs. CEO Al Gallegos founded his company in 1989 and sold the first pair of Z-CoiLs in 1996.

Z-CoiL's Korean shoe manufacturer had shipped three containers of the shoes, with 12,000 pairs, and the shoes reached El Paso.

'Two days later they still hadn't been released,' says Andres Gallegos, executive vice president. 'I got the word from my broker it was something to do with infringement.'"


By Sherry Robinson
Tribune reporter

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