SALT LAKE CITY, July 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — HandsFree Labs, Inc. (“HFL”), the intellectual property and innovation engine behind Kizik®, the brand that created the hands-free footwear category, announced today it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Skechers USA, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. As alleged in the complaint, Skechers knowingly and willfully infringed four HFL utility patents, which protect core mechanical innovations that enable true hands-free shoe entry, as well as two HFL design patents, which protect ornamental innovations.
The case centers on Skechers’ fastest-growing Hands Free Slip-ins line, one that Skechers has positioned as a major innovation, but one that incorporates patented technologies that HFL invented, developed, and protected years before Skechers entered the category.
“This isn’t just a product Skechers copied, it’s a category we created,” said Gareth Hosford, CEO of HFL. “From the start, our mission was clear – to revolutionize how people put on their shoes. We believed this everyday task could be easier, faster, and more convenient. We poured our energy into developing the technology to solve a real-world problem and make hands-free shoes a reality. We’re now forced to defend that work against a company that chose to imitate rather than innovate.”
HFL holds a global IP portfolio of more than 200 issued and pending patents dating back more than 15 years and covering multiple proprietary hands-free footwear systems, including its Cage®, Unified™, Flex Arc™, and Squeeze It® technologies. Since 2019, HFL has licensed its technologies to respected partners, including global leaders like Nike, Inc., to help bring hands-free solutions to consumers responsibly and ethically. In contrast, Skechers launched its own hands-free line without communicating or licensing, instead promoting its “Heel Pillow” system as proprietary and “exclusive.”
“Skechers didn’t just cross the line, they saw the line, acknowledged it, and stepped over it anyway,” said Ryan Dykal, Partner at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP and lead counsel for HFL. “This case is about protecting meaningful, functional innovation, the kind that transforms how people live, and ensuring that companies who invest in inventions aren’t punished for doing so.”
Skechers’ Slip-ins have quickly become one of its most prominent product categories, with more than one-third of all SKUs currently offered on Skechers’ website featuring hands-free functionality. In earnings calls and public statements, Skechers executives have repeatedly touted the success of Slip-ins as a key growth driver, crediting the technology with boosting sales, consumer engagement, and stock performance.
Yet while Skechers has reaped the commercial rewards, HFL asserts Skechers has done so at the expense of true innovation, and without regard for the legal rights of the inventors who built the category.
“The real danger here isn’t just to our company, it’s to innovation itself,” said Hosford. “When billion-dollar brands can openly copy protected technologies and profit from doing so with no consequences, it sends a dangerous message to every entrepreneur, engineer, and inventor: your work doesn’t matter. We can’t accept that. And we won’t.”
HandsFree Labs Licensing, LLC Fast IP, LLC, and Kizik Design, LLC v. Skechers U.S.A., Inc.; Case number 2:25-cv-00744 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas Marshall Division.
About HandsFree Labs
Founded in 2017, HandsFree Labs is the innovation and IP engine behind Kizik®, the world’s original hands-free footwear brand. With over 200 patents and applications globally, HFL empowers world-leading footwear brands with innovative hands-free technologies. From technologies that apply from rapid-entry athletic shoes to step-in winter boots, HFL’s mission is to solve how we make the very act of living a better user experience for people everywhere.
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SOURCE Kizik
