Overview
- Adidas and designer Willy Chavarría’s “Oaxaca Slip On” is produced outside Mexico and is accused of copying the Zapotec huarache design of Villa Hidalgo Yalálag without community consent.
- The Oaxaca Secretariat of Cultures and Arts demanded an immediate suspension of the model’s sales and public acknowledgment of the community’s collective intellectual property.
- President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration is examining legal action under Mexico’s Law of Patrimony and drafting reforms to bolster indigenous cultural protections.
- Adidas has sent a legal notice to Oaxaca state and will negotiate reparations with federal agencies such as the National Copyright Institute (Indautor) present.
- Advocates say the case highlights persistent gaps in safeguarding indigenous designs against global fashion brands and the need for enforceable benefit-sharing mechanisms.