Pop Mart sues Bull Airs over Labubu-like LaBullBu sneakers

Pop Mart has moved its Labubu fight from the blind-box wall to the sneaker shelf. In Manhattan federal court, the company said Bull Airs, a Cortland, New York maker of pop-culture-inspired footwear and apparel, sold LaBullBu sneakers and packaging that borrow too heavily from the Labubu formula, including Labubu-like figures on the tongues and box art that a typical buyer would not spot as different.

The complaint goes straight at the line Pop Mart wants collectors to see: homage is one thing, but a product that looks and reads like LABUBU is another. Pop Mart is suing for trademark infringement, infringement of unregistered trade dress, false designation of origin, and copyright infringement, and it is seeking damages and an injunction to stop Bull Airs from using the disputed marks.

That matters because Labubu is no longer just a niche art-toy character. Kasing Lung created the character in 2015, Pop Mart formally licensed it in 2019, and the brand has since ridden blind-box demand into a global collector market amplified by celebrity fans such as Lisa of Blackpink, Rihanna, and David Beckham. Pop Mart said in its 2024 annual results that revenue reached RMB 13.04 billion, up 106.9% year on year, while adjusted net profit rose 185.9% to RMB 3.4 billion. Later reporting said the company expects annual revenue to reach RMB 20 billion in 2025.

For buyers, the practical issue is authenticity. Once a character’s name, silhouette, and packaging become valuable, tiny visual cues start to matter, especially at resale, where licensed status can separate a sought-after piece from a headache. Pop Mart has already shown how aggressively it will defend that boundary: in July 2025, it sued 7-Eleven and California franchisees over alleged counterfeit Labubu dolls sold in nearly identical packaging.

The Bull Airs case pushes that same playbook into apparel and footwear. Pop Mart appears to be telling the market that Labubu can inspire, but it cannot be copied so closely that the knockoff starts passing as the real thing. For collectors sorting through the flood of Labubu-adjacent merch, that line is now getting drawn in federal court.