Miller Nash’s sports, entertainment, and media team assisted OMORPHO, a cutting-edge startup athletic equipment company, in navigating the legal challenges associated with launching an innovative new business in the competitive sports apparel industry. OMORPHO, meaning “beautiful” in Greek, was cofounded in 2017 in Portland, Oregon, by Stefan Olander, a former Nike executive, and Ben Williams, Global Chief Creative Experience Officer at TBWA. After three years of athletic research and testing, OMORPHO revolutionized training through MicroLoad, a science-backed technology which amplifies an athlete’s training by strategically placing small amounts of weight across the body, improving fitness, speed, and power. The clothing is designed to be functional, without restricting movement, and apply to a variety of exercise, including running, training, sports, dance, riding, yoga, and Pilates. Julio Jones and Cynthia Erivo are among the brand’s impressive advisors and ambassadors.
With the founders’ experience and connections in the athletic apparel industry and the sports world in general, this emerging venture was expected to grow very quickly. This required, at a very early stage, worldwide trademark coverage due to the anticipated rapid growth and global media attention. The project necessitated Miller Nash’s experienced intellectual property attorneys, led by Paul Havel, to create and implement an IP strategy for OMORPHO’s worldwide trademark filings for its family of trademarks, which included six different trademarks around the world. Obtaining trademark coverage was complex, due to the nature of the product line—weighted clothing for exercise and fitness purposes. The team successfully argued for trademark coverage in categories that include both clothing and exercise and fitness equipment.
Additionally, Doug Morris and Nic Mayne led the effort in assisting OMORPHO with its initial Series Seed financing in 2021, a $5 million round led by KB Partners. In 2022, Nic, Doug, and Eric Robertson assisted OMORPHO with a second $6M round, again led by KB Partners, with participation from Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. and Greenchain Capital, among other investors. Miller Nash served as OMORPHO’s counsel in both financing rounds, helping to negotiate and draft the purchase agreement, ancillary investor documents, and revised corporate documents, while advising the OMORPHO team throughout the capital raising process.
Nic also led the team’s work in supporting OMORPHO with drafting, reviewing, and negotiating a wide variety of athlete ambassador agreements and advisory board agreements. He continues to work closely with the OMORPHO team to help secure mutually beneficial partnerships with its various high-profile sports and fitness ambassadors. Most recently, OMORPHO added Seattle Seahawks running back DeeJay Dallas to its ambassador team, with Nic working alongside Miller Nash attorney Max Forer and OMORPHO’s Chief Financial Officer, Gareth Hosford, in drafting the ambassador agreement.
“The excellent team at Miller Nash has leveraged their invaluable expertise and creativity to guide OMORPHO through multiple critical areas, including company formation, trademark strategy and applications, early round funding, and ambassador contracting,” said CFO Gareth Hosford. “OMORPHO is growing rapidly and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Miller Nash as we expand.”
For more information on OMORPHO and the company’s innovative weighted apparel products, visit omorpho.fit.