SHOEY gets trademarked.

The Mad Hueys, Image by Vimeo

‘Shoey’ - the podium celebration of drinking champagne from a shoe.

The Shoey has been a popular celebration in Australia for around 15 years thanks to surfing and fishing brand, The Mad Hueys. Dean and Shaun Harrington, known as the face of this brand, have been quoted saying they drunk Shoeys as early as 2002.

According to World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), F1’s branding department Formula One Licensing has been granted a trademark registration to the word ‘Shoey’ which has been  registered in 25 countries including the United States, Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom. The registration is only for one category and covers flasks, glasses, bottles, mugs, sculptures and figurines. The Registration process for SHOEY was faced with a hurdle as an application for the word in respect of clothing was cancelled due to an earlier registration for the word in the same category by Australian Korinne Harrington.

More recently, Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian Red Bull Racing driver, has become quite famous for celebrating in this way on the podium and has even got celebrities including Sir Patrick Stewart and Gerard Butler to drink champagne from his shoe after winning races.

The Shoey by Daniel Ricciardo, image by ABC

F1 won’t be able to stop the stars of rival sports from celebrating in this way but it could put the brakes on them selling glasses, bottles and statues carrying the word. Red Bull Racing itself even tweeted a link for fans to make their own cardboard Shoeys to drink from on New Year’s Eve. If it ever tried to sell it in future it might need F1’s consent or it could run the risk of legal drama.

Gerald Butler doing the Shoey, Image by The Australian

News Source- Independent

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