South Butt/North Face All Is Well

I had posted several times about the David/Goliath battle between the South Butt and North Face. South Butt is the creation of 19 year old Jimmy Winklemann, a Missouri college student. North Face was not amused in the slightest by Winkleman’s alleged parody products. North Face filed a federal trademark suit against Winklemann, which prompted some incredibly funny pleadings by Winklemann’s attorney. But as so many cases do, this one ended in a settlement. And, as is so often the case, the terms are confidential. And while I have no idea what those terms might be, I have to assume that the agreement included some sort of gag order on the South Butt guys. In the past, the South Butt Web site had a field day mocking North Face and the lawsuit. At one point, it sponsored a Facebook contest asking people if they could tell the difference between a butt and a face. But while the Web site still offers South Butt apparel, there is no mention whatsoever of the lawsuit or the settlement. It appears that the “Our Story” portion of the site has been censored pretty effectively. It now says:

Hi, I’m James (“Jimmy”) Winkelmann, Jr. and I’m a college freshman at University of Missouri in Columbia. In an effort to assist my parents in paying for my college education during particularly trying financial times, I created The South Butt, LLC. Little did I know what I was getting myself into!

And that’s it. Apparently, we won’t know what Jimmy got himself into either. Too bad. This was kind of fun to watch.