‘Tough case for the sneaker company’: Judge rejects bid to shut Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce’s 1587 Prime

Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce just won the first round of a legal fight they never expected when they mashed their jersey numbers together and turned it into a steakhouse brand. A federal judge refused to let a New York sneaker company shut down their new Kansas City spot, 1587 Prime, on an emergency basis.The ruling keeps the doors open at the restaurant, which launched in September 2025 with hospitality group Noble 33, but the lawsuit is still alive. The fight now shifts from panic-mode restraining orders to a slower, uglier question: who really owns “1587” when one side serves ribeyes and the other sells sneakers.Reporter Farzin Vousoughian summed up the first big swing in the case on X, citing Kansas City outlet KMBC. “A federal judge has denied 1587 Sneakers’ proposed emergency request to temporarily shut down 1587 Prime, per KMBC,” he wrote. “The emergency request also asked for 1587 Prime to be blocked from selling or promoting products using ‘1587’ or ‘1587 Prime.… To be clear, the case is still ongoing, but the request was rejected.”That emergency request would have hit every part of the business. 1587 Sneakers wanted the court to stop the restaurant from advertising, selling, or promoting anything tied to the “1587” or “1587 PRIME” branding and to force Mahomes’ side to park branding money in escrow while the case played out.U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald was not buying it. In a March 2 ruling, she rejected the bid for a temporary restraining order, finding that 1587 Sneakers had not shown New York was even the right place to bring this fight and pointing to timing that cut against any “emergency” claim. The company waited roughly two months after 1587 Prime opened in Kansas City to file the rush request and did not send advance legal notice or filings to the defendants before dropping the complaint.The lawsuit itself is still on the table. Buchwald left the door open for future requests if 1587 Sneakers cleans up the jurisdiction issues and properly serves Mahomes’ camp. For now, though, the quarterback and his tight end can keep pouring steaks instead of shutting off the lights.This is not a random number slapped on a menu. Shoe entrepreneur Adam King launched 1587 Sneakers with partners Sam Hyun and Jose Antonio Vargas in June 2023. Court filings say the brand started selling products under “1587” in April 2023 and argue that early use gives them priority on the mark, even though their federal trademark application did not land at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office until October. That application is still pending.On the other sideline, Mahomes and Kelce’s group applied to trademark 1587 Prime in December 2023, almost two years before the steakhouse opened. Their filing covers restaurant and bar services. The sneaker company’s filing sits in a different lane, tied to clothing and footwear. That split matters. Trademark attorney Josh Gerben told ESPN that the gap between industries is a real hurdle for 1587 Sneakers. “I think it’s a tough case for the sneaker company,” he said. “Trademarks can coexist in different industries… Given that the marks are essentially identical here, is a restaurant and a shoe company too close? Are consumers likely to be confused in thinking they are affiliated with one another?”1587 Sneakers is trying to close that gap by pointing to the merch table. The company argues that 1587 Prime also sells branded apparel, which they say drifts into their lane and has already confused customers about whether the businesses are connected. Their attorney, Ezra Salami, has signaled they are ready to bring that evidence if the case goes to trial.So Mahomes and Kelce are not clear yet. The judge only blocked the emergency shutoff, not the larger trademark claim. But on the scoreboard right now, the sneaker company is the one walking out of court with an early loss while the two Kansas City stars keep serving dinner under the number that started all of this.