Steve McQueen's Heirs to Sue Clothing Manufacturer

Look, I don't blame Belstaff USA for finding a way to market their clothing lines around Steve McQueen. After all, you don't just get the nickname "The King of Cool" by winning a bingo night.

But the company's use of McQueen's name for their products has rankled the late actor's heirs. And now Chadwick McQueen and The Terry McQueen Testamentary Trust want Belstaff to cut it out. Like, now.

According to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the plaintiffs claim that McQueen's name and likeness has been misappropriated by Belstaff, who markets jackets, coats, sweaters, pats, shoes and t-shirts under the name McQueen.

Interestingly, a recent Esquire pictorial featured the likeness of McQueen (a model in a Steve McQueen mask) wearing the Belstaff McQueen replica jacket, straddling a bitchin' Triumph motorcycle.


I think the company may be in trouble here, although if the McQueens want to be exceedingly smart about this, they just license McQueen (as they've done in the past, by the way) to Belstaff or some other designer as the eternal embodiment of cool.