Strava blames Garmin logo policy for lawsuit
Strava has now spoken up about what led it to sue Garmin, and it seems to have little to do with Segments or heatmaps. In a Reddit post, the company’s Chief Product Officer claims Garmin threatened to block all device syncing unless Strava plastered its logo on every user-facing screen.
To remind, Strava sued Garmin last week over two main features, Segments and heatmaps. It claims Garmin copied its tech and broke a 2015 agreement between the two companies. The lawsuit asks for money and a ban on Garmin selling devices with those features.
Logo rules and platform control
Matt Salazar posted on the r/Strava subreddit to explain the backstory. According to him, Garmin introduced new branding guidelines on July 1 that would force Strava to show the Garmin logo on every single activity post, image, graph and sharing card derived from Garmin data. The deadline for compliance is November 1. If Strava doesn’t agree, Garmin could cut off all API access.
Strava says this is unacceptable. It sees the change as forced advertising, not attribution, and believes it would degrade the user experience. Salazar added that Garmin doesn’t apply this rule to third-party data within its own ecosystem, like heart rate straps or power meters. He framed the disagreement as a question of data ownership and user rights, saying that if someone records an activity on their device, they should be free to share it however they like, without corporate logos baked in.
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Strava claims it spent the past five months trying to resolve things privately. It says it proposed a more balanced attribution method, but Garmin rejected those options. Instead, Garmin stuck with its original demands, prompting Strava to escalate the dispute.
Users aren’t buying it
The Reddit post hasn’t exactly gone over well. Many users replied with skepticism or outright frustration. Several pointed out the irony of Strava calling out Garmin for branding and data access, given its own history of stripping back third-party integrations and turning its platform into a subscription-heavy experience.
Some said they had no issue with Garmin wanting attribution, and that device logos don’t interfere with their experience. Others noted that Strava already promotes gear partnerships and branded challenges, often in more intrusive ways than a simple device logo.
One of the sharper replies summed up the backlash: “You already list what device someone used. No one cares if there’s a Garmin logo. This is about your monetisation, not our experience.” Another user accused Strava of retaliating with patent lawsuits after failing to get its way, calling the move “insane.”
There’s also a broader trust issue. Some users are still angry about previous API shutdowns that removed integrations with some third-party services. So when Strava now frames itself as a defender of “your data,” it’s being met with disbelief by long-time users who feel they’ve lost access to features they valued.
Strava ended the post by saying it wants to avoid any disruption to syncing, and that it is still actively trying to prevent Garmin access from being cut off. But with lawsuits filed, tempers flaring and users venting, this feels less like a negotiation and more like the start of a deeper fracture between two fitness giants.
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