Sneaker wars heat up as designers face lawsuit

Washington

THE massive heist from the world's biggest sportswear firm was, as Nike lawyers allege, an inside job.

Faking a broken laptop, one of the sneaker giant's top directors is said to have met secretly with an interloper to copy some of what a Nike lawsuit this week called the firm's "most important and highly confidential" intelligence.

Days later, the director and two other elite designers defected to the firm's bitter rival, allegedly scrubbing e-mail and text messages that, lawyers said, hi…