Imagine being on a live stream in front of 44.3 million subscribers on YouTube while wearing fake apparel. Embarrassing, right? Well, that’s something that happened to Darren Watkins Jr., popular by his stage name ‘IShowSpeed’, recently. The one who caught him was none other than the artist himself – and the fastest active sprinter, Noah Lyles. But what was the fake apparel that the American YouTuber wore?

It was a T-shirt featuring one of Oswald Wallace III’s artworks. The artist, who goes by OzzyOz Da Vyrus, took to Instagram and wrote, “That shirt Speed is rocking IS MY ART. I’m OzzyOz Da Vyrus, the original artist. Someone stole my design, erased my name, and gave it to him.” He emphasized that it wasn’t just a shirt – it represented his career and his family’s livelihood.

Standing up against art theft, he asked his 178K followers to tag Watkins Jr. and prevent similar incidents. Of course, it wasn’t Watkins’ fault – he wore the shirt that a fan gifted him. But the artist wanted one thing only: his rightful credit.

To back his claim, the artist shared a reel showing the YouTuber wearing the T-shirt. It depicted Luffy from One Piece seemingly entering “gear 4” in the anime. The caption read, “TELL @ISHOWSPEED ON YOUTUBE HES WEARING A FAKE OZZY SHIRT… He was recently gifted my art on a shirt with my name edited out @ozzyoz_da_vyrus.”

Lyles, seemingly a fan of both anime and the artwork, reshared the post on his Instagram Story. It wasn’t just a random share – it was his way of standing against art theft and supporting independent artists.

Noah Lyles races IShowSpeed for a tub of cash

Back in November 2024, Darren Watkins Jr. and Noah Lyles had a face-off. It wasn’t one filled with animosity, but there was a whopping $100,000 on the line.

When there’s that much money in a YouTube video, most eyes search for one man – MrBeast. And that’s exactly what happened. IShowSpeed received a FaceTime call from MrBeast, who revealed he was actually with Lyles. With his aspirations to become the fastest man alive, IShowSpeed challenged the Olympic sprinter, who accepted immediately. MrBeast put up the $100K prize money.

Watkins was confident. He said, “Noah, I promise I’m going to beat you. My name is Speed for a reason.” The duo lined up on the 50m line. The rules were simple: no stopping mid-race. ‘Nojo18’ warned the YouTuber, saying, “After the second step, you will lose all hope and you will want to stop the race. Do not stop this race, run through the line.”

Shockingly, IShowSpeed kept neck-to-neck with Lyles. But in the end, it was the Olympic medalist who won. When Watkins asked for a rematch, Lyles refused. Instead, he encouraged him: “You should practice with me, and then at the end of the week we’ll race again. … And then you’ll be faster, you’ll know what to do, you’ll have the technique, you’ll have an advantage, and then we can run the real man’s race: the 100.”

It seems like Lyles has often looked out for IShowSpeed. First, he offered to train him. And now, he stepped in to save him from future embarrassment by pointing out that the apparel he wore featured stolen art. What do you think of Lyles’ act?