Blame it on Chase Corum for referring to Turning Point in his India post. He made this site start XXXMOSHINGXXX. I’m just keeping the flame burning strong…GO!
New York skateboard brand Supreme has gone straight edge. Stopping in their Soho store yesterday, I spotted these “appropriations.”
The YOUTH CREW above refers to a late 80s CT/NY straight edge (no drink or drugs) hardcore-punk movement led by the bands Youth of Today, Bold, and Gorilla Biscuits. Is Supreme saying that drug free homo-eroticism is Napoleonic?
The top left t-shirt is a rip-off of SSD’s 1981 album The Kids Will Have Their Say. The kids are storming the Massachusetts state house—as seen from Matt Damon’s condo in The Depahhhted. Chris Spadling rightly pointed out that SSD used to come to New York from Boston and kick the shit out of NYHC dudes at CBGBs and the Pyramid. What is Supreme trying to tell us? That they got beat up by Boston folk?
Here’s the original SSD cover.
Below is a picture of Bold at City Gardens in Trenton, NJ, from 1988. The singer of Gorrilla Biscuits, Anthony “Civ” Civirelli, is “crowd surfing.” Look at the style—Nikes, cargo shirts, obnoxiously screen-printed t-shirts, sleeveless t-shirts. Add some shaggy hair and put these kids in Max Fish and you have the modern LES style.
Supreme is a $20 million a year company. But they’re one of the only skateboard brands to both maintain their integrity and transcend the genre. Supreme are punks: They will steal your logo or mascot—be it Kermit the frog, Dipset, or Bad Brains—and use it for their brand. And Supreme’s downtown scumbag aesthetic beat Vice Magazine by a decade. They only have one store in the US, on Lafayette and Prince in Manhattan, but four in Japan. The majority of their business comes from the Orientals. Still, every young Hollywood stud (see Hartnett, Josh; Ledger, Heath—RIP man) buys a Supreme hat the second he sets foot on this glorious isle. Hopefully we’ll soon see Wilmer Valderama in a Supreme YOUTH CREW t-shirt.
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March 16th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
that #2 shirt is my former intern, designer at Deluxe’s shirt. You should see how many Bad Brains rip off skate shirts there are.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
this just makes me feel old.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
I tried not to editorialize, but I like Supreme and think this is kind of cool. It helps AP’s book too. We all came up in this shit and the fact that your (John) old intern is designing this makes it that much better. Let’s get a TYF ripoff shirt in Supreme ASAP. Even I would spend $60 on that.
March 16th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
“Kids Will Have Their Say” cover art is absolutely crucial. All the photoshop trickery in the world couldn’t come up with something better looking than that. I’m inspired to pull out my copy [original pressing on X-Claim / DiscHord, not the poser boot by Porcell!]
March 17th, 2008 at 9:50 am
“Snitches Get Stitches” - is that an ode to Leeway or Carmello Anthony?
March 17th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Supreme’s had a store in LA for a while now too.
Al Barille chased Porcell down the streets of Manhattan for his poser boot, while Im unsure of the truthfulness of that, its a great mental image regardless.
March 19th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I totally missed that Leeway shirt and forgot about the LA store. Retard. They also had a “Radical Tendencies” Suicidals rip-off…