Japanese Influence

There are more streetwear brands than ever before, with social media giving more opportunity and platforms for selling than we’ve ever seen. Apps like Depop and 21 Buttons have inspired more and more people to take matters in to their own hands in terms of creating an independent business, with the likes of Instagram also now including Instagram shopping on their platform, this indicates that this trend is far from over and it isn’t disappearing anytime soon.

But, this being said, we still have the powerhouses within streetwear that monopolise multiple sub genre’s within streetwear, take Nike for example, they sell everything that a streetwear fan would need, from rigid overshirts, to skateboard gear and obviously the latest hype sneakers. But apart from them, who are the biggest streetwear brands out there today?

In this chapter we’ll be looking at some brands that have been at there or thereabouts for decades and we’ll also look at some that are on the rise or that have made a comeback in recent years. There’s a lot of factors to consider and look at, but the main factors will be:

Hype, as cringeworthy as it may sound, this has to be taken in to consideration but it isn’t necessarily the most important part.

Creativity and uniqueness, this looks at the brands approach to marketing and how they gained traction or stayed on top for time, we’ll look at what makes them different to other brands they could be compared to.

Transparency & accessibility, there’s different between exclusivity and being just stingy. For example, Anti-Social Social club are a brand that a renowned for being terrible at delivering on releases and have either not delivered orders or taken 6 months to create and deliver a product, this in todays day and age isn’t acceptable and something that turns a lot of people away from a brand. Transparency goes hand in hand with this in terms of providing information/ customer care as well as sticking to a ethical or sustainable mission statement.

This picture was taken from What The Spots, talking about the most popular shops in London, this is the Supreme store in Soho Supreme New York, to give it it’s full title, is one of the OG’s if you like of streetwear. Founded in 1994 by James Jebbia, Supreme was the cool, cool place to go, Jebbia considers “more as a space.” (Sullivan, 2017). This gave it an aura that no other shop had in New York, a place that housed all of the cool stuff that cool, street savvy people were wearing, starting from mostly skateboarding apparel and branching off to more and more diverse items over the years such as the newly announced Supreme branded Airstream travel trailer.

Supreme is one of the most hyped brands of all time, with some of the most sought after items selling out hundreds of units in a matter of seconds through bots that have been created to access these products before anyone else. Some of Supremes’ biggest collaborators include Nike, creating some Supreme branded Air max’s and even getting their hands on the Air Jordan V, Comme Des Garcons have also worked with Supreme on creating a box logo that was very different to their usual ideas. Some more edgy collaborations have included Rimowa, a luggage manufacturer, but one of their most prestigious collaborations came in the form of the highest quality leather goods form Louis Vuitton. This collaboration was working towards a similar goal to the likes of Off-White and Nike etc, in that they elevated a consumer from high street/ diffusion level to a luxury level through a collaboration that introduced them to a new level of consuming. This collaboration really shook up the secondary market and has helped supreme propel their demand, whilst keeping their exclusivity

This brings me on to how we consume Supreme and why I think this is a massive part of their USP, creating a demand and a need for their product whilst maintaining a ‘you can look but you can’t touch’ sort of ideology. Supreme usually drop their products on 4pm UK time on the Supreme website and their app. These drops contain a number of items from their seasonal collections, mixed in with their collaborative work as well. They also have physical stores in New York of course, London. Berlin and Tokyo to name a few.

This is a brand that has history, but not necessarily in being a cool and trendy streetwear brand. Quoting an article talking about New Balance “Not only are they damn comfortable, but the simple style – or lack thereof – has been a staple of dads around the world since first busting onto the scene back in 1982.” (Holdraker, 2019). This sums up what a lot of people’s perception of NB is. But New Balance hasn’t necessarily changed completely, but rather expanded on what they do and create and who they work with. Something that New Balance has done is become a lifestyle brand, creating sneakers for the everyday run-around and sneakers that bring the likes of Balenciaga’s Triple S and Yeezy 700’s down to a digestible level.

“The brands first collaborated on the reliable New Balance 997, but the shoes themselves were almost upstaged by a memorable ad campaign. It featured New Balance’s trademark minimalist design adorning photos of an older New York native clad in a distinctly New York fit—wool topcoat, sweats, and a thick, worn-in scarf.”

Taken from GQ, talking over the relationship between New Balance and Aime Leon Dore (Dean, 2021)

One of the reasons NB has risen in the past couple of years is the choice of collaborations and how these have changed the perception of their brand. Aime Leon Dore is an up and coming brand out of New York city, and have a luxurious and elegant design palette, with stores to match, NB and ALD began working together in 2019, releasing many different models and colourways of each. These collaborations had the physical quality and wearability of a NB sneaker, with the concept and presentation of Aime Leon Dore. This elevated NB and brought them in to this streetwear scene that holds collaborations and exclusivity at the next level. They’ve also collaborated with the likes of Bodega as well, this created unique colourways that held a nar- rative that gave them more of a depth to the collection of rare sneakers.

A pair of New Balance 550’s, one of their most popuular pairs since 2020 (Paz, 2021)

A picture of Stussy’s surf collaboration with Nike, featuring the full ttracksuit and fossil sneakers, taken from Stussy’s website We’ve briefly spoken about Shawn Stussy, one of the godfathers of streetwear I think would be an appropriate title and his endeavours have led to collaborations with Dior personally and an ongoing partnership with Nike that includes a range of apparel and accessories. Stussy was originally a surf wear brand, focusing on creating clothing and accessories for the scene in the late 80’s and 90’s. Stussy began making waves, literally, with printed t-shirts and shorts with Shawn’s last name graffitied on the back as a logo so to speak. This took off and he began to sell this apparel to boutique’s and stores around America, in places specifically like Los Angeles and New York, his work began to spread and grew to redefine what we perceive to be casualwear. What made Stussy stand out was the way they showed their fashion, as the lifestyle of Stussy was just as important as the clothing itself, working with artists and creatives from different backgrounds, Stussy has always given a broader and more culturally aware perspective on their fashion, showing originality and diversity throughout.

“This approach appealed to a worldwide network of creative youth who shared a common interest in surf-culture, skating and music. Limited distribution fuelled the desire internationally, and those who wanted the gear found it and felt a part of something bigger in the process.”

Part of Stussy’s story, taken from their website talking about where they came from and what the brand itself means (Stussy, 2022)

But why does Stussy rank amongst some of the biggest brands in the world? One of the main aspects that people appreciate about Stussy is that it is one of those ‘if you know, you know’ brands that when you’re seen wearing it, it’s highly appreciated by fellow streetwear fanatics, part of a code that lets people know that you know what you’re doing. Very few brands have this alure, for example, Supreme used to have this affect, then it became too mainstream and lost its specialness and uniqueness in that way, but Stussy is still only sold through their own channels and then within certain retailers around the globe, keeping this experi- ence and exclusivity.

One of the biggest British made streetwear brands today, is Palace Skateboards, a brand started in 2009 by Len Tanju and Gareth Skewis. This brand is London street culture summed up in garments and accessories for all occasions, similarly to Supreme, Palace offers a lot of clothing selections and a range of unique accessories from season to season, dropping once a week. I’ve spent many a time waiting on the Palace website for the clock to hit 11:00 to cop the latest Tri-ferg hoodie, only for it to sell out in under a minute. Exclusivity is the name of the game and Palace play it very well, as well as Stussy, this brand has the gravitas of being part of the streetwear underworld that only a few take part in.

“Terrace culture — named for the standing section of soccer stadiums, where fans (often working class) are most belligerent — is a big part of the look. And at the heart of any good look is necessity. Like how to maneuver style-centric London roads while doing your best sober impression, for example.”

This is how Hypebeast described the culture of Palace to their predominantly American audience (Davis, 2020)

So we know Palace is an exclusive brand that offers high quality product, but the reason we hold it in high regard is, especially for me being a British streetwear consumer, how it represents us in terms of attitude and cultural points we hold in high regard, the personal experience on their website, the collaborations with Reebok, Stella Artois and Adidas have really added to building a brand that offers a bit of everything. But Palace themselves are known the most for, as I mentioned before, their Tri-Ferg design which can only be compared to Supreme’s box logo in terms of how it makes you associate the logo with Palace every time. 24 We’ve already mentioned Off-White when talking about Virgil Abloh and his endeavours within the world of streetwear, but Off-White themselves are still worth a mention and a section in this chapter. One of the biggest brands over the past 7/8 years has been Off-White, this is because of the way they changed how many brands view and create streetwear, paving the path and combination of luxury streetwear in terms of how higher end brands dedicate their collections and presentation to the streetwear sector, focusing on pieces likes sweatshirts- t-shirts and sneakers, dressing the snobs of streetwear, I mean this in the most polite way possible as I wear Off-White a lot too.

Off-White has become a beacon of hypebeasts all around the world, from the arrows logos to the diagonal line hoodies we see everyone who’s anyone wear at some point since OW’s rise in 2014. But if we breakdown their designs and their commercial branding, they have their designs and also their quotation pieces, selling a pair of boots that has “FOR WALKING” written alongside of them. Not many brands would get away with doing this, but this trend became somewhat of a revelation amongst designers as we’ve seen collaborators like Nike take inspiration from this as well, making their own designs based off this.

Off-White are inevitably one of the go to’s for curating a fashionable wardrobe and their success for this is described as “Currently, Off–White lies at the crux of an incredibly profitable trifecta: the growing market for luxury goods amongst younger consumers, the popularity of hip hop in the United States, and the demand for streetwear.” (Ganeshan, 2020). But something we assume is that it’s hard to get a hold of, as that is a trend amongst most popular streetwear brands, but it isn’t, I think what attracts people to OffWhite is the assumption and guarantee of quality in terms of design and product, they are the originators of their style so you’re wearing something that is authentic to itself.