Half-Pipe to Runway: Skateboarding's Lasting Effect on Fashion

Just last month we saw skateboarding featured for the first time in the Olympics. To some, this may have felt like a distant pipe dream and to others maybe a little bit of an existential nightmare. But no matter which side of the fence you're on, it's hard to deny how much of a fountain of influence this once outsider sport has actually become.

Despite its alien and subcultural upbringings, the sport of skateboarding has and continues to leave an enduring impression on the world of culture, art, film and most notably fashion. From high-street to streetwear to luxury, fashion's different styles have all sought to use skateboarding's lasting and impressionable being to further enhance their own brands.

The sport itself started sometime around the late '40s as surfers sought to "sidewalk surf" whenever the waves were flat. Embodying the DIY attitude of the sport that still exists today, these surfers attached roller skate wheels to wooden boxes and planks creating the first primitive board designs. By 1960 surf companies began to manufacture their own skateboards that resembled smaller surfboard designs, and the sport began to rapidly take off from there.

On the west coast of America, skaters adopted a laid back surf-style into their looks. Due to the warmer climate short-shorts, colourful tees, baggy light wash jeans and long socks were all embraced as somewhat of a uniform for skaters during the '60s and '70s. It wasn't until the 80s where baggy oversized fits came into skate/surf fashion, which inadvertently influenced a young surfer by the name of Shawn Stussy.

Shawn began creating surfboards and scrawling his signature last name into them. Eventually, he moved onto T-Shirts, caps and other products whilst selling them out the back of his car at the beach. As the brand grew, Stussy eventually turned into what we know now as the originator of the streetwear movement.

With the simultaneous growth of streetwear and skateboarding, skate-inspired clothing became somewhat absorbed under this new urban fashion guise. What once existed as trends within skateboarding alone now seemingly merged into part of streetwear's identity. Oversized logo tees, baggy pants and jeans, snapbacks and chunky sneakers and were inherited as part of streetwear's early genetic makeup with the two now existing synonymously.

Across the opposite side of America, the 90s saw the birth of arguably the most influential skate/streetwear brand going. Created by an English businessman by the name of James Jebbia, Supreme started as a skate store in the New York neighbourhood of Manhattan which catered to both the rising markets of skateboarding and streetwear.

The cocky nihilistic attitude embodied by the local skateboarders that worked there combined with an array of pop-culture misappropriated garments quickly generated the store an almost cult-like following in its youth. As the brand matured, it garnered a lot of attention from mainstream sources due to its many and limited collaborations with the likes of conventional established brands such as The North Face, Fila and Nike's 2002 born SB line.

By 2001 skateboarding had gained so much popularity that more children under the age of 18 rode skateboards than played baseball in the USA. With growth like this, it comes as no surprise that mainstream sportswear companies such as Nike would venture into the sport, and so the Nike SB line was launched.

The Nike SB Dunk Low was released the same year and featured a padded tongue and collar for added comfort and resistance. Alongside this, "Zoom Air" insoles further protected skateboarder's feet from the impact caused by attempting bigger tricks. To the love of some and dismay of others, Nike's involvement in the sport elevated skateboarding into a new mainstream space that would ultimately grow the scene.

Despite all the popular coverage and ventures over the years, one collaboration launched the sport far beyond the regions of streetwear style obscurity and instead into the realms of high fashion. In 2017 aforementioned Supreme made history by collaborating with none other than French fashion house Louis Vuitton.

The collaboration seemingly took the world by storm as LV initially reached out to the skate brand first to join forces for an extensive selection of luxury goods. Totalling more than 60 items, the collection launched in late June 2017, predictably causing chaos at Supreme locations across the world. Fans of the skate brand were left clamouring for a chance to buy the limited and preposterously expensive collection, mostly to no avail.

Though the success of this move seemingly pulled the last brick out the wall that separates skateboarding and high fashion, it wouldn't be the first time luxury brands have used skateboarding's naturally cool culture in an attempt to further their own agendas. For example, in 2013 Santa Cruz skateboards had to sue famed designer Jeremy Scott over his blatant plagiary of Jim Phillip's skateboard deck art.

Alongside this, 2016 saw Dior debut its Fall-Winter collection on a catwalk decorated with neon-lit skateboard ramps, and then the brand seemingly doubled down on the obsession by releasing a selection of off-trend Dior skateboard decks not long after.

Other famous fashion houses such as Gucci jumped on the trend too, with their 2020 Gucci Grip campaign that depicts a group of skaters all skating in £1,400 watches. While skateboarding clearly benefits financially from all the exposure, many feel as if high fashion's involvement is a far cry from the outcast and subcultural upbringings many of us were part of.

High fashion's relationship with skateboarding seems to be a turbulent one, to say the least. While it brings eyes to sport and promotes growth, many skateboarders would argue these fashion houses are instead trying to leach off the sport's culture in an attempt to appropriate it for their own gain.

However, like any opinion, it isn't shared by all. Over the years skateboarding has seen its fair share of crossover stars, most notably the late and great Dylan Rieder. Dylan was an American skater who made the jump into the high fashion big leagues after modelling with Cara Delevigne and A$AP Rocky for a DKNY campaign back in 2014.

He would eventually go on to become the face of an Alexander Wang campaign for Vogue whilst simultaneously winning the Transworld Skateboarding Award for 'Best Newcomer' for his part in Supreme's 'Cherry' skate video.

Before his untimely death in 2016, Dylan Rieder seemingly paved the way for other skaters to become some of fashion's most recognisable faces. Since then we've seen the likes of Palace skateboards alumni Blondey Mccoy model for Burberry, Valentino and Prada.

Alongside this, current Palace team Pro Lucien Clarke walked the catwalk for Louis Vuitton and then collaborated with the brand for their first skate shoe the "A View". RVCA pro Evan Mock has modelled for Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, Off-White and has even landed a starring role in HBO's hit 'Gossip Girl' reboot.

While it's unclear just how long skateboarding will continue to influence and affect the fashion industry as a whole, die-hard devotees can sleep soundly knowing popular brands such as Supreme, Palace, Fucking Awesome & Thrasher (if you can call it a brand), all still embody skateboarding's rich culture and individuality at the core.