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The story of James Jebbia’s fashion label, Supreme, has been written and rewritten hundreds of times despite the founder being notoriously press adverse. Words and phrases like “five-panel” “Lafayette Street,” and “box logo” have all been been repurposed in different sequences and with greater emphasis to reflect the desire to keep on telling an origin story that hasn’t changed all that much.
You could make the argument that Supreme’s link to skateboarding – and specifically its OG skate team – had more impact on the brand’s early popularity than any of the original designs in the ’90s like their Travis Bickle T-shirt and Vans Old Skool.
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Skateboard magazines at the time like Thrasher proved vital in giving Supreme its counterculture cosign and encouraged people to buy apparel worn by pros who had earned their stripes across at notable NYC skate institutions like the Brooklyn Banks, Time Life Building and Astor Place.
While some kids aimed to ‘Be Like Mike” at the time, others wanted to emulate the skateboard antics of Supreme riders like Ryan Hickey, Justin Pierce, Gio Estevez, Paul Leung, Loki, Chris & Jones Keeffe, Peter Bici and Mike Hernandez who all bonded over their shared love of the Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Diamond D, Nas, Fat Joe, Biggie Smalls and Gang Starr.
“The city made us,” said Bici. “Our style and, being in New York in the ’90s, hip-hop … We had such an eclectic group of friends. We listened to every type of music. We didn’t look at people – how they looked, how they talked – as if they were different. We were like the United Nations of skateboarding.”
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“They were out there and representing it (Supreme) every day. We had a big slew of close friends, and it’s all them who promoted it,” said longtime Supreme NYC manager, Alex Corporan.
“Getting sponsored was not on my radar,” Hernandez remembers. “Once skating became a job, it was unattractive to me.” Here’s what most of original members of the Supreme team are up to these days.
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At a time in skateboarding where most if not all eyes were on the exploits of skaters on the West Coast, New York native, Ryan Hickey, ensured that the Empire State was properly represented.
In his early years, Hickey was a part of the original Zoo York skate team which also included Robbie Gangemi, Jeff Pang, Harold Hunter, Chris Keeffe, Loki and Hamilton Harris.