At least three times a year for the last five years, I’ve been sent an enthusiastic email with the Powell Peralta SUPREME campaign tee attached as a jpeg. It’s a weird coincidence that somebody was throwing the Supreme name around in a box on the skate side, but, as far as I know, not an inspiration for the skate brand that’s going to break the internet on Monday morning. Above is an ad from early 1990 from Powell Peralta, which showcases the SUPREME name in stickers — as far as I know, this was just an ad campaign and showcase for some of the squad who appeared in 1990’s Propaganda rather than anything major. Having only ever seen 1991’s Video Days in VHS format, was the young Guy Mariano wearing the SUPREME shirt in that Jackson 5 soundtracked opening? It’s likely, given his Powell pro-status pre-Blind, but it’s also amusing, given the Powell-Blind feud that was brewing and how tapes like Video Days were nailing the coffin for the big brands. You could connect the Powell team from the 1990 era with the Supreme brand with ease given how many skaters were on the squad (eg. Billy Valdes-Menace-Javier Nunez-Supreme), but then again, you could connect any skater with another skater or brand in three steps or less.
The good folk of Goodhood (who have been very supportive of this blog since day one) just launched their Goods brand, which delivers the premium basics in its inaugural rollout (if you can consider a UK-made backpack with a digital pyramid, palm tree and cactus print a basic). I know everyone’s launching a brand right now, but Kyle, Jo and the team have real design experience and can nail the print tee to make it appealing to people like me who’ve given up on life and rock the same blank day in, day out. There’s some great pastel bucket hats in the collection too, which, when worn by somebody that’s not me, will look amazing, plus a yo-yo too (beautifully packaged enough to make you think you’ve needed a yo-yo for some time), but the t-shirts caught my attention the quickest — the Dazed design with the appropriately Confused flipped ’78’ on the rear is a solid execution in terms of typography, illustration and the little details (given their self-confessed love of brands like Neighborhood, it’s no surprise), while the tie-dye creations make sense among the confusion, given the late 1970s cues. And if all that’s too fancy and you’re a drop-out like me, they’ve custom created their own blank shirt too. I’m looking forward to checking the hand feel of the Goods soft interpretation of vintage jersey. On your average rag trade cash-in brand, the, “A Well Made Product” blurb would be the same old bullshit, but the Goodhood crew really mean it.
Be careful what you wish for. I know we’re all getting nostalgic in our old age (and there’s some young folk suffering from premature nostalgia right now), but I should know better than to wish for a brand to return out loud, just because I was thinking about the late Tony Wilson rocking the Travel Fox with a suit (and making them look crap) and tried to chart the history of the company. Those of us of a certain age might remember the Nappa leather and strange use of colours on this Travel Fox shoe, plus a £100 price point back in the 1988-era — it was a shit shoe, but it had status for ten minutes. Thanks to benski oner, for the heads up, I found out that the ‘Travel Fox Troop’ (I’m guessing that the Troop was added to up the nostalgia profits for another brand?) is at Sports Direct for £29.99. No Nappa and a crappier sole unit too. And that’s the end of that. Travel Fox was done by 1989, but now, thanks to Sports Direct, the memories are diarrhea-tinted. Remember The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs, or the adaptation of sorts in the 1972 Tales From The Crypt movie or — best of all — Bob Clark’s Deathdream? The moral of the stories was this: be careful what you wish for. I know I’ll be more careful in future.
GWARIZM 