Why COST KRT-shirts Exist But REVS Hoodies Don’t…
An untethered dive into my unhealthy obsession with graffiti merch.
We really started 2024 with the nostalgia cycle clipping us 10 years faster than expected because every MF on the planet started reminiscing about Karmaloop again.
I’m not knocking it. But to be FR, I couldn’t believe everyone was out here writing love letters about how much Crooks and Castles they copped on the internet in 2011. No shade to any of the brands that really did that because everyone deserves their (PCL) flowers. But it’s OD funny dwelling on how much streetwear’s changed since I first fell in love with it in the early-2010s.
I admit I was too bummy to afford most of the labels that blog-era rappers like Kid Cudi or Wale were pushing at the time. Still, it’s super weird to reminisce on the Karmaloop-era and not bug out over 95 percent of the products I thought were stupid-fire when I was 15-years-old.
I honestly cringe when remembering how much I lusted over ridiculous Nike SBs like “Quagmires,” fake Louis Vuitton coin purses off Buying & Selling Kicks NYC, Goodwood Jesus pieces, or OBEY snapbacks a decade ago. What a time it was to be a wannabe hypebeast though. I knew I had my priorities all fucked up back then because I copped a pair of 7/10 MF Doom Highs for $80 and then sold those shits for the same price a year later! All because I needed some bread…
Despite most of this gear not aging too well, I do earnestly believe all that time spent window shopping saran-wrapped sneakers at Flight Club, browsing Karmaloop, and reviewing Facebook fit battles, helped shape my current tastes in clothing one way or another. And one thing I’ve never really fallen out of love with since the Karmaloop-era is a good-ass graffiti collab.
This COST KRT x Supreme collection was the first graffiti link-up I bugged about. Let’s not get it twisted. Even though Supreme had NYC in a chokehold, Odd Future really had fools lining up several city blocks to cop Zumiez-ass laser cats merch outta Reed Space (RIP) in 2012. I fully admit that when it came to #SWAG, I aligned with many basic teenagers who aspired to dress like Tyler, the Creator.
Unfortunately, all the fly gear that could be picked from the clearance section of an Urban Outfitters could never properly mimic Wolf Haley’s style. So I was honestly gassed to literally own anything that had a Supreme box logo on it. So when I got my hands on a CDG reverse box logo hat for $35, I was lit AF!
My B, I went off on a tangent. Let’s get back to those Supreme x COST KRTees. I ended up finally picking up a “Runner” T-shirt from this capsule five years later in 2015. This was right when I figured out how to flip hyped streetwear and thrift store pick-ups before social media fully deaded the resale game. But damn, when I finally touched real coin, I felt like I needed to catch-up on copping dumb shit! For example, even though I was plugged into Only NY since Mac Miller co-signed their snapbacks during the KIDS-era, the first time I ever copped anything from them was a hoodie from their own collaboration with COST in 2017.
Nearly a decade has passed since I first began copping streetwear and fashion pieces for real. Nowadays, I find that my closet is overfilled with what’s more or less “graffiti merch.” Truly, I’m like any dweeb that hoards vintage band tees. Thank god I didn’t dedicate my life to stacking Funko Pops. Instead, I just have a gigantic stack of graphic T-shirts in my closet solely dedicated to graffiti! That’s so much better, right?
Whether it’s a vintage Supreme hoodie with a logo penned by JA ONE or an IRAK snapback graced with SACE’s immaculate straight letter. I can’t ever seem to help myself when I come across this type of gear. Like how could I ever pass up a vintage Subware T-shirt with a screenprinted graphic by ZEPHYR that was faxed to STASH?
Shit, this collection even bleeds into the other end of the spectrum with more “clouted-up” graffiti merch, a somewhat newer phenomenon in recent times.
Like I seriously consider this to be the best Off-White piece ever made because it deadass looks like a blackbook page turned into an ill kimono. Unfortunately, it just sits in my closet because I’ve never really felt confident enough to dress like a Westside Gunn bar.
Last summer, I came up CRAZY at a Dover Street Market sale when I found collared zip-up tops from a Comme des Garcons SHIRT x Supreme collaboration that boasted Supreme maxims grilled in with EARSNOT’s hands. It was on sale for like 75% percent off. So I copped that jawn in every color along with a Futura CDG Shirt hoodie I’ve been eyeing since I saw it on a mannequin at DSMNY. It was another piece that my brain would have never justified buying unless I was graced with an SSENSE-end-of-season-level discount. That receipt hurt to look at, but Grailed-math will have you jumping over every single hurdle of financial responsibly.
While I certainly horde a lot of graffiti ephemera beyond clothes I’ve always loved graffiti merch because (as corny as this sounds) it’s wearable art. Hand drawn stickers, books, zines, and prints will always be valid. But that graffiti drip has always been the illest to me just because it feels like an art edition you can flex whenever the mood strikes you.
But every time I find myself spending a decent amount of money on some graffiti jawns, I naturally think about how it’s mad ironic that graffiti is a sub-genre of its own within this inherently commercial AF streetwear/fashion industry. As we all saw last month, even that sad-ass clothing label Guess wants in on the action. It’s wild they got caught trying to sell T-shirts with unapproved art from NEKST, BATES, and SURE ATM—less than two years after Banksy aired them out on Instagram for stealing his art for a store window-installation. I guess that’s what happens when even the shittiest ASAP Rocky collab couldn’t revive your brand.
But whether it’s a Dondi x Willi Smith T-shirt from the ‘80s or that tough as hell JA ONE x Awake NY collab that recently dropped, its no surprise graffiti has found a place within this fashion market because it will always reach someone who’s ready to drop a paycheck on a good collab.
Literally, within 10-minutes of the grand opening of Homerun in Brooklyn, I saw countless graff-heads swoop in on a $300 hoodie featuring a CCTV shot of LEWY BTM boosting a KAWS piece from Marc Ecko’s office in 2013—lowkey nuts that both KAWS and Ecko even co-signed it themselves. Another guy in a paint-splattered jacket dropped over $200 on Gore-Tex Arc’teryx gloves with an embroidered ADEK BTM hit that gave a whole new meaning to something being sold “New With Tags.”
I’m not gonna front, I got caught up in the moment as well, chilling for a hot minute by a North Face geodesic dome tent propped up inside the shop wondering if an embroidered ADEK’teryx trucker hat in my hands was really worth 175 beans. What I knew instantly though was that I sure as hell wasn’t going to pay $2,300 for an “Dark Magic” Alpha SV jacket that retails for $900—someone else copped it anyway.
Truly, after looking at any receipt for graffiti-themed merch, there are many times when I think back to this interview Freddy Alva did with REVS in 2019 for his book Urban Styles. The interview mostly touches on REVS’ connections to NYHC but also reveals that his split with COST in the ‘90s was partly due to the fact that his partner “would have printed t-shirts to sell in Macy’s or something like that.” He also goes on to talk about why he dubs graffiti to be “Greed-Fitti” today.
“I don’t call it graffiti anymore but “Greed-Fitti.” Once you throw money into something it has a way of making things go weird. All these dudes are selling things because there’s no real graffiti anymore. They took away the trains, buses, handball courts, the parks. Guys play with the tunnels now, RD and SEN 4 have the fire hydrants but we’ve got virtually nothing. Maybe some overpass by the freight trains. All of us still have the itch and being grown men now, we could do a good job. Everyone has a family with mouths to feed so they’re selling everything and calling it graffiti but it’s only graffiti when it’s up.”
I can’t necessarily agree with everything that REVS is saying here. Of course, I still think real graffiti exists even if the art form has become commercialized to some degree—now being used to sell everything from sneakers to real estate in Wynwood/Bushwick.
Yeah, it’s kind of crazy to realize that FUTURA and KAWS’ nom de plumes are basically perceived as formidable brands of their own by the masses today. Hence why nearly every popular entity taps into these two specific graffiti writers as much as ordinary clothing collabs tap into Keith Haring or Jean-Michel Basquiat’s estate.
Yet, any streetwear nerd who knows what writers like FUTURA and KAWS did when it comes to merging graffiti with streetwear/fashion likely wouldn’t find all the collaborations they pump out today to be that crazy at all. If anything, they likely see it as a series of commercial artworks these artists have been building upon for what’s been 20-30 years at this point. True pioneers in the field like STASH when it comes to translating and disseminating graffiti into the medium of fashion.
However, I’m sure there’re plenty of graffiti purists reading this who could give less than two shits about streetwear/fashion and only see artists of their elk to be “Greed-Fitti” sellouts. Famous writers who are now so far removed from graffiti and ready to take any payday to put their trademarks on products that are lame, cringey, overpriced, and antithetical to what the heart of graffiti really is, which (as REVS plainly states) is getting up.
But can’t it be argued that KATSU was technically catching ups by releasing an entire Off-White collection that was sold in stores across the world? Reese’s Puffs and Nike likely pay millions for Travis Scott to become a spokesperson for them. So isn’t it crazy (and insanely dope) to see a human incarnation of a billboard step out in an IRAK hat several times on his own accord? At a recent panel in the Jeffery Deitch gallery at New York, KAWS addressed a member of the audience who asked if brands and advertisers were eroding the subversive nature of street art. He had this to say.
“When I was painting billboards, there wasn’t a street art frenzy. It seemed very out of place and uncommon for an ad to be altered. So I felt like I was doing something and was excited by that. It was my only opportunity to have a conversation with the public. That was my outlet. As things change, I just follow what those gateways are. My goal was always communication. I obviously do a lot of commercial projects. It disseminates my work in different ways that I was never capable of doing when I was younger. So I just try to think how in what ways can I reach people. For me, selecting the projects is very personal and there’s a way it all fits together that makes sense in my mind. We’re not in ‘93, so I work with 2023.”
Again, REVS is 100 percent right. Everyone does have a family with mouths to feed. And graffiti nerds (and I guess the larger public these days) are more than happy to financially support artists that have spent a good part of their career risking their life, limbs, and personal freedoms for an art movement we’re all hopelessly enamored by today. So yes, I’ll buy another T-shirt, pin, or whatever else you’re hawking if I’m truly fuccin with it.
Yet, no matter how much graffiti merch you cop, it’s still truly “only graffiti when it’s up.”
No T-shirt or hoodie decked out with fill-ins, pieces, or tags will ever capture the essence of what graffiti really is. And all these hallmarks of over consumption that I disguise with labels like “a hobby” or “a collection” won’t ever truly deliver the catharsis one may find from actually picking up a can and letting go of all inhibitions. If there’s anything to takeaway from booking another appointment with a retail therapist, it's realizing that it’s a fleeting high. At the end of the day, everyone has their vices. So hit whatever you need to hit and keep it pushing.
Shouts out to Finals Blog, @StreetsSpoken, @AloftGraffitiNYC, and Blue Bodega for checkin the vibe.