Stüssy – stoosy, not stuhssy – is one of the only brands to remain forever cool.
No matter what’s occurring with trends or pop culture, Stüssy’s iconic script never goes out of fashion. That’s not down to coincidence, the surf-turned-streetwear brand hasn’t got lucky, it’s down to the foundations that Shawn Stussy laid as a 15-year surf-bum – shaping boards by day, pedalling graphic tees by night.
Shawn- by his own admission – never set out to become the creative director of a streetwear giant. His entry into fashion was as organic as possible. He hung out in the right places at the right time, did the right things with the right people and observed absolutely everything. And although he departed the brand in 1996, his legacy still remains an intrinsic part of Stüssy’s success.
When Shawn was born in 1954, streetwear didn’t exist. It wouldn’t exist for another 30-odd years, and if his youth had taken a different path, it probably wouldn’t exist at all…
Stüssy’s DNA is rooted in surf, and Shawn’s life was surrounded by it from the get-go. He began surfing at a time when the culture was changing – surfboards were starting to get shorter. Younger surfers, hungry to go faster and wanting the ability to do more tricks, began transitioning from traditional longboards to much more responsive shortboards.
But shortboards at the time were rare, and Shawn didn’t own one; this meant he had to utilise his DIY attitude (a recurring factor in Stüssy’s story) to reduce the length of his sister’s longboard. He observed the art of board shaping through the doors of local workshops, noting details about tools & techniques workers were using. Then, each night, he’d take his sister’s longboard out to a picnic bench, and attempt to recreate the wizardry he’d witnessed.
Eventually, after days of sawing, cutting and planing, he ended up with his own improvised shortboard.
That shortboard acted as Shawn’s gateway into California’s surf scene. A scene which would open his mind to new music, clothing and culture. He surrounded himself with the sounds of The Clash & The Sex Pistols, and began to cultivate his own sense of dress.
But more importantly, the creation of his shortboard marked the start of an obsession with shaping surfboards. He proceeded to spend entire summers refining his craft. And in the winters, he’d take off to California’s Mt Mammoth to teach skiing.
By the ninth grade, Shawn was starting to build up a name for himself in the shaping scene, and he was promptly picked up by the influential Chuck Dent. Shawn worked alongside Chuck crafting surfboards throughout the ’70s, but unlike other shapers, Shawn was doing it in his own way. In an interview with Monster Children, he said “It was my art, like sculpting. Al Merrick was shaping six boards a day, and I just thought that was sacrilege, y’know? Those guys were like contractors, construction workers to me: “Cool. I’ll shape six-a-day and get my money” Y’know? And I was like, headphones on, big doobie, you know, listening to Bob Marley, probably, and I went in and did my one-a-day.”
Shaping boards in Chuck Dent’s workshop was Shawn’s haven for creativity, and it was here that the world would be introduced to the Stüssy logo. Influenced by typography on punk vinyl sleeves, Shawn began marking his name in thick black Sharpie on his boards. The ‘U‘ with an umlaut over it and the ‘T‘ outstretched over the rest of the letters.
The ’80s rolled in, and Shawn had become something of a revered board shaper – his tag now gripped under the feet of surf-bums all across the West Coast. This decade also marked a wider spread commercialisation of surfing, and with that, came trade shows – events where surfboard manufacturers could show off new shapes, designs and the teams behind their boards.
One of the first trade shows was held by a company called Action Sports Retailer, and it was here that Stüssy’s first product would debut. Not designed as a commercial opportunity, but as a humble uniform for the tradeshow. Shawn screen printed a handful of black tees with his logo, and sat, perched in his booth for three days, attempting to sell boards.
Some boards sold. Some didn’t. But what people were interested in was the shirt. He said to Monster Children: “Every guy that walked up to our stall was like, “Dude, how much are those t-shirts?” And I’m like, “What? What’d you mean? They’re not for sale. I just made them for the show!” And they’re like, “Oh, I’ll take twenty-four of them” and then another guy would take eighteen or thirty-six or something.”
What the tee said on it, didn’t matter – most probably couldn’t even read it – what mattered was that it was different. It was different to anything else available at the time, and above everything, it was cool.
By the end of the tradeshow, Shawn left with an order for nearly 1000 tees.
At the same time as these initial surf tradeshows, music on America’s streets was changing. Punk was out, and hip-hop was in. Sounds of East Coast groups like Run-DMC were vibrating across the country all the way to California, and with the new music came a new style. Teenagers began wearing long cut shorts, graphic tees and shell toes. Shawn was into it and used the same DIY attitude that got him into surfing to convince his mother to hem a pair of WW2 Air Force Khakis into long chino shorts.
The shorts accompanied him to tradeshows, and garnered the same influx of orders as the Stüssy tees. To meet the demand, Shawn raided every military surplus store within a fifty-mile radius and told his mother she was on overtime.
The shorts flew out, and pretty soon, the military surplus stores were blowing tumbleweeds. To counter this, Shawn cut a pattern from his favourite shorts, and took it to a manufacturer for them to replicate, and from there, Shawn’s DIY designs began to snowball…
Over the next ten years, Stüssy transitioned from merchandise for surf kids into the first fully-fledged streetwear brand. Painters caps were made, heaps of graphic tees, cargo pants, jackets, shorts – each stamped, somewhere, with that iconic Stüssy script. The designs were unmistakable, but never garish.
Each item had to be versatile – if a typical Stussy consumer bought a tee, they usually couldn’t afford the pants too, therefore each product had to work seamlessly with other types of clothing from other brands. Fabrics had to be comfortable, graphics had to be timeless, and the fit had to be right.
By the ’90s Stussy was a household name – if your house was into rock, graffiti, punk, hip hop or skate. The brand’s reach now spread far beyond California, and The International Stussy Tribe – a group curated by Shawn – had members in all corners of the globe, including Hiroshi Fujiwara, Goldie, Mick Jones, and many, many others.
But in 1996, Shawn decided to give it all up. For him, Stussy had run its course, he’d achieved everything he’d wanted, and plenty more. He said, “It was just kind of full-circle, you know? I’m a project guy, and the project felt like it had gone full-circle. It was like… I don’t want to do this my whole life. It was fun during all the set-up and stuff, but then it ended up being like seventy-five people working there, and that’s not me. I’m like the creative guy in the garage, y’know? I mean, it was good, yeah, but I was like, “ok, next! What’s next?”
That quote. That attitude can be attributed to why Stüssy, 29 years after Shawn’s departure, is still so successful. He laid the foundations as the creative guy in the garage – not just for the brand, but for streetwear as a whole, and he did it better than anybody else ever could have. Not because he wanted it more or knew more, but because he did everything organically.
You can’t fake it in surfing. And while you can in fashion, the best brands don’t. That’s why Stüssy continues to remain forever cool.
This article has been in collaboration with SEVEN STORE, who currently have Stüssy’s latest SS25 offerings available as an in-store exclusive collection. To find out more, head over to SEVEN STORE, 26 Norfolk St, Liverpool L1 0BE
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