How East Coast Skateboarding of the '90s Influenced Streetwear

Look at any streetwear brand or personality today. Whether they picked up on 5-panel hats, camo-print pants, or fly sneakers, there’s a good chance their style was influenced by East Coast skaters of the ‘90s and early 2000s. That's right, EAST COAST. No disrespect to our friends on the West Coast, but there’s something indicative about skate style that flourished from Boston to Washington, D.C. during that time.

Skaters such as Josh Kalis, Gino Ianucci, and Jahmal Williams helped influence style long before Pharrell Williams was “Skateboard P,” Lupe Fiasco told you to “Kick, Push,” or Lil Wayne was “Baked.” Yes, skate culture and hip-hop go hand-in-hand, but it wasn’t always the case. Thanks to a style-forward subculture, the two are now able to influence each other equally.

Skate videos and magazines are the Bible for skateboarders, and we've diligently dug through dusty issues and busted VHS tapes to compile trends that East Coast skaters (with a little help from East Coast-approved West Coast skaters) helped make popular. So break out a ghetto blaster, Jeru the Damaja tape, and 40oz or two: this is How East Coast Skateboarding Influenced Streetwear.

Thanks to The Chrome Ball Incident for a majority of the photos.

RELATED: Green Label - Skateboarding's 10 Biggest Style Influencers

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The East Coast is beyond hot in the summer time, and often muggy as hell. Here's a little tidbit: skaters hate shorts, most of the time. Pants protect shins from grip tape, sharp tail edges, and stone ledges. So how do you combat the tropical heat? Rock a tank top.

Keenan Milton, Josh Kalis, Rob Welsh, and Brian Wenning all pulled off the affectionately titled "wife beater," which can be troublesome for most dudes. It really helps to be dirtbag skinny. Also, the lightweight garment can be easily tucked into a back pocket if the weather gets unbearable.

Normally a frowned upon clothing item, the tank top has seen a huge resurgence in the streetwear community. And don't lie, we know you probably rocked one at Coachella. It only takes a brief browse through Karmaloop to see an abundance of graphic tank tops. And it's not a far stretch to say that East Coast skate culture helped influence that style.

Sweatpants often get a bad rap. And with the cozy garment making a comeback this year, it's interesting to look at the East Coast skaters who rocked the much maligned bottoms.

Don't front, when you saw Rob Welsh in Aesthetics' Ryde or Die: Vol 1, or Josh Kalis in Alien Workshop's Photosynthesis, you ran out and copped a pair of cargo sweatpants (some of us did, anyway). Sargo sweats and Rawkus' Soundbombing II were early 2000s essentials.

Even Brandon Biebel and his Ja Rule-fueled swagger pulled off a pair of sweats from time to time. When you look down and see that you have on a pair of jogging trousers (or whatever they're called), you can thank East Coast skate culture for not looking like a schlub. Seriously.

Who said grills were just for rappers or residents of the South? Rob Welsh, Steven Cales, Stevie Williams, and Mike York were all known to pull off a grill from time to time. We're not sure how functional to skating these mouthpieces are, but they look awesome.

Also, with grills on the comeback via help from A$AP Rocky, these skaters look in-style as ever. While we're not saying that grills were a huge part of East Coast skate culture, they do however show a huge intersection of the skate and hip-hop cultures, and a celebration of all things over-the-top.

Skateboarding didn't start the sports jersey or throwback trend. Duh. And there tends to be anti-sports or "bro" sentiment in skate culture. Skaters vs. jocks, it's always been that way. So it isn't insignificant that a handful of skaters actually popularized sports jerseys and sports-related clothing. Suburban skate rats were ostracized because of their clothes and hair, but in the '90s, thanks to the influence of hip-hop and a few pioneering pros, that started to change.

While Raekwon proclaimed, "rock a fly jersey in the summer time, god," Brad Johnson, Rob Welsh, Stevie Williams, and Vinny Ponte did exactly just that. The skaters were able to intersect sports and skate culture like no one else had before. And sports manianc Eric Koston? Yes, his roots are in the West Coast, but the man's style got props all over the East.

We can't help but think that skaters wearing sports jerseys also made it cool for people who hated jocks to start rocking and collecting Jordans as well. The reach of this trend is probably bigger than we can realize, so just enjoy it for what it was. A groundbreaker.

No film better captured the look and feel of '90s East Coast skate culture than Larry Clark's Kids. The film was a startling realization for some, and a guidebook on how to live for others. Starring Leo Fitzpatrick, Justin Pierce, and Harold Hunter, the film featured actual skaters that lived on the edge of what Clark was depicting.

The filmed touched issues of a generation in crisis with unprotected sex, club drugs, and peer pressure. Still, we couldn't help but think how New York cool the styles and attitudes of the characters were. From Justin Pierce (Casper) stealing a 40 oz in his pant leg to Harold Hunter skinny dipping with girls, we all wanted to be these kids. Minus the rampant HIV-sharing.

It wasn't necessarily the clothes that they wore, but the way that they were worn. Backwards hats, oversized jeans, and backpacks don't seem that cool on the surface, but seeing it all in action on the City streets made the look that much more appealing. Don't underestimate the style of the females either. Rosario Dawson and Chloë Sevigny had the same downtown style as the fellas in the film, and are style icons in their own right.

The reach of this film went far beyond skate culture. And that's where the influence sets in. Underground culture became mainstream and even jocks who hate skateboarding have seen the movie, probably even bit some of the styles. Influence, influence, influence.

Any streetwear brand worth its weight has more than a couple beanies each season. Beanies were the cozy hat choice of East Coast skate culture and with good reason. Most skate missions have to be done late at night (when the temperature dips), but you don't want to layer up because it makes it hard to skate. Not only do beanies keep you warm, but they also function as a fresh sweatband.

Pepe Martinez, Kerry Getz, Bobby Puleo, Tim O'Connor, Anthony Correa, and more were all known to rock a beanie. It's cool to see a functional garment become such a style icon, even if we're forced to see every douchebag celebrity wear a beanie with a slouch. But forget that. The beanie will forever be one of the freshest accessories someone can put on. Why? Because all these East Coast skaters made it that way.

There isn't a better cap than a 5-panel. Everyone has one, not only just sneakerheads or skateboarders, but graffiti artists, menswear fiends, and maybe even your dad. While most folks automatically think of Supreme when they think 5-panel, it seems almost every skater-owned brand has produced one over the years.

Not only is the hat stylish, but it also fits your dome a lot better than a fitted or snapback. This is integral when executing technical ledgework, or bombing down a city street or hill.

Skaters such as Jahmal Williams, Anthony Pappalardo, Harold Hunter, Robbie Gangemi, and more were all known to rock a fly 5-panel. Even though you may not think you dress like an East Coast skater, for some this cap is an instant flashback to the '90s.

According to Bobbito Garcia, New York City sneaker culture was formed on the blacktops of basketball courts. While this may be true, East Coast skate culture lays a big claim to the origin of the "sneakerhead." A skater is lucky to get two to three months out of a pair of sneakers. With this short lifespan, a skater is forced to constantly be on the lookout for a fresh pair at all times.

Still, you want a pair of sneakers that are functional to skate in and look cool. While skateboarding sneakers have been around for decades now, East Coast skaters started to rock Nike and Adidas long before the brands caught on and made skate-specific sneakers.

Gino Ianucci was well-known for rocking some of the freshest pairs, and Stevie Williams' first pro-model with DC Shoes gave skaters a Jordan-esque answer to boring skate shoes. Rob Welsh was well-known for his obsession with white-on-white skate kicks.

The popularity of the skater-inspired sneaker obsession helped fuel the success of brands such as Nike SB, which probably influenced you into the "limited edition" sneaker hype, which got you into raw denim, which got you into streetwear, which got you... Here.

Before #menswear adopted camo as a bona fide trend, skaters such as Stevie Williams, Fred Gall, Harold Hunter, Anthony Correa, and more took the fatigue-inspired pants to the streets. The East Coast is a rugged place and the winters are cold. Once upon a time there were no streetwear shops in NYC, so you copped your gear at whatever local Army/Navy store was in your 'hood. Not only do camo-print pants look badass, but the often ripstop or heavy cotton material they are made from can take the abuse that skating dishes out.

You might have picked up on camo-print lately from Wiz Khalifa, Nick Wooster, or some other tumblr street style star, but unless you actually served in the military, chances are you owe a hat tip to these East Coast legends.

Long before you camped out for clothes that you would lightly wear or cop just to resell, real skaters, who lived actual, awesome lives, helped build the identity behind the most sought after streetwear brands of today.

Mark Gonzales, Jason Dill, Harold Hunter, and more all donned the Supreme logo before there was a Hypebeast. And while you may cop your camp cap to match your LeBrons or Retro Jordans, the brand exemplifies the mysterious Downtown cool that is the core of East Coast skate culture. An exclusivity that is imitated but hardly understood by bystanders. Most people just feel intimidated and off put—sort of like when you walk past a group of menacing teenagers on the street.

Supreme was the secret rite of passage to a subculture that existed before Internet hype. The cool thing about the brand is that it has never tried to be anything, except itself. And although the brand has recently been profiled by The New York Times, don't expect James Jebbia to change a thing.

So, next time you lace up your exclusive Nike SBs, put on your 5-panel cap and Alexander Wang sweatpants, just remember why you know why you (and everyone else on the Internet) dress like you do.