A streetwear collab and sneaker legend, Jeff Staple is known the world over for his work with brands including Nike, The Fader, and Hypebeast. This deluxe monograph documents the past twenty-five years of Staple’s most iconic work, complete with additional interviews from streetwear legends and a limited edition T-shirt. In 1997, Jeff Staple walked into a boutique in New York City wearing a shirt he printed in his silk-screen class at Parsons School of Design. What started as a small, handmade T-shirt line grew organically and began to garner a serious following in New York. In the process of building this burgeoning brand, Staple was asked by Nike in 2005 to create a special commemorative sneaker that would represent New York. The Staple Pigeon Dunk SB was conceived and led to much fanfare upon its release. It exposed Staple—as well as sneaker culture—to a mass audience. In Staple’s words, to understand is to see      and to see is to have clarity of mind. That clarity has helped develop his iconic Pigeon logo (and brand) into a global force that has graced the heels of almost every major footwear brand imaginable. This book offers readers a history lesson in his enormous contributions to streetwear and the sneaker industry while also uncovering design context to a series of Staple’s most crucial projects. A beautiful visual reference, this book invites the reader to travel down an intricate maze of streetwear history told through an insider’s point of view. Archival sketches, drawings, magazine covers, and contributions by Hiroshi Fujiwara and Futura make this an indispensable volume for lovers of streetwear and design.

A collection of fascinating quotations from the legendary artist and graffiti pioneer Futura is a living legend-a world-renowned painter, designer, and photographer who was a pioneer of graffiti art and New York City's "subway school." His radical abstract work in the street and on canvas established him as a central figure in an important art movement that included Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Rammellzee, Lee Quinones, and Dondi White. Futura-isms is a collection of essential quotations from this fascinating artist. Gathered from four decades of interviews and panel discussions, this memorable selection illuminates Futura's thoughts on legal and illegal art, his influences, fellow artists, and the past, present, and future. He also offers colorful memories of his adventurous life-growing up in New York City, serving in the Navy, touring with The Clash-and reflects on how his experiences have shaped his art. Select quotations from the book: "Graffiti was a way for me to exist. I wanted the world to know my name. I wanted to be somebody." "The essence of what graffiti is . . . is creating this identity and taking it to the public." "My whole life, I think, I've been a nomad." "I was always at home in the subway system." "People say, 'Let's play within the rules.' I say, 'No-let's break the rules a little bit.'"

Having forged his graphic style painting subways in New York in the late 1970s, Futura was among the first graffiti artists to be shown in contemporary galleries in the early 1980s, where his paintings shared space with works by Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Kenny Scharf. As the commercialization of street culture in the 1990s inspired collaborations with fashion and lifestyle brands, Futura s work moved toward a more refined expression of his abstract graffiti style. Commissions from era-defining brands such as A Bathing Ape, Stussy, Supreme, and Mo Wax saw his artwork canonized as an elemental component of the street aesthetic. Collected here, among never-before-published reproductions of earlier paintings and drawings, is an archive of personal photography and ephemera that reveals how integral Futura has been to the evolution of street art and culture. Guided through more than forty years of work, and with interviews with key players in Futura s career, this is at once a definitive monograph of a legend of contemporary art and an indispensable chapter in the history of graffiti.