Brand profile
NEW YORK CITY. THE 1970S. A GANG OF GRAFFITI-WRITING SKATEBOARDERS LEAD BY MARK ‘ALI’ EDMUNDS STARTED A CREW CALLED ‘THE SOUL ARTISTS OF ZOO YORK’. THEY BECAME RESPECTED THROUGHOUT THE FIVE BOROUGHS FOR BOMBING SUBWAYS WITH SPRAY PAINT AS WELL AS BOMBING HILLS ON THEIR SKATEBOARDS.
BY 1993, A NEW GENERATION OF NEW YORK CITY KIDS HAD TAKEN OVER. SICK OF BEING OVERLOOKED BY THE CALIFORNIA-CENTERED SKATEBOARD INDUSTRY, AND WITH THE BLESSING OF THE ORIGINAL ZOO YORK CREW, RODNEY SMITH, ELI MORGAN GESNER, AND ADAM SCHATZ SET OUT TO DISRUPT SKATEBOARDING BY MAKING THE FIRST SKATEBOARD BRAND TO REPRESENT FOR NEW YORK CITY IN ITS VERY NAME. STARTING WITH SKATEBOARD DECKS AND T-SHIRTS RUN OUT OF A GRIMY WAREHOUSE IN LOWER MANHATTAN, ZOO YORK QUICKLY GREW TO BE AN INTERNATIONAL STREETWEAR SENSATION, EVOLVING INTO ONE OF THE MOST RECOGNIZABLE LIFESTYLE BRANDS TO COME OUT OF SKATEBOARDING.
