The 50 Greatest Pop Culture References In Streetwear

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Streetwear heads know that many of the greatest designs to ever hit the t-shirts, hats and hoodies they love were borrowed from outside the industry. This reappropriation is part of streetwear's DNA. From Stussy's very first logos, to Supreme's newest season, borrowed and flipped designs are what many of the best brands hang their hats on. Take a look through some of the smartest, most iconic and just downright awesome references—check out our list of The 50 Greatest Pop Culture References In Streetwear.

RELATED: Green Label - The Most Iconic Band Shirts of All Time

Written By Gary Warnet (@gwarizm)

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50. BRKNHOME “American Pie”

Inspired By: Don McLean's "American Pie" (1971)

Kenta Goto and Joshua Pong's Canadian company is oft-overlooked in the design stakes, and while there are as many fresh visions as there are referential pieces in the BRKNHOME armory, the shirt flipping the patriotic artwork to Don McLean's 1971 LP, “American Pie” into a colossal thumbs down references the government's delayed response to Katrina's victims in 2005. The back even flips the song lyrics, "DROVE MY CHEVY TO THE LEVY, BUT THE LEVY WAS...BRKN" across the back. Protest done pitch-perfectly, evoking classic early '90s shirts.

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49. UNDEFEATED LA Knicks/NY Lakers Logos

Inspired By: New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers logos

There's a certain appeal in flipping the script on familiarity. LA's Undefeated set the bar early and while we've been debating as to whether there's any Black Flag referencing in the strike-off bar logo the store carries, using the Knicks and Lakers logos but switching the team names was an early move that set the standard for the sporting tributes that followed. It's a no-brainer, but to execute it properly, the designer had to get it right and UNDFTD know plenty of great designers. Icons inverted makes for classic t-shirts.

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48. MILKCRATE New World Order

Inspired By: The North Face logo

Nowadays, every YouTube rap video is peppered with comments about the illuminati and new world orders. We're infatuated with conspiracy, and the North Face's excellent logo is ripe for parody. Aaron LaCrate's Milkcrate NYC is underrated as a brand, and their New World Order made for a strong shirt and sweat at the tail end of the '90s — Fabricali also get props for their 'The West Coast' North Face bite a few years later. All this talk of Milkcrate makes us mourn for www.digitalgravel.com. Hipster homage done right.

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47. DQM Pollo

Inspired By: Polo Ralph Lauren logo

Ah, DQM, masters of the meat-based pun. The Meatallica, Chopper and Bill the Butcher designs are classics, but for all-round execution, the Pollo pieces are an awesome effort from the NYC-based brand. Shouts to Supreme, Diamond and Absurd for the P-Wing homages, Acapulco Gold for the thugged-out bear and Upper Playground for the molotov cocktail wielding horseman, but this has a polo player on a chicken, plus a name that comes correct too. It's a win in the Polo parody stakes and one that probably won't incur the wrath of Lo-Life types either. It's wacky, but not so wacky that it's irksome.

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46. BAPE Bapex

Inspired By: Rolex Submariner

Yeah, get commenting below and saying this list sucks, but the Bapex was a testament as to how crazy things got a few years back when we were all infected with the Bathing Ape fever. Nigo could go far beyond printed cotton to Pepsi bottles and simian-themed tributes to the Cazal and Versace shades, but the popularity of the Bapex homage to the Rolex Submariner took streetwear to new levels of aspirational luxury. Was it a straight-faced move, or a play on Canal Street "deals" on Roolex and Rolax watches? Whatever the aim, it was a new approach to the knockoff Rolex and proof that BAPE was closer in spirit to the luxury houses and brands it fetishized than a straightforward screen print operation.

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45. OBEY Andre Face

Inspired By: Andre the Giant & They Live (1988)

Whatever your opinion of Shepherd Fairey—from the wheat pasting stuff, whack Mr. Brainwash co-sign and looking daft on TMZ, to the vast catalog of OBEY that includes slimfit cords and other such items — back when it started, it seemed pretty cool. The tees and stickers were an early spot of guerilla ubiquity in a time before blog deification. Back in the Rebel days, Andre the Giant's face and a bite from John Carpenter's seminal sci-fi thriller 'They Live' seemed like a smart mix of pop culture and consumerist satire. Now? Not quite as edgy, but it still has its place in the bigger picture.

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44. CROOKS & CASTLES Medusa Head

Inspired By: Versace Medusa Logo

Crooks & Castles designs aren't famed for their subtlety, but their frequently thugged-out luxury vision is one that rose to the top after plenty of grind behind the brand. Using the Versace Medusa head logo as a jump-off was a statement of intent, that these LA-based brand builders were looking to the total lavish lifestyle approach (which ties to the Gucci colors and Epi leather on their Vans colabs too) of one of Italy's greatest as inspiration. When you see Crooks & Castles in a department store environment it's proof that the crew are making money and thinking big - that justifies the swagger. An insular cool-guy approach will only get you so far. Crooks also made like BAPE and released a timepiece tribute too with their Chanel J12 homage. The likes of Crooks, LRG and 10Deep think big but maintain integrity.

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43. PERKS & MINI Banana

Inspired By: Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

Melbourne's P.A.M. prove that a knack for artistry makes all the difference, and their designs are a mix of all-new and the very knowing. Frequently overlooked in the brand stakes, when you can rock a gallery just as easily as you can bring cotton to life, you deserve respect. Misha and Shauna have the reference points to run with and their Disney and Sun Ra tributes are great, but the peeled back Warhol "Peel slowly and see" fruit is the best they've done to date. Andy is the godfather of much of today's today's sacred cow-riffing hype culture and you don't need to be Sigmund to see the phallic overtones of this design. Homaging a master biter isn't easy, but Perks & Mini pulled it off.

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42. DIAMOND "Gold Front Misfits"

Inspired By: Misfits Crimson Ghost logo

There was a time when putting the Misfits logo on a tee seemed pretty cool, but it swiftly became the totem of hype culture veering dangerously out of control alongside apes and firearms. Remember when you laughed at pictures of your dad wearing bellbottoms? That all-over print hoodie is going to get you flamed like that too. But Nick Diamond and the crew giving the image tattooed on Henry Rollins's body some gold fronts just worked and epitomized the hype era perfectly. The Diamond Iron Maiden tribute was pretty solid too, and this — alongside aNYthing's Alfred E. Neuman meets Danzig's crew shirt — got this reference point right.

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41. FIBEROPS Bo Diddley Cobra Tie T-Shirt

Inspired By: Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love?" (1956)

Bo knew. So did Fiberops mainman Alyasha Owerka-Moore. Alyasha's work across multiple brands (anybody else remember Phat Farm being essential?) is prolific, original and innovative. Steeped in authentic rockabilly, hot rod and greaser imagery, Fiberops is one of the most overlooked brands ever, and when everyone else was sick with hip-hop fever, Alyasha went and manifested Bo Diddley's lyric, "Used a cobra snake for a neck tie" into something more literal on this shirt. Even when the audience is oblivious to the reference point, cobra ties are still cool.

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40. MIGHTY HEALTHY "Mad People in New York are Hustlers" T-Shirt

Inspired By: Mad, People, New York and Hustler magazine logos

New York's Mighty Healthy are playful with their designs, and this shirt edges out their fine 'Police Academy' themed effort for smart execution. Why borrow one logo when four would do? Not only did this shirt homage some print institutions, but it captured the spirit of the big city's hand-wringing chancers better than 'How to Make it in America's boat shoe and denim referencing lameness.

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39. REASON Dipset/Ramones T-Shirt

Inspired By: The Ramones logo

Once—like the Misfits shirt—the Ramones shirt was an indicator of a likemind. Then Urban Outfitters ruined all that. Reason managed to bring a spot of funny subversion to make the design desirable again on cotton. Todd Bratrud's self-made Belle and Sebastian/Bad Brains logo was good but this was better — a purpled-out Dipset tribute to Joey and company's iconic logo (itself a parody of the presidential seal) that worked in the fact both crews used the bird. Reason's creation was bootlegged fast, but for a New York minute, a smirk of recognition from strangers during a wear was proof that someone else was weird like you.

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38. KINGPIN Scarface 'K' Sweats and T-Shirts

Inspired By: Scarface (1983)

Bleu Valdimer is a streetwear legend as the mind behind Project Dragon, but his Kingpin brand is constantly overlooked. Go to a tradeshow now, and it's streetwear infested — despite a proliferation of Vibram and chambray — but back in the day, the brands that paved the way were struggling to get into the 432F show. Sure, Fuct did the film stuff earlier, but there's something gloriously brash and obnoxious about Bleu's mid-'90s line — realised by Kevin Lyons and the way it worked Telly Savalas, 'The Godfather Part II' and Pacino as Tony onto apparel. This led to a plethora of knockoff shirts that capitalised on rap's love of DePalma's masterpiece (witness the frequent taste-free tributes on MTV's 'Cribs'), but Kingpin got there early. Bleu passed away in 1999, but his impact on the industry shouldn't be underestimated.

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37. ACAPULCO GOLD "SPIT"

Inspired By: Beat Street (1984), Louis Vuitton and Chanel logos

When Acapulco Gold run find their reference point, they've got a good habit of seeing it through to the finish in style. With their 'SPIT' series they took RAMO's CAP-style nemesis from 'Beat Street's ubiquitous (and crappy) tag and applied it to Chanel and Louis Vuitton logos as some kind of streetwear declaration of war on flossier brands. Old heads could chuckle at the reference to a cult classic, while younger heads could appreciate the graffiti and luxury elements of each design. The sweatshirts from this set were particularly strong in the graphic execution stakes.

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36. SUPREME Hennessy Mitchell & Ness Baseball Shirt

Inspired By: Mobb Deep's "Shook Ones Pt II" (1995)

In fairness, it would be easy to put together a list formed entirely of Supreme, but the only solution is to be sparing about picks from the brand's archives. Supreme don't even consider themselves "streetwear," but an exclusion here would be churlish. Based on Hav and P's homemade-looking 'HENNESEY' jerseys from the 'Shook Ones Pt II' shoot, this Mitchell & Ness collaboration stood head and shoulders above the other HENNESSY pieces that dropped around the same time. Halfway collaborations are shook, but this is a perfect rap obscurity made attainable for a minute. Supreme were even kind enough to fix the spelling too.

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35. ANYTHING Original Logo

Inspired By: The New York Giants logo

Aaron Bondaroff's aNYthing imprint launched post 9/11 and there was a patriotic hometown salute feel to the product amid the subversions. The OJ Simpson jersey tee, disgraced sportsmen and aforementioned Alfred E Misfits designs were memorable homages, but working the New York Giants' N and elongated Y into the logo was a smart addition to the brand's inaugural visual identity. It doesn't get much more iconic or quintessentially New York than that. Lazy? Nope. Would you have thought to put it in there?

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34. MILKCRATE Illson T-Shirt

Inspired By: The Wilson logo

This Milkcrate design brought some street-level slang to the most innocuous of logos, and Wilson got the treatment with their branding turned into a city corner superlative. To call this one a no-brainer would do it a disservice — it's a clever flip that adorned ringer tees, basic tees, sweats and stickers as the stern-faced backpack era faded into the stern-faced razors-at-the-Tunnel era. Even Eminem wore it at one point.

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33. FUCT "Destroyer"

Inspired By: Kiss' Destroyer cover (1976)

The cover of Kiss's 'Destroyer' by Ken Kelly was far more than some vanity shoot—that painting fired a whole generation's imaginations and encapsulated an era of rock excess. It was perfect fodder for Erik Brunetti to fuck with too, and just as Fuct never half-stepped when it came to visuals, the painstaking nature of the brand's manipulations resulted in the Kiss 'Kids' imagery as well as the Fuct 'Destroyer' shirt and the sought-after pieces with the tiny embroidery of Gene's manic, painted face. Messing with the Stones and Kiss rock and roll corporations and their trigger fingers with a lawsuit proved that Fuct liked playing with fire.

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32. THE HUNDREDS Snapbacks

Inspired By: Starter hats

The Hundreds have unleashed fine homages to Disney and T&C, but this hat dropped as the brand really started to pick up momentum, when everybody was preoccupied with with fitteds, flat peaks and hologram stickers. In a strange world where pop stars can make rap videos for mixtape cuts where they boast that they resurrected caps that fasten, the snapback is everywhere, but the Hundreds got in there early. The use of that generic font that was used to rep every team and every city, plus a smart twist on the Starter logo felt like a break from the norm circa 2006. We don't recall using the expression "snapback" back then either. If anything, Bobby and the crew should be the ones recording 'Snapbacks Back', but they're too dignified to do that kind of thing.

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31. SUPREME Supreme Team Sweatshirt

Inspired By: Rock Steady Crew vs Dynamic Rockers sweatshirts in Style Wars 1984

This sweat could mean a lot of things—for the old heads it evokes the battle scene in Style Wars and some Brooklyn custom creations worn by the likes of Biz Markie too. There's some Malcolm McLaren in there and maybe, just maybe, some of Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff's crew in there too. This piece is an immaculate resurrection of a lost-artform, with the felt letters and fonts perfectly placed for a perfect artefact from NYC's sub-cultural history. Supreme go in and this nod to the old school isn't some corny nostalgia piece — it's one of the best things the brand has ever done.

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30. NO MAS Former Champion Sweatshirts

Inspired By: Champion Reverse Weaves

aNYthing did a good job with fallen stars, but fellow New Yorkers, sport obsessives No Mas went all out with their Former Champion collection of customized sweats. Taking deadstock Reverse Weaves and embroidering 'Former' before that familiar script and painstakingly stitching tributes to the likes of gambling man Pete "Charlie Hustle" Rose on the back, the redesigned Champion hangtags and attached trading cards were the final Sugar Ray Leonard jab that conferred classic status.

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29. SSUR Style Wars

Inspired By: Star Wars (1977)

Russ Karablin's name crops up a few times from now, because he's a vital mind behind streetwear's finest referential moments and a master creative director. Of course, now any reference to Star Wars on apparel is an embarrassment, but pre-prequel, it still had a certain cache, tying in with a certain breed of backpack rap fan and Mo' Wax disciple. This shirt references Henry Chalfont's legendary 'Style Wars' too—an essential cultural documentation. This is classic, but newer Star Wars bites? As Skeme's mum put it, "What you have here is a whole miserable sub-culture." Word.

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28. WTAPS Army-Themed Pieces

Inspired By: US Military Spec

TET from WTAPS is a master of reappropriation and fresh thinking, but two recurring points-of-reference in his collections are a Black Flag inspired 'Rise Above' slogan, and US mil-spec patch branding. Military gear has given us some of the greatest apparel styles of all time, and TET has an over-standing of what looks good. Many Japanese brands do a fine job with re appropriation and remix, but whereas the likes of Neighborhood's excellent punk-riffing has no specific homage iconic enough to single out here, this is a significant one. Yeah, we've seen it on other brands too — some at a similar time, a couple before and many imitations since, but this is a case of the homage becoming the key identifier and where utilitarian, functional looks become a thing-of-desire.

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27. MISHKA Dial "M" For Motherfucker

Inspired By: Pussy Galore's Dial "M" For Motherfucker LP (1989)

We could pepper this list with Mishka's reference points, and with a deep appreciation for metal artwork, b-movies and a whole ton of weird stuff, they've put out a crazed body-of-work. The Ian Curtis sweater, 'Westworld' and 'Kill 'Em All' riffing was memorable, but using the art from Pussy Galore's 1989 garage-punk masterpiece 'Dial 'M' For Motherfucker' united Mishka with some other NYC legends. It's not subtle by any means, but it's an offbeat tribute to some superb musicians.

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26. SSUR Mean Streets T-Shirt

Inspired By: Mean Streets poster art (1973)

For a budget film, 'Mean Streets' had an incredible poster design. The typography, the gun and the enduring message that NYC streets can be gully was ripe for homage. There's been a few shirts with this flick homaged—'70s cinema has been a moodboard staple for years, whether it's another wack brand attempting the stringed 'Godfather' font or the likes of Bounty Hunter celebrating the Ducky Boys in 'The Wanderers'—but when Russ traded ideas with Kevin Lyons, one of the best Scorcese tributes (the Real McCoy Travis Bickle outfit reproduction was disqualified here for being too far from the hard-to-define streetwear remit) alongside Supreme and Fuct's 'Goodfellas' designs.

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25. SILAS "Slayer"

Inspired By: The Santana logo

UK brands like Holmes, Duffer, Insane, Silas, Tonite and Gimme5 rarely get their dues globally, but this design is one of the best ever. Originally a Holmes (the Slam City affiliated brand that birthed Silas) creation, the elaborate Santana font flipped to spell out Slayer is a simple idea but the sonic differences between the two bands make this a double-take classic that rids Kerry King and co of their jagged letters and satanic style in favor of something a little more MOR.

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24. SUPREME "Skyline" Logo

Inspired By: The Patagonia logo

Supreme have been doing homages to rugged staples for a long, long time. There's another box logo that resonates in a major way, and it's that of eco-minded hillside kingpins, Patagonia. Supreme paid tribute to the brand's street-level status in NYC with some pieces—including a fleece—that carried a rectangular logo with the city's skyline instead of a Patagonia district mountain. Shouts to 10Deep for their take on the logo a few years later and Tonite for turning those distinctive letters into 'PARTY ON.' Another Supreme homage deftly executed in a low-key style.

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23. SUPREME André Courrèges Logo

Inspired By: The André Courrèges logo

Supreme using the André Courrèges—accènts and all—was an early statement of intent. Not only did it follow the lineage of Stüssy's high-end homages, but it fortold that Supreme wouldn't be following the same path as other skate brands. André changed the game in the 1960s in terms of design, materials and an approach to fashion and Supreme's emphasis on unlikely design inspirations and art seemed to echo some of that maverick spirit. Plus the logo looked very cool indeed.

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22. HYSTERIC GLAMOUR Junkies Baddy Powder T-Shirt

Inspired By: The Johnson's Baby Powder logo

Nobuhiko Kitamura's Hysteric Glamour was doing its thing via Tokyo in the mid 1980s. It's an incredibly underrated brand and a deeply important one. If you think Japanese streetwear is a recent phenomenon, think again. Long before there were queues for red camo BAPE, there were waiting lists for Hysteric Glamour's tees. 'Charlie's Angels', Hermes and 'Girl on a Motorcycle' designs amassed fashionista fans, and continuing the trashy rock 'n' roll theme, this anti/pro drugs message (depending on how debauched the celebrity wearing it was) was a bestseller — referencing two kinds of white powder.

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21. ORIGINAL FAKE Cartoon Hand T-Shirts, Sweats & Toys

Inspired By: Mickey Mouse

KAWS doesn't need to prove anything. He's got ups, a great handstyle and a lot of skill, but he reappropriates and alters some world-recognized cultural totems perfectly, too. From bus shelter images to prints on cotton, the bulbous Mickey hands become even more awesome when they're detached from their too-chirpy-by-far rodent owner, and they offer another dimension to the artist's excellent output. There's too many XXs out there in streetwear, but KAWS is the king of this stuff as populist and cool kid collide.

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20. STAPLE Chinatown Gun Shop T-Shirt

Inspired By: John Jovino Gun Shop

The John Jovino Gun Shop, supplier to the NYPD is a Little Italy institution that's been going since 1911, and this Staple shirt pays tribute to the Beretta poster outside. Guns on tees are an embarrassment that peaked in the faux-thugging on cotton stakes around 2008, but the way this works in the Chinatown font and theme is smart. Staple's Ali and Nike references have made for memorable pieces too, but this was a perfect showcase for Jeff's knack for gathering offbeat city sights plus the downright cool and filtering them with deceptive ease. Classic.

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19. FUCT Lips

Inspired By: The Rolling Stone logo

Nothing typifies a certain level of hedonism like the Rolling Stone lips logo designed by John Pasche, but Erik Brunetti's Fuct wasn't being run by a bunch of message board pussies behind Mac keyboards either. There's a rock 'n' roll spirit to the west coast's wave of late '80s streetwear pioneers, and for that reason, this enters the rundown above the brand's pioneering film references. Pieces like this represented the early '90s to a tee—literally—and the it was just one of an awesome run of copyright middle-finger affairs. Best of all, on a Stones note, Fuct's 'Too Tough To Die' Keith Richards shirt actually ended up on Keef.

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18. SSUR awidas

Inspired By: adidas Trefoil

A lot of tees still being hawked on stands laden with wacky parodies are jacked from streetwear creations. The weed leaf adidas trefoil is a perfect example. This awidas design might look juvenile and dumb now, but when it dropped in the early '90s courtesy of SSUR during those blunted years of big bass and incessant weed talk, this was a comical use of the legendary trefoil. adidas didn't see the funny side and issued a cease and desist, but it was fun while it lasted, with SSUR's Russell Karablin and Pervert's Don Busweiler being key mischief makers around this time, quick to spin a corporate logo into something more subversive.

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17. PNB NATION Sticker T-Shirt

Inspired By: "Hello, My Name Is..." stickers

Yep, this probably doesn't qualify as a lift or homage, but like Not From Concentrate's Krylon can, it's an essential moment in street culture and shirts. Post No Bills was the byproduct of Brue, Bluster, Zulu and West's graffiti preoccupations, and they subverted the earnest greeting of the "Hello my name is...' sticker, a good addition to any tagger's artillery with the names, Michael Stewart, Phillip Pannell and Eleanor Bumpurs — all police brutality victims and a commentary on the fact any of the brand's young urban audience could be in the same fatal situation. Activism meets style, and this shirt shifted in long-sleeve form back in the early 1990s. It's a design that's oft-imitated but rarely resonates with the same power.

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16. VISVIM "FBT"

Inspired By: Terry Hall's shoes on the Fun Boy Three LP inlay (1982)

Hiroki Nakamura's quite a cerebral thinker and he's not prone to lowbrow concepts. Is it a brand that can bee deemed streetwear? If we're talking mid '00s visvim, yes. Hiroki managed to put a wave of hypesters into some avant-garde tasselled Native American footwear when he dropped the FBT moccasin model that became a signature for them. Best of all, the FBT is an acronym for Fun Boy Three - Terry Hall's post-Specials band, as they're an homage to the deconstructed moccasin style he wears for on the 1982 shoot for their debut LP which fired Hiroki's imagination. The lesson? If you can't find it on sale, go make it — and make it well.

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15. FRESHJIVE Big Jive

Inspired By: 7-Eleven Big Gulp

Rick Klotz's whole collection of early parodies warrants a place here and this falls just beneath the Tide design on the countdown (and quite honestly, the Special J should be here too) because the Tide take became something of a signature, but this take on the convenience store's own-brand beverage is well designed and shifted units. Brands still try to come out with the copies of supermarket standards, but fail to hit the heights that Freshjive did back in 1989. Best of all, Rick Klotz wouldn't give a shit about a list like this—that's why he still remains very relevant indeed.

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14. TRIPLE 5 SOUL Triple Five Deadly Venoms

Inspired By: Five Deadly Venoms (1978)

Camella Ehlke's 555 Soul paved the way alongside the Canadian 2BLACKGUYS brand for a unique aesthetic steeped in hip-hop culture. But bringing in SSUR's Russell Karablin to give them some extra edge in their early days (bear in mind that the store opened in 1989) to create a shirt that flipped the Shaw Brothers' grindhouse martial art classic, 'Five Deadly Venoms' for some martial arts flavour that gelled the two long before Wu-Tang did. You can get a kung-fu themed shirt anywhere now and it got played-out, but once again, Russell got there before you did.

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13. SUPREME Blurred Logo

Inspired By: Saul Bass's Goodfellas title screen (1990)

An early Supreme typeface experiment is one of the brand's best, giving the name a sense of motion that's true to the store's hardcore skate roots, but also paying tribute to the work of genius designer Saul Bass's opening titles to 'Goodfellas' — another sub-cultural slice of NYC life. Supreme was hitting home runs from day one in the design stakes, and it's a surprise that this classic was only recently resurrected. Thinking outside the box (logo) proved that not all homages to a mob classic had to be suits, bullet casings and pasta sauce.

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12. ALIFE Logo

Inspired By: The LIFE Magazine logo

Seeing as they're a store, brand and agency, Alife know the power of branding. Like Supreme, these members of New York's retail mafia have a number of distinctive logos—from the lower case variation to this bold, impossible to miss one that eschews fanciness for a look informed by the legendary LIFE magazine—itself a breeding ground for talent and cultural documentation before the Wordpress era. Alife have always aimed above the streetwear tag and this logo defies the lazy pigeonholing.

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11. BAPE Ape Shall Never Kill Ape Logo

Inspired By: Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)

Nigo loves the 'Planet of the Apes' franchise—from the original to the sequels and read-along records. He also loves streetwear, and the likes of Fuct, SSUR (the Che ape was a classic) and X-Large flipped those simians back-in-the day, but this was a cultish preoccupation turned into an empire. If you ever saw the Beastie Boys in BAPE's UK spinoff, Very Ape or Biggie in the borrowed camo number back in the day, you lusted after this mystery gear, but it was folk like UNKLE's James Lavelle wearing the shirt that laid down the "Ape Can Never Kill Ape" law from 'Battle For the Planet of the Apes' that had many on a fruitless hunt to source this shirt.

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10. X-LARGE Logo

Inspired By: The Ben Davis logo

While many assume the X-Large brand is owned by the Beastie Boys, that's a fallacy—Mike D is/was involved at a creative level, but it's far more than an act of creative band merchandise. That would sell X-Large short and undermine Adam Silverman and Eli Bonerz's involvement. The store opened its doors in late 1991 and their use of the gorilla in their logo was presumably a nod to the Ben Davis gorilla—a workwear staple on the west coast at the time, and with X-Large's forays into basics and rugged pieces, a spiritual forefather. Now workwear and monkeys are ten-a-blogsearch, but X-Large broke ground alongside their fellow west coast brands.

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9. PERVERT PUMA Logo T-Shirt

Inspired By: The PUMA Logo

Don Busweiler's Pervert brand had things on lock back in the early '90s. Pervert was more than a parody brand—the padded vests, hats and denims were sought-after, and he applied a real-world Miami party spirit that reinforced the brand name too. Then in 1995, he packed it all in to join a cult called the Brethren. And that was that. The Kappa and PUMA parodies brought some sleaze to classic brand imagery, and as with a few other inclusions in this rundown, it's an image that's been adopted by tourist trap novelty shirt stands across the western world and beyond, but for those who know, it brings back memories of a time when the Pharcyde wore the similarly litigious awidas design. Whatever Don's doing now, his status as a streetwear legend was conferred a long time ago.

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8. FUCT Jaws T-Shirt

Inspired By: Jaws (1975)

Being subversive and working naughty words into a design is one thing, but Eric Brunetti was a master draughtsman in a pre Photoshop era. That's what separates the good from the bad in the streetwear stakes. The Kiss-themed embroidery circa 1993 was excellent, but this one is flawless in its parody of the 'Jaws' poster, twisting it around with a topless lady as the approaching predator. Sharks, boobs and nice fonts goes a long way, and the 1970s reference point sits alongside the rest of the line's influences at the time. Now we get nostalgic for 1991, but Brunetti and co knew that the best shit had already been, gone and was ripe for tribute.

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7. HAZE Batman T-Shirt

Inspired By: The Batman logo

Eric Haze was tagging before most of us were born—he was a graffiti legend during the 1970s, but he earned a rep as a graphic design king the following decade. EPMD, LL Cool J, Headbangers Ball, Tommy Boy and more were all blessed by the man's logo skills. Haze is a true designer who displays no real trademark trait other than a certain cleanliness and when he decided to dabble in apparel, his flip on the Batman was the debut output. Super simple and super classic it wasn't some cynical cash-in on the Tim Burton reduxes. A design superhero homaging a superhero equals unfussy greatness.

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6. NOT FROM CONCENTRATE Phillies Blunt

Inspired By: The Phillies Blunt logo

Stash's role in streetwear is substantial ,and it was some simple logo lifts that set it off. As GFS (Gerb, Stash, Futura), the RustOleum and Krylon joints were must-haves. But nobody was ready for the Phillies Blunt explosion as the trio handed out shirts with the cigar brand and stoner's best friend on it in 1992 as the blunt-talk in rap hit epidemic heights. Sold under a new brand name NFC/Not From Concentrate, the homages got bootlegged themselves, with Phillies hats hitting middle America and the NFC line building off an existing buzz in Japan. Whereas most brands would unleash the lawyers, Phillies Blunts were happy to get the promotion, making the designs pretty much official. NFC put out other homages, but few hit like the Blunt did.

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5. STUSSY Louis Vuitton Homage

Inspired By: The Louis Vuitton logo

Stüssy's parodies of high-end brands were brazen, but hinted at the aspirations of Shawn and the Stüssy team. Blowing up globally into those hugely aspirational tribes, the use of Louis Vuitton style monogram patterning preempted a unity of luxury and street culture (though the Scott Campbell and Kanye hookups would merge the two significantly several years later). A throwback to a time when bootleg style wasn't too taboo and Dapper Dan creations made worlds collide stylistically, this is a memorable play on imagery. When Stüssy got litigious over a Freshjive parody several years later, we knew the brand's aspirations had been realized.

tide

4. FRESHJIVE Jive T-Shirt

Inspired By: The Tide detergent logo

Whether they were parodying household staples, sending up the 'Don't Tread on Me' Gadsden flag, photographing cumshots or taking off all branding, Freshjive do things their own way. This shirt's detergent copy was significant for shifting units to skaters, hip-hop fans and ravers during the 1989/1990 era and paving a trail for what followed. Now it looks downright quaint, but it was fascinating to discover a brand that wasn't specifically built on skating or surfing —Vision might have thrown the streetwear term around, but this felt like the start of something big. Rick Klotz ushered in the next wave, bringing some Warholian subversion to a new generation. That's why this shirt is very important indeed.

ford

3. FUCT Ford T-shirts, Jackets & Hats

Inspired By: The Ford logo

Fuct's Ford parody was released at the right time in the right climate and was so perfectly put together that it could pass by the less observant without an iota of offence. The automobile company's script is such a part of everyday life, that somebody had to mess with it—white trashers had been sporting the oval badges on their heads for a long time prior, and the Fuct Ford tribute ended up on the heads of celebrities as well as being a constant confiscation piece on schools. Was it some kind of statements on the environmental impact of the vehicular goliath's output? Nah. Just a cool looking take on a classic logo. When it was on hats and some rugged petrol station worker style coats it made a lot of sense and you could buy it in any color just as long as it was Fuct. A maverick masterpiece.

box

2. SUPREME Box Logo

Inspired By: Barbara Kruger

Supreme's name is so clean that the visual identity had to match. The brand's gear has always offered plenty for those looking for something a little less laden with logos—the box tees are hardly vulgar—and early comparisons to a skate Gap (via The Face) and more high-end boutiques (via Vogue) weren't the worst thing that could be levelled at it. That cleanliness conferred longevity. Now we assume we'll see conceptual art hookups with the likes of Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and John Baldessari, but borrowing artist Barbara Kruger's red boxed Futura bold italic set things off from the beginning, providing a versatile branding tool in the vein of the Levi's Red Tab Device that would allow Supreme to shine without having to shout. Kids in Japan knew the deal with this from the start, but the box logo's crawl into every facet of popular culture continues.

stussy

1. STUSSY Linked "S" Logo

Inspired By: The Chanel logo

It's bugged out to think that ownership of a t-shirt was once aspirational, but there was a point when Shawn Stüssy's line exited those surf beginnings and became sought-after, by any means necessary. The all-encompassing lifestyle nature of what Stüssy became was laid down in the linked 'S' logo that aped the branding of Coco Chanel's empire. That was way out the reach of the kid on the street, but grabbing something with the linked 'S' or Stüssy No. 4 imagery on was just about feasible. If you could find it. Then wearing the damn thing to death made you feel like you'd become the member of some elite Worldwide Tribe. Between Stüssy and Chanel, the clientele may have been different, but the psychology of generating consumer desire was very similar indeed. There's homages everywhere now, but this brazen bite was a significant statement of intent that ushered in the next wave. A couple of decades down the line, high-fashion would borrow back in a major way.