Shawn Stussy: The World's Most Influential Street-Style Genius

The world’s most influential street-style genius on growing up with design and returning to his original craft

- Ethan Stewart

It was always about surfboards. I made my first one at 13. Since then, that’s been my job. Way before designing or my clothing line or even thinking about design, it was surfboards.

My parents had a printing shop that we hung around in as kids. They would pick us up from school, and we would go there and hang out until nine or 10 at night. I learned about printing and typesetting and old letterpress, pasting up negatives and chalking out the dust. My whole family was exposed to that at a young age. It was as if my dad had been a tailor or something; it was the family business. Graphic design, at least in terms of manipulating fonts and layouts, was something I grew up with.