As a naughties child I feel I missed the greatest years of street culture, I spend a lot of my time listening to the trail blazers discussing their youth and showing the intricate pieces that made streetwear so prolific. I always find myself playing catch up, constantly learning new things and finding that everything we take for granted has a detailed explanation for its existence. From sneakers to artwork there are countless untold stories that have yet to be shared that complete this complex jigsaw and I find myself enthralled when something new comes to my attention and just that happened recently.
Stash, real name Josh Franklin, is a New York born graffiti artist best known to me through his Air Max 95 and Air Force 1. It’s likely that statement has offended a huge swath of stash fans but as someone whose life revolves around sneakers, until recently, I had little to no appreciation of the story that came before.
Stash is a true prognosticator, growing up in Brooklyn he spent his early years admiring the graffiti works sprawled across NY train cars and the subway. Josh started himself in the early 1980’s and it didn’t take long before his signature logo was seen around New York and quickly became synonymous with the East Village scene in Brooklyn. Success came very early with his canvas works being seen next to Keith Haring and Basquiat from a very young age of 17. An interesting juxtapose next to the repurposed MTA Subway map and Medicom Kubrick found at the exhibit A exhibition.
By the mid-late 80s Stash started screen printing graffiti designs onto Tees as a way to wear the now popular art style. Argued by some to be the first pieces of “streetwear” the now infamous Phillies Blunt tee and Rust-oleum tee rocketed his presence even further with the likes of Mick Jones and the Beastie Boys seen rocking his garments. A product of the time a lot of these now famous graffiti personalities didn’t have t-shirts of their own and with a growing movement this now genius idea allowed the new audience to rock these boundary pushing designs. These could be seen along the back wall of the exhibition with other notable designs being the early Bape “command Z” tee and GFS “UPS” hat.
Around this time came arguably Stash’s most famous work Subware (GFS). “Sub” – Subway “ware” – wear was a play on his New York based influences with GFS being lines on the network. After playing with the design he settled on a very familiar yet boundary pushing logo that feels and looks almost at home in any urban location. The brand was started as a celebration of other artists “GFS – Gerb, Futura, Stash” this endeavour quickly gained momentous accolade and pushed them to the forefront. Stash gave all these artists a platform to create art in a new forum and started building a huge portfolio promoting little known names that are now legends of the time. The customers wanted new, unique and boundary breaking and stashes friends oozed rebellion constantly on the next endeavour. Infact stash’s work became so prevalent he started ghost designing for brands and artists, truly a revolutionary in his art form.
“Everything was so-and-so for Subware. Zephyr for Subware. Kaws for Subware. Futura for Subware. It wasn’t so much for myself broadcasting my own work but a celebration of where we all came from” – Stash
Around the 90s NYC Street culture permeated out of the States and became incredibly popular in Japan and Europe. NIGO studied Stash and brought him under the Bathing Ape brand very early. There was a deep understanding of the culture and how it was impacting and growing on the youth. As found on the shelves of the exhibition are some innocuous Bathing Ape Spray cans. To the uninitiated (including myself) these look rather standard but are actually part of the opening of 2 BAPE stores around 1997 coined by stash as “Concept” and “technique”. The Cans are real spray cans repurposed with t shirts inside…
“some people have the concept while some have the techniques. Somebody could be really skilled with a spray can but they don’t have any good ideas” – Stash
The most interesting wall to me was Area 3/5 and the multiple AF1, Airmax BW and Dunks on display, as a sneakerhead these colourways and silhouettes create an almost magnetic effect for me. Nike reached out to Stash very late in the 1990s when he opened recon his clothing brand store in New York. Famously Josh asked to work on the Airmax BW a sneaker not famous for its hype or cult following, releasing at the same time as the Espo AF1 and the Futura Blazer it created shockwaves around the scene and is seen as a defining moment in Nikes history.
The success of the BW lead to the infamous AF1 High from 2003 which is something to behold I must say. 1000 pairs initially released in New York, london and Tokyo each coming famously in its own display suitcase and had regional variation on the sole. The infamous stash “NYC” Spray nozzle design finished the shoe and is now seen as one of the most significant AF1s in existence!
The blue pack is probably the most famous of his work appealing to a wide audience with an AF1 and AM95 in his famous blue colourway. This pair was the most common on foot and after talking to a variety of people seem to be the most common release he has done and the most attainable. The perfect combination of clear design, iconic silhouettes and great story will keep this pair a classic!
Also present was the 2003 Stash Dunk low Hyper Strikes! Limited to 50 pieces these are a piece of artwork and are priced accordingly being 350 Euros Retail back in 2003! The Footwear display was finished off with a few other notable pairs like the Paul Rodriguez Zoom Air “Stash” and Nike air zoom Talaria ‘Nort’ Hyperstrikes.
“Exhibit A” was something completely new for me, a Multi-medium exhibit showing a story and appreciation for the once exclusive stories of Stash and his work. Somewhat sneaker focused the exhibition was separated into 8 areas covering his work with Kobe Bryant, Medicom, Nokia, Bape (Nigo), Nike, Casio, G-shock and much more. In hindsight I didn’t appreciate enough the amount of history among the walls of the exhibition from the Concept / Technique work he did to the Air zoom Kobe 1 x Stash which released when I was 6! I’m glad to have had the experience and has certainly inspired my own work, thank you again to the Footpatrol team and to Stash for his generosity in signing the poster we gave away to the US community who couldn’t attend.
