Palace Skateboards is a London-based skateboard shop and clothing brand established in 2009. The brand was primarily heavily worn by founder Levent Tanju and his skate team, Palace Wayward Boys Choir. Palace focuses on skate wear with heavy 1990s and pop culture influences alongside VHS style clothing advertisements and skateboard videos of their skate team. Their merchandise can be found online or in their 4 stores around the globe where they release new products every Friday morning.
History
Founder Lev Tanju said in an interview with Glasscord Magazine: “I had a gap decade after college, just skating and doing fun shit. Then one day I decided that I was a bum and I had to do something. I started designing some board graphics for people I live with. Then half way through designing them I thought to myself that maybe I should just start a skate company,". Tanju wanted a triangular theme for his newly created brand and named it Palace because it was what they ironically called their houses as they were usually worn down. With some networking, Tanju gained help from Marc by Marc Jacobsdesign director, Fergus "Fergadelic" Purcell in creating a logo for the brand. Purcell stated in an interview with Dazed Digital that he wanted "to make a logo that had connotations of the infinite and of constant flux and movement." Purcell then created a Penrose triangle with the word 'Palace' written on each side, and has remained the Palace logo until present day called the "Tri-Ferg Logo." Early on, Tanju's clothing and skateboards were sold exclusively around local skate shops and boutiques in the London area. As time progressed, Palace grew and gained more and more support to a point where their exclusive line of products found its way into Supreme stores in New York and Los Angeles. With positive acceptance from the streetwear community, this recognition eventually won Palace their first award as 'European Skate Brand of the Year' at the 2012 BRIGHT Tradeshow Awards in Berlin for their growth and professionalism as a small brand. It was this award that solidified the Palace brand in the skate community and propelled Tanju to take the brand to new heights. This gave Tanju the latitude to collaborate with brands such as Umbro in late 2012, Reebok in late 2013, and Adidas in late 2014. Alongside these collaborations, Palace mainly depended on the Dover Street Market, End Clothing and occasional pop-up shops around England to stock and distribute their merchandise. In 2015, 6 years after their creation, Palace finally announced that they would open their first store in London. With it being a big hit and gaining more and more popularity, they were able to open another store two years later in 2017 in New York. The stores grand opening was announced in a promotional advert featuring Jonah Hill and Leo Fitzpatrick. Late in 2018, Palace had expanded their brand yet again by opening a store in Tokyo, Japan. Palace opened their fourth and newest location in May 2019 on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.
