A Conversation with Palace Skateboards Founder Lev Tanju

Having released a coveted capsule collection with adidas Originals over the past weekend in a “pop-off shop” in New York City, Palace Skateboards founder Lev Tanju offers his two cents on the status of London’s skate scene, sportswear influences, and the culmination of the recent collaboration. A lifelong skate rat himself, Tanju emphasizes his goal of staying true to making products that fit his team’s daily needs while skating the streets of London. Bridging the gap between the growing popularity in skate style and Tanju’s affinity for athletic “teamwear” apparel, the recent collection with adidas Originals offers ’90s-inspired tracksuits and sportswear decorated with the brand’s skate motifs, marking a notable stepping stone for both Palace and London skating in general. Noting the importance of “riding the wave” through mistakes and distractions, Tanju adheres to a mindset that few execute successfully: supporting his team and keeping up with the times. Check out select dialogue from the piece below and read the full feature over at Complex Magazine.

You do have interests outside of skating and sports. You’ve collaborated with galleries and stuff. Did any outside interests influence or inform this collection?
Yeah, I guess the whole football casuals things and the English heritage of what people wear to football stadiums. That naturally influences a lot of things in England. It’s mainly just a line of teamwear, that’s what I really wanted to base it on—something that the whole team could wear. From different things, like what the manager would wear, the warm-up outfits and then the tops that you play in that are made out of performance materials. I wanted to do something interesting but keep in line with adidas’ DNA and what they do. I don’t want to go to adidas and try to make leather jackets and jeans, you know? That’s not what I like about them. I like the stuff that they’ve been doing for years and those things that they’re really good at doing so I just wanted to work on that side of things.

adidas will always have a hand in sports and skateboarding but every few years high-fashion brands will seem to develop a fascination with skating and try to dip their toes in it. What are your thoughts on that?
I don’t really care. I’m up for it if those guys want to do it; that’s cool. Things in culture always become relevant and people want to get involved in them, you know? But I don’t understand why people do it, like have skateboards going down the catwalk. I guess it’s because their looks are inspired by street culture and all things like that. I think it’s kind of interesting though, because it just means a whole other group of people buy into it because they think, “Oh skating is cool because people are doing $1,000 decks.” I don’t really think about it too much. People are going to want to have a piece of everything when it’s cool, and then when it’s not cool then you see who the people who actually still have love for it.

Palace grew out of a very specific love of skating. It was just you and your friends, when you were the Palace Wayward Boys Choir. How do you balance the growth of Palace while maintaining those core principles and ideals?
It’s just the way I’m always going to be. I’ve lived my life being looked after by skaters and skaters looking after me. That’s something I’ll never lose. The fact that we have our family involved in working with us, down to the skaters and down to the people I design with—people like Nugget [Gabriel Pluckrose]; we flew him out here to DJ cause he DJs at nights that we do back home as well. It’s just a whole family thing. As long as you don’t forget your friends, which we won’t because we always stick together; we’re the most important thing. Without that we wouldn’t be core anymore. The main thing is looking after the skate team; as long as they’re happy then I’m happy. Whatever else comes around, like if these collaborations do well and stuff like that…it makes me happy.