Zoo York, the original East Coast skate brand, was named after the notorious subway tunnels underneath Central Park Zoo, which came to be known as the ‘Zoo York Tunnel’, or simply ‘Zoo York’, a hangout for skaters and early graffiti artists in the late 1960s and 1970s who would sneak into the tunnels at night.

 

In 1993, OG skateboarders Rodney Smith, Eli Gessner and Adam Schatz teamed up to found the East Coast’s first true skateboarding-inspired lifestyle brand – Zoo York. The trio siphoned creative inspiration from NYC’s rapidly evolving skateboarding, hip-hop, and graffiti scenes. What started off as a simple line of decks and T-shirts steadily grew into a full-blown streetwear collection marked by military surplus, urban-athletic styling that was designed to withstand the city’s rugged terrain.

​

Today, Zoo York is a highly evolved, globally recognized brand with unbreakable East Coast attitude and dialect. As it has since day one, Zoo’s product line continues to be heavily influenced by skateboarding, graffiti, hip-hop, punk, and everything in between.