Streetwear has become to fashion what hip-hop has to music: a global phenomenon. Showcasing over 30 of the most exciting and pioneering streetwear brands, this book focuses on those that have shaped the market since the late 1980s.

Incorporating cultural codes of dress, the best in graphic design, as well as exemplary brand-building, the leading streetwear brands have become influential beyond the sphere of fashion alone. Streetwear may form a fundamental look for out-of-office-hours dress for teenagers and middle youth alike, but its leading lights have connections with the worlds of art, advertising, music and interiors that make them as potent as ‘designer’ brands many times their size.

Cult Streetwear tells the stories of the people behind the brands – from entrepreneurs to graffiti writers, DJs to surf dudes to sneaker nuts, from LA to NYC, London to Berlin and Tokyo. It explores each brand’s cultural resonance, and explains why so many have gained a cult following while continuing to break new ground.

Josh Sims is a freelance style writer, contributing to the likes of The Financial Times, The Independent, The Independent on Sunday, Mail on Sunday, Channel 4, the BBC, Esquire, GQ, Wallpaper and i-D. He is also author of 'Rock/Fashion' (Omnibus), 'A Dictionary of Fashion Designers' (Collins), 'Mary, Queen of Shops' (BBC Books) and contributor to several fashion books from Taschen. He has extensive contacts within the style and mainstream press.