A Skater's (Sci-Fi) Fantasy
Let’s get this out of the way: there’s nothing wildly revolutionary about Palace Skateboards’ Sci-Fi Fantasy collab. No mind-bending silhouettes or avant-garde tailoring. But that’s kind of the point. This capsule plays it close to the chest with coach jackets, tees, caps, decks, and a keychain.
All standard skater fare, all street-coded. But once you look closer, you realize that this approachable surface hides deeper meaning.
This is Sci-Fi Fantasy’s first-ever collaboration with Palace, and it lands with the quiet confidence of two brands that know exactly who they are.
Sci-Fi, founded by skater-turned-photographer Jerry Hsu, functions like a label for those in the know. It occupies a cerebral little corner of the skate world, where a distinct digital POV is empowered by DIY grit.
For this link-up, that DNA stays intact, manifesting through futuristic cityscapes, kanji typography, and dreamlike 3D artwork by Jon Baken, known for the weirdo Cool3DWorld YouTube series.
The result is classic skatewear reimagined through the lens of someone fluent in design theory and enthusiastic about the early days of Sony’s PlayStation 1 gaming console.
Even the Palace logo, known as the Triferg, is tweaked into a three-dimensional graphic akin to the days of Web 1.0. The whole thing feels quite low-key in a way that works. It’s authentic, it’s weirdly refined, well thought-out, and utterly authentic.
This collab, dropping May 31 on Palace website, reminds us that real cool is often quiet. Palace x Sci-Fi Fantasy might not reinvent the wheel, but it doesn’t have to.
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