Why Pioneering Supreme Skater Tyshawn Jones Is Suing Supreme for $26 Million
Tyshawn Jones had a $1 million-per-year endorsement arrangement with Supreme. And then, according to a lawsuit filed by Jones, it was abruptly terminated, unceremoniously ending a relationship that pioneering Supreme skate team member Jones has fostered with Supreme since age 11.
And so, in mid-May, Tyshawn Jones filed a complaint in the Manhattan Supreme Court suing Supreme for a total of $26 million.
Jones doesn't merely allege an untimely end to his Supreme contract but that the brand made "malicious, false remarks" about Jones which prevented him from securing future work.
“The names ‘Tyshawn’ and ‘Supreme’ go hand-in-hand, akin to the relationship shared by Nike and Michael 'Air' Jordan,” states the lawsuit filed by Jones.
Jones isn't the first person to compare himself to Jordan but he does back up his claim. For instance, he notes that he's one of the two kids that appear on the cover of Supreme's 2020 Phaidon book, authored by Supreme founder James Jebbia.
The 26-year-old skater and two-time winner of Thrasher’s Skater of the Year award has also starred in many of the brand’s campaigns and skate videos.
According to Jones' suit, Supreme claimed that photos of Jones wearing a Superman sweater from Marc Jacobs and NIGO’s collaboration broke an exclusivity clause in their contract. But Jones demurs.
In the lawsuit, he lists other examples where he modeled designer clothing, including a 2024 article on Highsnobiety that shows Jones modeling for Louis Vuitton (Jones has since become a Louis Vuitton brand ambassador), as evidence that this was par for the course.
“We don’t want to get in your way," Supreme reportedly told Jones prior to the contract's severance. "So long as you’re not doing anything for another skate brand, or a skateboarding team, we don’t have a problem with it, and don’t want to stand in the way of you making money.”
Jones instead alleges that his contract was prematurely terminated in September 2024. He also maintains that after he was removed from the team, Supreme staff that included founder James Jebbia spread the word that Jones had been removed from the Supreme skate team for breach of contract, which in turn caused Jones to lose work for other companies.
Further, Jones claims that his contract was severed because Supreme was trying to balance its books.
In October 2024, EssilorLuxottica acquired Supreme from VF Corporation for $1.5 billion ($6 million less than what VF Corporation paid for Supreme in 2020), spurring a review of the skate company's finances.
And because Supreme sought to “free up capital following the recent acquisition of its brand,” says Jones' lawsuit, it “wrongfully deprive[d Jones] of the value of shares he held in Supreme, the full value of which could only be realized if he was employed at the time the new acquisition closed.”
Though Jones has since shared screenshots of the lawsuit coverage on his Instagram Stories, Supreme has not publicly responded.
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