2-Time Skater of the Year Tyshawn Jones Sues Supreme for $26 Million

Pro skateboarder Tyshawn Jones is out for what he’s owed.

The New York-based skater is suing the mega clothing brand Supreme for $26 million for wrongful termination, damage to his reputation, and loss of other income, according to a new lawsuit filed this week in a Manhattan Supreme Court.

The 26-year-old alleges the company ended a $1 million-a-year contract with him and then began lying about him to other brands.

Jones and his team claim Supreme made untrue remarks about the skateboarder to “third-party entities familiar with Tyshawn, falsely maligning Tyshawn’s reputation, characterizing Tyshawn’s conduct as constituting nonperformance of the agreement, and further falsely stating that said conduct forced Supreme to terminate the agreement.”

Jones said he was “sad” he had to file a lawsuit. He’s been with the Supreme for over a decade, after signing a deal with the brand at just 11 years old.

“But I have a duty to myself and my career, and feel a responsibility to the next generation of skateboarders to stand up for what is right,” Jones told the New York Post on Monday.

“Supreme’s success has been shaped in large part by the contributions of young talent, and I believe those contributions deserve to be respected.”

The suit says the spread of those rumors hurt Jones’ reputation and effectively “cost him lucrative opportunities to work with brands in the future.”

“Supreme’s actions both depicted Tyshawn as willfully violating his contractual obligations to Supreme in bad faith, forcing them to abandon him, but were also expressly prohibited under the agreement, which prohibitions survived any termination.”

The suit also alleges that the “Termination Notice is premised upon a purported material breach by Tyshawn, namely one photoshoot depicting Tyshawn wearing Marc Jacobs apparel, disseminated on social media in August 2024.”

On Tuesday, Jones seemingly acknowledged the situation on Instagram, posting an old picture of himself in a Supreme shirt to his story, accompanied by Jay-Z’s “Lost One”—a song in which Hov addresses former friends and business partners. Jones followed that up with an image of Bob Odenkirk as lawyer Saul Goodman.

Jones’ team argues ending the deal with him was actually a “pretext for cost-cutting.” The company was sold to the eyewear brand Luxottica around the time they severed the relationship.

“Doubling down on their bad faith and willful breach Supreme, through several statements both impermissible and false, has widely disparaged Tyshawn as a liability, a risk -- someone no brand would want to affiliate or work with,” the suit said.

Jones' lawyer Michael S. Farber declined to comment.

Type.Set.Brooklyn reached out to Supreme for comment.

Jones’ other sponsors include Adidas, which debuted his signature shoe series in 2019, and King Skateboards, a board brand he co-founded in 2022. Thrasher Magazine named him Skater of the Year in 2018 and 2022. Jones was recently announced as a friend of the house of Louis Vuitton.

The Latest