Earlier this year, Palace and adidas Skate Team veteran, Blondey McCoy, announced that he would be ending his affiliation with the London skate brand and team. The announcement came as a surprise to many but makes sense based on recent events. He’s not been featured in a Palace lookbook since Winter 2018; perhaps even more telling was his absence from the Palace Ralph Lauren shoot last year. McCoy’s announcement ends a seven-year working relationship between the skater and brand that started when Blondey was just 14 years old and when Palace was only 3 years old.
Blondey, who grew up in London, started skating when he was 10 years old. In a 2017 interview with i-D, he says, “Once I became aware of skateboarding, any prior ambitions, if there were any, were axed.” Palace founder, Lev Tanju, remarks on meeting Blondey for the first time in a 2014 i-D profile on the skater, “I remember when I first noticed Blondey there a couple of years ago, he was having a go at someone on a BMX who was fucking up the ramps. I remember thinking I wouldn’t have had the confidence to pull up on somebody like that at his age.” Lev finishes mentioning that Blondey’s name will eventually appear in Palace’s Tri-Ferg logo, which it did, an honor granted to only a few.
The announcement of his exit from Palace took the form of an Instagram post (shared below), in which Blondey describes that he still has love and support for the Palace Skate Team and he’s since been photographed with current Palace Skate Team member. While a Blondey McCoy highlight reel and profile was certainly in the cards at some point, his exit from Palace makes for the perfect moment to reflect on his powerful career as a skater, and as a creative.
Scroll down to check out a highlight reel of the things Blondey has worked on, from skating with Palace and adidas to creating his own brand and curating collections for e-commerce platforms.
Skate
Blondey’s professional start came with Palace but he’s also skated for Slam City Skates (the first skate shop to ever carry Palace) and adidas. His first appearance in an adidas skate film was in 2016 for “Away Days” alongside several other skaters we’ve highlighted in our skate profile series. Scroll down to check out several of Blondey’s iconic appearances in different skate films including getting hit by a car in “Palasonic.”
Thames London and Blondey
Alongside his work at Palace, Blondey’s also been working on his own brand, Thames London, for several years. The brand takes its cues from everything Blondey sees and experiences. Often containing different forms of collage art or British political commentary, the brand has a more serious feel than the type of work he repped with Palace. As of now, Thames is on hold but Blondey’s recently been releasing capsules under his own name, a project that has a similar feel to Thames but seems somewhat more fluid in content and execution. Scroll down to check out Blondey’s most recent apparel release under his namesake brand.
Art
Similar to his work with Thames and his namesake brand, Blondey has also been creating art and hosting exhibits since his early Palace days. The multi-hyphenate held his first art exhibition in 2015 and has since worked on many more, most recently delivering his exhibition, “Stella Populis,” in London, in early June. In the four years that Blondey has been putting on exhibits, the nature of his art, and its intricacy has changed as he’s gone from collages work to showing full-scale sculptures and multifaceted shows. Scroll down to check out some of the work and exhibits he’s created over the years.
Stella Populis Exhibition (London 2019)
The Loved One (Los Angeles 2019)
All a Tremulous Heart Requires (London 2018)
Fashion
Blondey does not confine his creative work to only his two brands, and he’s also become a fixture throughout the fashion industry. Last summer Blondey walked in Virgil Abloh’s debut Louis Vuitton Menswear show and earlier this year he was tapped by the e-commerce platform, Farfetch, to create an editorial piece in which he explains his outlook on fashion, and then curates a selection of his favorite items from the site. As he exits Palace, it seems he may further transition out of the world of skateboarding and further into the world of higher fashion. Scroll down to check out some of the miscellaneous work Blondey has done in the fashion world.
In the few months since Blondey left Palace, he’s debuted two art exhibitions, been in attendance for Paris Fashion Week, and even released several prints for sale via his website. The exit may signal a young man growing up, leaving behind something that represents a life different than the kind he further intends to lead. In a recent interview with SSENSE, Blondey spoke of settling down and starting a family at some point, maybe his move from Palace is the beginning of that. Whatever the case may be, he’s not settling down anytime soon, and for the 22-year-old, it seems the entire world is at his feet.
