Lev Tanju

As the founder of streetwear brand Palace, Lev Tanju is responsible for London’s most prominent and buzzed about skate company. Although Tanju is quick to point out he never intended for Palace’s appeal to transcend the skating community, the young company has become one of the most exciting street culture brands .

Tanju started skating around London in 1998, living at a few skate houses and reselling skate boards to get by. Taking somewhat of a gap decade upon finishing college, Tanju began designing skate board graphics for his friends. Living in skate houses dubbed Palaces amongst friends, Tanju became a part of the emerging "Palace Wayward Boys Choir" alongside the group of young creatives including Lucien Clarke and Blondey McCoy that formed the Southbank skate scene in the early 2000s. A slew of young skaters, musician, artists, Djs, designers and photographers would soon produce the PWBC lo-fi video series launched on the online television platform Dontwatchthat.tv, which then grew into the Palace Skateboards brand by 2009.

Tanju tapped Marc by Marc Jacob's design director Fergus Purcell to design the brand's triangular logo, nicknamed the "Tri-Ferg Logo", after its inventor. Upon its debut, the brand was exclusively sold around independent boutiques around London, until it was picked up by Supreme and carried by their New York and Los Angeles locations. In April 2015, Palace opened its first monobrand store in London’s Soho and has since expanded into the US market with the opening of a New York boutique in May 2017. Aside from launching four seasonal collections a year, Palace has found growth by collaborating with a roster of brands and artists including Reebok, Umbro, Ralph Lauren , Adidas and Reebok. In its city of origin, Palace is stocked by Dover Street Market and End Clothing, and operates its own Brewer Street store. Palace also runs three other monobrand stores in New York City, Tokyo and Los Angeles.

Quick growth and resulting popularity saw the brand receive recognition as the "European Skate Brand of the Year" in 2012 at the Bright Tradeshow awards in Berlin, and a nomination for the Fashion Award's Urban Luxe award, ranking among the likes of streetwear megabrands Off-White and Supreme.