Awake NY

Awake NY was founded in 2012 by Angelo Baque, the former brand director of Supreme, who left in 2016 to focus on Awake full-time. Baque's brief for Awake was specific from the start: build an inclusive American streetwear brand that engaged with Black, Latino, Asian, and immigrant New York communities directly through product, store experience, and cultural programming. The brand's name comes from Erykah Badu's Knee Deep — a reference Baque has cited. The product vocabulary leans on classic American sportswear archetypes — varsity jackets, hoodies, polo shirts — refracted through Baque's editorial sensibility: bold lettering, graphic intensity, and references to New York hip-hop, immigrant culture, and the kind of multi-ethnic Lower East Side that shaped his upbringing. Long-running Adidas collaborations (the original Awake NY × Adidas Forum) and a Tommy Hilfiger Spring 2024 collaboration cemented the brand in the broader cultural conversation. Awake NY operates a single flagship store on Eldridge Street on the Lower East Side, plus international distribution through Dover Street Market, SSENSE, and other partners. The brand remains independent. Baque continues as creative director and majority owner. Few American streetwear brands have so explicitly built their brand identity around community responsibility — and few have managed to do so while remaining commercially serious.