Elliott Smith’s music has been part of skate culture for decades, but for some reason a sweatshirt is being treated like a betrayal

Earlier this week, Supreme announced an Elliott Smith capsule collection, including a selection of jackets and T-shirts featuring artwork from across the late musician’s career, from his self-titled 1995 album to his seminal 1997 album Either/Or to 1998’s XO and 2000’s Figure 8 .

The internet seems to be in a huff over this, relying on a view of Supreme and streetwear frozen in 2008 that was, even then, embarrassingly myopic. The line of thinking goes that Supreme, the brand that was founded in New York in 1994 by designer James Jebbia and that has been a staple in skate and streetwear culture ever since, is an inauthentic purveyor of the ethos represented by Smith and his music. One might cite the brand’s roughly $500 million investment from the Carlyle Group in 2017 or its association with high fashion as disqualifying characteristics.…