Epic Win: Super S
Submitted and Written by Lauren, Ms. Stussypants
It’s amazing that sometimes I can barely remember basic math but can still draw a “stussy symbol” (also called a “Super S” in some regions) without hesitating. I remember these stylized “S’s” being drawn on every available scrap of paper, but unless you knew the secret of the lines, you were out of the cool club. We called them “stussies” but I don’t think they had any relation to the Stussy company that was popular at the time. Everyone thought that this was a unique symbol that only they and their friends knew how to draw, but talk to your friends from around the country and you’ll find out that they too knew how to make a super cool “S” out of 14 lines.
We called them Super S’s where I grew up, so I went all New Yorker and fact checked Lauren’s story. She’s 100% correct, as far as I can tell.
Holy crap. I did think it was just a local thing, and had forgotten all about them. And I live in Saskatchewan, Canada. So this phenomenon was not limited to just the USA. Cool.
Well they also reached as far as Perth, Australia! I remember a time when your ruler or notebook just wasn’t cool unless you had drawn one of these on it several times hehe
Sweden reporting in.
Yep, here too. In junior high (mid-late 90’s).
New Jersey here. we had em too. WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY?!?! I can’t help but wonder where such a widespread, yet relatively secretive, trend got its start…
California, most people at my elementary school knew how to draw it.
I like the optional hat.
Nevada. Must’ve spread fast from its place of origin!
Arizona! I could’ve sworn it was a local thing. Moreover, a thing that was almost exclusively the property of the cool kids that lived on the “S”outh”S”ide of town in the “S”unny”S”ide school district. LOL
I find it quite amazing that it was an international phenomenon back then.
Ohio, and we have it too, even in this boring old state.
Tennessee. It was also popular in my middle/elementary school.
Florida ringing in.
I had these in the mid-90’s and now my little sister comes home with them all over her papers. this trend will never die.
Maine here.
Weirdly enough, we had it here, too!
It was a trend in Massachusetts, too.
I remember not only making these with my friends, but making them travel all the way down my paper, drawing a little tongue at the top end, and coloring it green to make it look like a snake. Ahh memories.
New York too – although my school name and town started with “S”, so I always thought it was just within our school system. I had no idea it was so widespread!
OH MAN. I thought this was just something my local school started! And this was in Japan! Not exactly in a Japanese high school, but more like on the U.S. military bases with all the American kids. I always wondered what the heck it was, thinking it was for Superman. but Superman’s “S” symbol doesn’t look like that. and no one would tell me what the heck it actually stood for. So I thought that maybe they got it from some American TV show or product or something back on the U.S. motherland. well now that I live here in the U.S., turns out that people are still as clueless as ever about the mysterious “S”! And I never knew it would be so widespread either, and equally clueless!
btw, there’s even a facebook group for this! just find it on Facebook. the group is called:
That “S” thing we all drew in elementary school.
This spread as far as Newfoundland, although we called them “Smiles” because that was about the only word you saw the special “S” starting.
I didn’t even know I was supposed to be drawing those things. I wondered why they were on top of all the desks in my school. I was like…”Oh look, an S. I don’t care.” Man, I was so uncool…
We used to do that in the ’70s as the first S when writing Styx’s name.
“We used to do that in the ’70s.” Now I feel old.
I’ve got pictures of soldiers in the Vietnam War that have put that on their web gear. I think the pictures come from the mid 1960’s.
I still use these. (Both my first and last name start with “S”)
Lucky. This poster is stuck with a bunch of boring vowels
Why the F do you need to have all those steps to make an S that looks like that? There’s nothing to it. Sheesh. I’ve got a way cooler one that that.
I was just doodling these the other day.. thats too funny!
I called it the “Suzuki S” cause it looks like the Suzuki S….lol. Yeah, the cars.
My last name is Sass and my first name starts with an S, when i learned this in 2nd grade i had so much fun writing my name
Where I come from that’s the N.C. State block S. I had no idea people outside of NC doodled that thing everywhere.
Heh, we used to draw those ‘S’ like a knot that goes on forever. It never really was an S but a cool style of braid.
I made a whole alphabet of these when I was in sixth grade.
REALLY?? Man, I always wanted to do that but lacked the ambition. That’s so cool!
I always thought that there was an alphabet of it. I was always the outcast in school because I had no idea how to draw it and I STILL don’t.
there was a gang in our town that used it as their sign, so we always got in trouble for drawing it
Yah… that was what the teachers around here said too. I’m not sure if it was an actual gang sign or if that’s just what people assumed since it was all over. o.0
Remember drawing these in school in the 80’s, predating Stussy – never heard them called that before.
Here in Germany we also have this^^
Here in Germany we have them also^^
Germany too, even in the early 2000’s.
I grew up in northern Indiana, and we’d traditionally follow the S with “mile” in bubble letters. Smile!
Wow. I never understood why people drew these…or what they meant…or how to draw it. I was so uncool though. Plus I could never figure out why only an S was drawn.
Yeah, I was never really interested in it, and couldn’t figure out why it was only an S either. I think we also had a slightly different version, that was smoother on the outside (SoCal here).
the part of the S that goes behind should appear as if it connects.. you’ve ruined the past!
90’s babies should not be here..
I was born in 1991, and we kids were still drawing these all the time, even in middle school. I feel better, though, knowing that it isn’t just me that doesn’t know what the heck it means.
I agree with your earlier post– the last line has to look like it connects! I don’t know what it’s supposed to do, but it doesn’t do it unless the back connects.
It’s kind of an icky memory for me because they were graffiti’d everywhere. I hate graffiti. It makes things look ugly. I still knew how to draw them, though. (Back in the 70’s was when I first saw them.)
I used to think it was an extension of bubble lettering or graffiti on paper.
(I hope that makes sense)
I definitely remember these, and I can still draw them.
One my friends had a name that started with the letter S so he used it when he signed my yearbook in middle school (1999-2001).
My school district name starts with an “S,” and so starting when we were in elementary school and going all the way through high school, a lot of our student made banners and things had that on there. I didn’t realize it was so widespread, though.
Melbourne Australia checking in.
Both drawing just the “S” and the long braided version.
It looks like the Iron Maiden font, even though there’s no “S” in Iron Maiden.
Stussy did you use this exact logo on their “Knowledge is King” series of T-shirts. I bought mine at Pacific Sunwear in like ‘92! Geek-o-rama.
I used to draw these as well, but then I graduated to starting with 8 vertical lines instead of 6 for the first step, and then reversed the diagonal lines on the next step…and then you end up with interlocking question marks as long as you add the square dot on the top and bottom.
I always thought it came from some line of skateboard gear… probably because I saw it, usually made from fluorescent or glow-in-the-dark tape, on so many skateboards in the 80s.
i thought this was just an MSU thing
Yeah, I grew up in michigan (Elementary school from about 92-98), and it was pretty much always associated with Michigan state here. Also, we started with three lines on top and three lines below it, instead of dots.
I had no idea this was such a widespread thing! I grew up in SoCal and did this in my HS years (95 grad). I used to continue the series of lines and make “braids.”
In Russia we also made ‘braids’
I remember this was all the rage with kids during the early 90s when I was growing up. I also remember my nextdoor neighbor’s dad telling us kids that he used to draw them when he was younger, too, so I guess it dates back to the 70s or even before that?
I called them “super S’s” growing up; grew up in soCal.
S stand for Satan and is used by the cult all over the world.
Back when I was a kid, there were twin neighbor kids down the street who were unaffectionately referred to as “The Bongas”. They thought the very same thing down to the letter.
Of course, nobody believed them because they also thought the peace sign was “an upside-down broken cross”.
Ah, Greg and Grant, where art thou?
We did this in southern Ontario, Canada as well.
We had those in Germany to who invented those things? I remember being in Elementary school and i couldn’t figure out how some could draw such a cool S.
This smells like a conspiracy
We had these in the UK as well! Where can it have come from!?
Growing up I always assumed that whenever my older brother drew it, it was just an S for “Seattle Mariner”
*”Seattle Mariners”
we used to turn them sideways and put a head on it so that it was someone crossing their arms..(a parent perhaps).. glaring at you. My sister would add another one below and a torso that way the person could be sitting Indian style with their arms crossed.
New Zealand here – we had them too – early to mid 90’s is my remembering of them…
Saw one on a hand written shop sign just out of London (England) the other week. Had forgotten about them until then
Never heard of them. Really, what were they for? Why was this taught?
Sydney, Aus checking in. Yes, my pencil case was smothered in them in my early years. We never thought about why. Just drew them. And the braid ones aswell.
We have the entire super alphabet here.
I thought that this was a symbol for skinheads…. You know, the Neo-Nazis?
not all skinheads are/were neo-nazis. there was a whole group of them called ’s.h.a.r.p – skinheads against racial predjudice’. unless you meant just the neo-nazi ones used it.
but yeh, English girl here can’t believe the thing is so widespread and yet was so pointless!! i can’t remember how we even came to be doodling them lol
Where I went to High School, those had become a gang symbol so if you had one on a notebook or anything you was gonna get shanked by Westside, true story!!
Did them in Sweden
Did it as a kid in the 90’s… nowadays in many American schools it is considered a gang symbol and is banned.
Awesome!
We did’em in Sweden aswell.
I remember my best friend at the time showing me how to draw one of these in our after school ’safe key’ program in second grade. ( It was where you had to stay after school because your parents couldn’t pick you up right away. Like daycare almost.) Our teacher told us that we shouldn’t draw them because they were gang signs.
We used to draw them ALL THE TIME in elementary school. In the school district where I teach now, they don’t allow students to draw them. From what I gather, it’s part of a Mexican gang symbol or something.
I still draw these on a regular basis! Around Delaware, we call them Chinese S’s… No clue why… But the rawk!
I remember being in the after school program and when we went outside, kids would bring scissors to carve the S’s into trees. <3
where the hell did these come from?
I remember people drawing these in 94 – 95 (in the UK).
Be inter4esting to know how old this really is and who did it first.
I used to draw these in jr. high – 1989ish. Now, my 3rd grade students are drawing them!!! It never ends!
I remember a friends’ older brother teaching me the steps to draw it. when I was 6 or 7. We used draw these a lot in elementary school in the mid-90s. I too thought it was a local phenomenon, in central Canada where I lives.
I remember learning how to do that in the second grade! Sometimes I still make them out of the “s” in my first name.
Had them in Virginia in the 70’s and 80’s also. I work in a library, I should see if our Reference people can track down the origin!
we had em at school here in the Seattle area as well…where did they originate? was it shown on tv or something? how are they everywhere??
Kids still do this! I worked in public schools from 2004-08. Kids drew these all the time.
Saipan, MP 96950 reporting in.. wow i remember drawing this and feeling like such a badass in the sixth grade.. nice!
Whoa, I had these back in the 90’s, called them “Spartan’s S” because my school mascot was a Spartan.
I come from a small secluded town in the French alps and we even had it over there…
(hello compatriote, j’aurai jamais pensé voir un truc que je connais sur ce blog)
WTF!
I though it was a local thing…and I’m from a small french village.
Wtf? How did it get to places like that? O_o
yup, we were drawing them in singapore too!
I thought it was just a local thing too. Had it here in Hawaii in the late 1990s in elementary school.
We did them in Arkansas… did anyone else draw one big S the write the sorry so short on the lines next to the S..
HAHAHA, I was in a board meeting the other day drawing these all over my notepad & my colleague was having a chuckle about it…that’s gold. I grew up in a country town in Far North NSW in Oz, so it’s not just a US thing lol
Yeh I’m from Scotland we drew them here too!!!!
i thought this was only just a thing some kid at my school came up with and everyone began scribbling as well. very weird that this was infact some kind of world wide phenomenon. i was often disappointed that only the letter ’s’ was immortalized as such, since i wanted to write my name all lovely and stylized, but alas, it only has one ’s.’
Michigan. Its crazy how things like that are happening everywhere when you think its just you. lol
Im in the UK and even most of us knew how to draw these!
I remember in Middle School my English teacher flipped out on a student who had used it for the capital ’s’ on a project we had to do and sent him to the princepal because it was a gang symbol. She had me convinced until I just learn that even people in Australia and Sweden drew the symbol too. Crazy.
Germany hear. know this from the 90s. But ask your parents for this.
Then ask your grandparents…
Yeah we drew this too, back in the 90’s. I’m from Cape town South africa. How the hell did this thing spread so much?
We had those at my school in sydney australia in the early 90’s. i have never been able to find out any info on them.
PHILLAYYYYY did ‘em here.
Georgia kid here. I learned this in middle school but everybody already knew it before I did–I’d just moved there. (And I’m pretty sure that people knew it back in my elementary school in Arkansas, too.)
Germany here, we had them!
Yep, we had those in Sydney, Australia during the 90’s. I remember seeing them in schools spread all over Sydney. I also remember doing the braid ones!
This is SO weird reading that they were everywhere. Where did it start? OMG.
maybe its a collective memory we as a society have from the garden of eden and dont know it. And if one goes back through time, the symbol will be left all over places in pyramids and caves. The missing link to a greater state of understanding of the physical and metaphysical worldss!
Definately in Washington DC, it was so cool to do it.
Reporting in from Maui, Hawaii. These were very popular in the sixth grade. (1998)
Just about everyone drew these at my elementary school in California (90-96), I had no idea it was so widespread. Awesome to find this, though, because I had googled it without any success for years, having forgotten how to draw them. Ha, when I was a substitute teacher at a Tennessee elementary school last year I saw a kid with one of the S’s on his backpack and I came thiiiis close to asking him to show me how to draw it, but I figured that would seem kind of weird…
Reporting from Panama (the country, not the city in FL).. yeah.. you were the coolest if you knew how to draw it
Get the official “S” thing shirts for only $10 theSthing.com
I do have a Stussy tattoo..not the “Syuper S”, but the full Stussy word..
Thank you Spring Break ‘94!!