Call Me 917 (also known as Nine One Seven or simply 917) is a New York City-based skateboard and streetwear brand founded by professional skateboarder Alex Olson. Named after the 917 area code covering parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan, the brand was conceived around 2014–2015 as the skate-focused counterpart to Olson’s fashion label Bianca Chandon. Where Bianca Chandon explored high fashion, fine art, and gender-fluid design, Call Me 917 was created specifically to support a skateboarding team and supply skate shops with boards and apparel.
Key Facts
- Founded: c. 2014–2015
- Founder: Alex Olson (professional skateboarder; son of Steve Olson)
- Headquarters: New York City, USA
- Industry: Skateboarding, Streetwear
Background and Founding
Alex Olson — son of 1970s/80s skateboarding legend Steve Olson — turned professional for Girl Skateboards and built a reputation not just for his skating but for his eclectic personal style and interests in music, photography, and fashion. After launching Bianca Chandon as a unisex fashion project in 2014, Olson felt a creative tension: he was using skateboarding’s credibility to amplify a brand that didn’t give back to skate shops or the core skate community. Call Me 917 was his solution — a dedicated skate company with a team, a board programme, and distribution through skate retailers, while Bianca Chandon remained the platform for his fashion experiments.
The name traces back to the phone number (917) 692-2706 that Olson originally used to introduce Bianca Chandon — callers reached an answering machine for the brand. When Bianca Chandon outgrew the gimmick, Olson brought the number back as the identity of his new skate project, and the NYC area code became the brand’s name.
Team and Skate Culture
Call Me 917 quickly assembled a team of New York and East Coast skaters including Max Palmer, Cyrus Bennett, and Nik Stain, alongside European connections such as Vincent Touzery. The brand released its first full-length video, The 917 Video, on 17 September 2017, which became a modern classic in skate video culture for its sharp aesthetics, distinctive music choices, and raw East Coast skating. The brand produces a range of skateboard decks, apparel (T-shirts, hoodies, caps), and accessories with a vintage Americana graphic sensibility.
Aesthetic
Call Me 917’s visual identity draws on classic skate graphics, vintage New York imagery, and a deliberately lo-fi, irreverent aesthetic that sits at the intersection of core skateboarding and downtown NYC cool. Deck graphics reference old-school skate iconography while apparel leans into bold, simple typographic and illustrative prints. Both Virgil Abloh and ASAP Rocky were among the early high-profile figures seen in the brand’s pieces, reflecting its crossover appeal beyond the skatepark.
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