When Did Paper Planes Start?
The short answer: the brand's own About page says Paper Planes was founded in 2014 by JAY-Z and Emory Jones. The 2008 you will see on reseller pages is not wrong so much as misplaced: 2008 is the year Roc Nation was founded, and the paper plane has been Roc Nation's emblem since. The two dates got merged somewhere between the brand and the boilerplate, and they have been circulating together ever since.
Each date in the brand's history marks a different event. Here is what each one actually is.
2008: the plane, not the brand
Roc Nation, the entertainment company JAY-Z founded, launched in 2008 with the paper plane as its emblem. That is where the logo's story starts, and it is why "established 2008" language follows the brand around: the mark is that old even though the clothing line is not. When a product page dates Paper Planes to 2008, it is dating the symbol.
The same year, entirely coincidentally, M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" was one of the biggest songs in the world. That collision still shapes search results today, and it has nothing to do with the clothing brand.
The merch years: worn before it was sold
Before Paper Planes was a retail brand it was an inside signal. Emory Jones has described the early runs as pieces made for the Roc Nation family and the people around it, worn publicly and sold nowhere, and has said that when people saw you in Paper Planes they knew you were connected. That era has no clean start date because nothing was on sale. It is the reason the brand had demand before it had distribution.
2014: the brand, officially
The brand's own account, on its About page, is that Paper Planes was founded in 2014 as a lifestyle brand by Jay-Z and Emory Jones. This is the date this site uses everywhere, because a brand's own founding claim is the authoritative one. It marks the point where the inside-signal merch became a named line under Roc Nation.
The trademark filings
Trademark records and press reports around them attach further dates to the name, and public reporting has referenced filings at different points before and after 2014. A filing date is a legal event, not a founding: brands file before launching, after launching, and again as they expand categories. None of these dates changes when the brand says it was founded.
2020: national retail
In October 2020 the brand crossed into national distribution: the Crown Fitted launched at Lids, the first national retailer to carry Paper Planes headwear, at $60 in six colorways on the New Era 59Fifty. The AC Milan capsule followed that December. The wholesale network of independent shops kept growing alongside, which is the network this site maps.
October 2023: the flagship
The brand opened its first permanent store at 252 Lafayette Street in SoHo in October 2023. Fifteen years after the plane first flew as a logo, nine years after the brand's official founding, there was finally a door with the brand's own name on it.
So which year is right?
Both, for different questions. Ask when the symbol started and 2008 is the honest answer. Ask when the brand was founded and the brand itself says 2014. The wrong answer is the one most of the internet gives, which is treating the two as interchangeable.
FAQ
When was Paper Planes founded?
The brand's own About page says it was founded in 2014 as a lifestyle brand by Jay-Z and Emory Jones.
Why do some pages say Paper Planes started in 2008?
2008 is the year Roc Nation was founded, and the paper plane has been Roc Nation's emblem since then. Reseller boilerplate carried the logo's date onto the clothing brand.
Is Paper Planes older than the brand's stores?
Yes. The brand was founded in 2014, reached national retail through Lids in 2020, and opened its first permanent store, the SoHo flagship, in October 2023.
Who founded Paper Planes?
Shawn "JAY-Z" Carter and Emory "Vegas" Jones, under Roc Nation. The full story.