Is Chrome Hearts a Christian brand? Its cross is a trademark

Richard Stark, who started Chrome Hearts, told Paper magazine in 2012: "I saw a big Hells Angels funeral ride by me and I thought, I want to be that."

I read the cross as biker hardware first and a trademark second. The stranger on the train reads a cross, and that is yours to weigh.

Quick facts

• Founded: 1988, in Los Angeles, by Richard Stark, Leonard Kamhout and John Bowman.
• First job: costumes for a 1989 film called Chopper Chicks in Zombietown.
• On faith: no word from the founders or owners in interviews read from 1992 to 2023.
• In court: cross trademark suits against MNML in 2020, Shein in 2023 and Nordstrom in June 2026.
• On within: 747 Chrome Hearts pieces at Utopia, 96 of 750 listings with a cross in the name, read 16 October 2026.

Where the cross came from

In 1992 the Chicago Tribune's Genevieve Buck described a jacket "with sterling silver closures and a few crosses appliqued here and there." (Buck also noted that "there's nothing made of chrome and none of their decorative symbols are hearts.")

Stark told The Japan Times in 1999 that the brand was conceived "to make all the hardware for the leather."

What the brand says the cross is

No founder or owner speaks about religion in any interview I read, and the website has no about page. Suing the streetwear label MNML in 2020, the brand said its cross mark, used since the late 1980s, "has become synonymous with its brand", The Fashion Law reported.

Against Shein in 2023, Chrome Hearts said it uses the crosses "as source identifiers". In June 2026 it sued Nordstrom over its registered CH Cross and CH Plus marks. The Fashion Law spelled out the limit: "Chrome Hearts is not claiming rights in cross imagery generally."

What the journalists saw

Booth Moore of the Los Angeles Times found the goods "emblazoned with Gothic crosses" in 2002, along with daggers and fleur de lis. The same 2002 piece has Stark, raised in Utica, New York, saying he rode through cemeteries on his motorcycle, "perhaps for effect".

GQ credited the first jackets with "biker cross embellishments" in 2022 and joked about the brand's New York clubhouse, "filled with more crosses than the Vatican".

Asked by Hypebeast in 2018 what kind of company it is, Stark said to "label it whatever you want".

To the people who make it, the cross is a trademark. To everyone else, it is a cross.

The cross pieces against the rest

Only 96 of the 750 listings at Utopia carry the word cross in their names, about one in eight, yet no motif counted is more common. Horseshoes come next at 84, then daggers at 46, scrolls at 32 and cemeteries at 30.

Cross pieces cost a little more, a median of CAD 2,100 against CAD 1,800. The cross also turns up on a Zippo lighter at CAD 4,500 and a beach towel at CAD 2,500. On a black rubber mat at CAD 1,500, a cross is a logo.

Two Star of David pendants share the shelf, at CAD 3,000 and CAD 2,000, with a Mini Crosstail Link Rosary Necklace at CAD 6,500. Add a 2016 Christmas Incense Holder at CAD 500, and the range reads to me as design rather than devotion, though only the Starks can say.

If the cross matters to you

A Tiny Cross Pendant at CAD 2,500 or a Silichrome Cross Necklace at CAD 750 reads as a cross before it reads as Chrome Hearts. Wear one knowing how that lands at school or a family dinner.

The shop ships to the US and worldwide, free to Canada and the US over CAD 300. Every sale is final, so settle the cross question before you pay.

If you buy a cross anywhere else, read how to spot fake Chrome Hearts first. A cross that began as hardware on a biker jacket in 1988 is now a registered mark argued over in federal court in California.

Common questions

Is the owner of Chrome Hearts Christian?

Richard and Laurie Lynn Stark own Chrome Hearts, and neither has spoken about faith in any interview I read, so nobody outside the family can say. Their story is in who owns Chrome Hearts.

What does the Chrome Hearts symbol mean?

The brand has published no meaning, and its court filings treat the CH Cross and CH Plus as trademarks. Journalists have described its crosses since 1992 and called them Gothic since 2002.

Is Chrome Hearts haram to wear?

Chrome Hearts makes no religious claim either way, so the answer belongs to your faith and the people you trust. If the cross is the worry, 654 of the 750 listings have no cross in the name. Start with where to buy Chrome Hearts.

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