Abloh was born in Rockford, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, to parents who immigrated from Ghana. A quiet but charming kid who was obsessed with skateboarding and music, he attended Catholic high school, then the University of Wisconsin, where he graduated with a degree in civil engineering. Abloh also received a masters in architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and it was in this period when he started to become interested in the intersection of fashion, culture, and music.