The Outlaw Hammerskins are a renegade offshoot of Hammerskin Nation, a loosely organized white supremacist skinhead organization of long standing with chapters in the United States and Europe. Various members of Hammerskin Nation have been convicted of harassing, beating, or murdering minorities. In addition, many popular racist rock bands are associated with Hammerskin Nation, which regularly sponsors white power rock concerts.

The Outlaw Hammerskins were born out of a June 1999 incident involving members of the Northern Hammerskins who used extreme violence in rescinding the membership of a colleague who "wasn’t living up to his oath." After this incident, five members of the Northern Hammerskins were kicked out of Hammerskin Nation, and eight others quit and joined these five in forming the Outlaw Hammerskins. The group now claims to have four chapters in the Midwest.