We propose a homogenized supremal functional rigorously derived via $L^p$-approximation by functionals of the type $\underset{x\in\Omega}{\mbox{ess-sup}}\hspace{0.03cm} f\left(\frac{x}{\varepsilon}, Du\right)$, when $\Omega$ is a bounded open set of $\mathbb R^n$ and $u\in W^{1,\infty}(\Omega;\mathbb R^d)$. The homogenized functional is also deduced directly in the case where the sublevel sets of $f(x,\cdot)$ satisfy suitable convexity properties, as a corollary of homogenization results dealing with pointwise gradient constrained integral functionals.