Supreme is THE brand of the moment. The one that young people are snapping up at the cost of hours of waiting on the cobblestones or browsing Ebay. The undisputed leader of streetwear in full swing has earned its letters of nobility thanks to a collaboration with Louis Vuitton.
But the New York label remains no less intriguing, and the question of why it unleashes passions has tormented clothing enthusiasts since its explosion in recent years. Enough to divide: established as a marketing genius by professionals in the sector, it is revered by its large community of fans. And viewed with a suspicious eye by at least as many consumers, who see in it the worst that fashion has been able to produce, between a business model that increases expectations tenfold, the resale industry that it has generated and the continual buzz that surrounds it.
We have an unfortunate tendency to analyze Supreme through the sole prism of sales - you know, this hassle of weekly drops in limited quantities, with a ticket system to be able to access the store. However, to understand the brand, you have to look further. Go back to its origins, look at its creator, to obtain the answers to all the questions it may raise. More than a product return - to make it short, it's mid-range which is roughly worth its price in store - this is the subject of this article, which could well sweep away a certain number of preconceived ideas. Because one thing is certain, Supreme is not limited to what can be deduced from a distant glance. It is both much more and much less. A UFO.
James Jebbia, the visionary
James Jebbia in front of his shop, 1994.
Flashback. The year is 1994, and at age 30, James Jebbia is at a crossroads. This native of Great Britain, who arrived in New York ten years earlier, indeed feels the tide turning: his friend Shawn Stüssy, with whom he runs the eponymous boutique, is considering retirement. The experienced clothing store owner then thought about skateboarding. Although he has never ridden a board, he is attracted by the graphics, the rebellious side that emerges from the movement. And above all makes an observation, which he explains in these terms to Interview Magazine :
“ The clothes that skate brands were putting out at the time were shit. Many of their consumers were young. But where people imagine skateboarders as 12, 13 or 14 year old kids, in New York, he was more of the hardcore 18-24 year old kid, and he didn't wear those clothes. Because it didn't fit well, and the quality was bad, even though they wanted to look good and pick up girls ".
Bingo. James Jebbia identified his audience and understood their expectations. And wants to respond by offering quality at an affordable price . With $12,000 in his pocket, that same year, he opened his Supreme store on Lafayette Street. The name comes from jazz saxophonist John Coltrane's album, “ A Love Supreme », while its now famous “box logo”, designed by a friend, is inspired by the visuals of conceptual artist Barbara Kruger. Funny references, for a guy who wants to sell skatewear? It is precisely there, in this mixture of disparate sources, that the identity of Supreme lies. The basis of its success.
Rather similar, indeed.
The recipe for success ? A DNA that speaks to young people
90s, pop and counterculture
Question DNA, the New York Times offers the best description: “ Supreme brings together several currents of the underground, the punk of skaters from the Dogtown era (California in the 70s, editor's note), the utility of military equipment , the brash colors of 80s hip hop, and fuses them into a singular aesthetic ". Condensed from its era and what was then happening across the Atlantic between rap music and grunge, Supreme draws on many areas for its visuals, from music to art, from the counterculture from which it comes to pop culture that he enjoys hijacking. His first collection of three t-shirts included a piece with a De Niro Taxi Driver, while he made himself known by plastering his logos on Calvin Klein ads with Kate Moss.
Supreme's first collection. The Taxi Driver t-shirt (here signed by skaters), the "Afro Skater" model, and the box logo, which has become iconic in all its variations.
The supreme_copies Instagram account allows us to measure the extent of these inspirations: they can just as well be taken from the background of an 18th century painting, a film from the 1920s or a news item, like of this man arrested by the FBI with a box logo, which triggered the famous t-shirt with the slogan “ Illegal Business Control America ”.
This is why Supreme can display personalities as different as Mike Tyson, Lady Gaga, Neil Young... and Kermit, on a "photo tee".
Collaborations follow the rhythm of influences. There are dozens of them. Artists, brands. A recognized visual artist like Takashi Murakami, an underground photographer. A fashion reference like APC, a sportswear representative with Nike, but also very confidential niche brands. It's a shambles in appearance, but a coherence emerges, well symbolized by Supreme's last two collabs.
After a collection based on the photos of photographer Nan Goldin, known for her portraits of New York nightlife outcasts, Supreme once again joined forces with Lacoste this spring. These last two collabs say a lot about the brand's "associative" approach, which always strives to tell a story of street culture.
Whether it's a delirium, a tribute or a qualitative collection, from 1996 and its first collaboration with Vans to our national crocodile, Supreme has always put a meaning and a story behind each alliance, each product. Just as he has always reshaped and reinterpreted what he touched, we are not far from the very definition of streetwear .
The box logo crossed with BAPE's camo in 2002, for one of its first notable collaborations. More generally, Supreme has often partnered with Japanese brands - UNDERCOVER, NEIGHBORHOOD, Visvim -, testimony to a common attraction, which today results in a large number of stores in the land of the rising sun.
James Jebbia saw this diversity as a response to the eclecticism of youth. Re-bingo: sensitive to the harmonious dissonance, and to this spirit oscillating between humor and irreverence, the kids were quick to rush to the store on Lafayette Street. Whether they performed their tricks in Washington Square... or in the French countryside.
Authenticity and exclusivity in watchwords
Supreme is not a recent phenomenon. He was immediately and ALWAYS successful. “ Supreme came along, and it was immediately seen as the coolest thing around. It was immediately out of the ordinary ", tells us Pascal Monfort, founder of the trend firm REC , and a seasoned skateboarder and fan from the start. He remembers the impact of the release of Larry Clark's film Kids in 1995, whose actors wore the brand and gravitated around the store. And this shop, therefore: another element of the Supreme identity, and undoubtedly its greatest appropriation.
“ No skateshop looked like this. It was halfway between an art gallery, a luxury boutique and yet a skateshop, which was a rather messy thing at that time. There was the great sound system, the very minimal product staging, the rarity, already, then the look and the arrogance of the sellers... This distance that they put with consumers, it was attractive, that made it credible. We hated them and we loved them at the same time. We wanted to be like them. They were real skateboarders, connected to the thing. So even if the guy spoke to you a little badly when he sold you a t-shirt, if he said to you "go ahead, hurry up, make up your mind, give your color" (when they are willing to answer you and they're not doing anything else), it doesn't matter. It's no big deal to be mistreated by a guy you just saw in a video and who fines you for skating. »
Or when distance rhymes with authenticity. And lightness.
At the Brooklyn store, opened in 2017, you can even do a few tricks.
We come to Supreme's famous sales method, often put forward to explain its success. We have seen that this was reductive, it should now be clarified that this is not really another brilliant anticipation from its creator. Introduced from the start, this approach was not initially intended to duplicate the wait, other than to avoid ending up with unsold items on our hands . The young brand did not want to take too many risks. Or... work too much. Because it is also a certain laziness that guided Jebbia and his partners. “ Let’s just say we work really hard to make everything effortless », he quips in mag 032c .
From there to saying that Supreme has become a leader in streetwear and a fashion reference without having tried to be, there is only one step. That Pascal Monfort does not cross. “ I remember one of their first punchlines, which was ironic and funny: “Supreme, world most famous skateshop”. So somewhere there was an ambitious promise from the start ".
In fact, Supreme has anchored exclusivity in its DNA. “ We have never been into the supply and demand thing. It’s not like we said to ourselves that we were only going to make six copies of something, but if I can sell 600, I’ll make 400. We’ve always done it like that ,” continues Jebbia in Interview Magazine . To the point of refusing traditional expansion - it currently only has 11 stores -, or of setting up a website that is anything but attractive .
“ They always managed to give the impression that they were not interested in selling more. And that excited the consumer. What's great is that they questioned a model, a very American one at that, which says that the more customers you have, the more you produce, the more you sell. Well, that's not always the case, and Supreme has proven that we can do things differently », Analyzes our speaker. Who remembers that Supreme was already sold in plastic in luxury thrift stores in the 90s. Furthermore, it was in 2002 that James Jebbia first addressed the problem of reselling his pieces at tenfold prices on the Internet , even though it did not have an official website.
A nice queue in front of the Supreme store... in 2000. No security cordon or ticket for the order of passage, but still.
The explosion of Supreme, between 2011 and Louis Vuitton
Tyler, The Influencer
If Supreme has always been successful, it has taken on another dimension in recent years. The lines in front of its stores are longer than ever, hence the ticket system recently introduced to cope with the influx. Here we are, to the big question: why did Supreme explode? The return of skateboarding? No, too light, in any case too far from what was happening in the nineties . We must instead make a connection with the rise of streetwear, driven by hip hop which has become the driving force of pop culture . Because there is indeed a rap influencer involved in the explosion in the number of brand aficionados.
New flashback. This time it is August 28, 2011, in Los Angeles, and the MTV Music Awards ceremony crowns Tyler, The Creator as best new artist of the year. The young rapper shows up on stage with a classic from Supreme, the Box Logo 5-Panel Cap. Cap that captures all the attention of the show's millions of viewers, while TTC is censored for the dozens of " fucking awesome" » he says.
Tyler and the cap. And a cat.
This will be followed by interviews where the musician of the moment praises the brand. “ It’s a little club, a secret society », he then declared, without suspecting that he would considerably enlarge the club, and make this company one of the most recognizable in fashion by attracting a new flock of teenagers in his wake. Not just any kids: millennials, raised on social networks, and whose mode of consumption contrasts radically with that of their predecessors.
The theory stands in the numbers - thank you Highsnobiety - as well as in the facts. A few months later, Frank Ocean and Kanye West at Paris Fashion Week, appeared wearing Supreme. And then comes the collaboration with Comme des Garçons, which constitutes, in Jebbia's own opinion, a turning point in the existence of the brand - " it opened the eyes and the doors ". The public grew further, other brands sensed the big blow, until the Louis Vuitton earthquake.
Supreme x Comme des Garçons. It doesn't seem like it, but she made people happy.
Louis Vuitton, not so surprising thunderbolt
This collaboration with luxury, anticipated in winter 2017 and released the following summer, marked another milestone. Aroused surprise, the crowds in front of the shops... and the criticism. While LV was accused of having used the label with the box logo to attract the favor of a younger audience, Supreme was accused of having sold its "fuck fashion" soul to embrace it.
Pascal Monfort judges on the contrary that the bridges with luxury were already established : the brand borrowed its distribution methods, but also inspired it, like its production of goodies which had attracted people years earlier, excuse me a bit, a certain Marc Jacobs.
Yes, goodies are also a trademark at Supreme. Although it's always surprising to see him selling unusual things, like tennis balls, a brick, or this funny "money gun".
More consecration than opportunism, this exchange with luxury nevertheless pushed Supreme to release a very rare, but oh-so-revealing press release: “ Throughout our history, we have seen our customers have apprehensions each time we did something unexpected. However, we have always remained true to the culture from which we came ".
Finally, a reflection on our consumption?
Supreme claims it rightly, it has always remained the same. Its strong identity, its ability to understand young people and its sales model have not changed one iota, and are lasting. A sign of great intelligence behind, and the touch of the great, consistency. Jebbia has never denied, and will not deny, its values and credos, even though the number of customers has exploded. As Pascal Monfort rightly points out, “ what makes a brand successful is its consumers ". So if there are criticisms, it is rather at the customer that we must look.
There is indeed reason to read the edifying testimonies of those who do not know how to answer the question of why they buy the brand, when they have just spent 500 euros in the store. Or those who say they have come from far away for a particular product, but who due to lack of availability have fallen back on a product they do not like, always for hundreds of euros. Not to mention all these - somewhat embarrassing - 15-year-old Instagram muses.
At 15 years old, Leo Mandella, aka “Gully Guy Leo”, has over 600K on Instagram. Street credibility has changed.
What to remember? That in a society where we have access to everything we want when we want, we come to seek scarcity, while the terms "experience" and "authenticity" are constantly highlighted in new modes of consumption . Supreme has always had all of that going for it. “ Now it's become a game: kids love to queue, love to tell themselves that they've got something rare, love to speculate... they love it », continues Pascal Monfort. Until a new trend or fad? “ I've been hearing for over ten years that Supreme will soon no longer be in fashion ,” he concludes with a smile. This is Supreme's greatest success, and all its genius. Having managed to stay cool throughout the decades.
