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Marketing Strategies and Marketing Mix of Supreme

Marketing Strategies and Marketing Mix of Supreme 14 min read

Supreme stands as an iconic and influential force in the world of fashion and urban culture. Founded by James Jebbia, this streetwear label emerged from the vibrant streets of New York City’s downtown district, eventually transcending its humble origins to become a global phenomenon. Renowned for its distinctive red and white box logo, Supreme has not only redefined streetwear but has also left an indelible mark on the intersection of fashion, art, and lifestyle.

Supreme is an American clothing and skateboarding lifestyle brand established in New York City in April 1994. The brand aims to appeal to streetwear culture in general as well as the skateboarding and hip hop scenes specifically. The company makes skateboards in addition to clothing and accessories.

The red box logo with “Supreme” in white Futura Heavy Oblique is thought to be largely based on Barbara Kruger’s art. The logo is one of the most recognizable in the world and has become a status symbol among streetwear enthusiasts.

From its inception, Supreme set out to disrupt traditional fashion norms by channeling the raw energy of skateboarding, hip-hop, and underground art scenes into its designs.

Supreme is known for its limited-edition releases and collaborations with other brands and artists. The brand has collaborated with everyone from Nike and Vans to The North Face and Louis Vuitton. These collaborations are often highly sought-after and can sell out in minutes.

What truly sets Supreme apart is its ingenious approach to scarcity and exclusivity. By employing limited releases and collaborating with a myriad of artists, designers, musicians, and brands, Supreme masterfully crafted a sense of urgency and desirability among its fan base. The brand’s “drops,” where new products are released online and in physical stores on a weekly basis, have become cultural events, attracting long lines and fervent anticipation.

Supreme is a cultural phenomenon that has had a significant impact on the fashion world. The brand’s limited-edition releases, collaborations, and viral marketing have helped to create a sense of hype and demand that has made Supreme one of the most popular streetwear brands in the world.

From its origins in a downtown Manhattan storefront to its status as a global phenomenon, the Supreme brand continues to push boundaries, challenge norms, and shape the ever-evolving landscape of streetwear and contemporary style.

Table of Contents

Marketing Strategies of Supreme: Crafting Scarcity, Collaboration, and Cultural Hype

Supreme’s meteoric rise from a small skateboarding shop in New York City to a global cultural phenomenon is no accident. Behind its success lies a meticulously crafted set of marketing strategies that have helped the brand maintain an aura of exclusivity, cultural relevance, and desirability. Let’s delve into the key marketing strategies that have propelled Supreme to the forefront of streetwear and pop culture.

1. Limited Supply and Scarcity:

Limited supply and scarcity are marketing strategies employed by Supreme, a popular streetwear brand known for its high-quality clothing and collaborations with various artists, musicians, and cultural icons.

Supreme’s limited release model involves releasing new collections every Thursday , both online and in physical stores, often featuring unexpected designs or collaborations that sell out rapidly due to strong demand from collectors and fans alike. While some criticize the practice as manipulative, others appreciate the challenge it presents and enjoy the thrill of acquiring highly sought-after pieces.

The brand’s success has inspired similar approaches from other labels and retailers looking to capitalize on the same principles of exclusivity and FOMO (fear of missing out). Although not all attempts at limited releases achieve the same level of hype and success as Supreme, the impact of this marketing strategy cannot be denied within the fashion industry.  This regular cadence fuels anticipation and drives fans to constantly check for new releases, fostering a sense of connection and excitement.

2. Collaborations:

Supreme’s collaborations with a diverse range of artists, designers, musicians, and even other brands have been instrumental in elevating its cultural cachet. By partnering with renowned figures and entities, Supreme not only taps into their existing fan bases but also infuses its own products with a unique blend of creative visions.

Nike SB x Supreme : Released a collection of footwear and apparel, including the Nike SB Blazer Mid and Nike SB Zoom Bruin models.

Levi’s x Supreme : Created a selection of denim jeans, jackets, and accessories, incorporating premium materials and unique detailing.

Louis Vuitton x Supreme : Launched a range of ready-to-wear clothing, leather goods, and accessories, combining LV’s luxury sensibilities with Supreme’s streetwear edge.

TNF x BAPE x Supreme : Produced a capsule collection of graphic T-shirts, hoodies, and accessories, showcasing both brands’ distinct styles.

KAWS x Supreme : Introduced a set of skate decks, clothing, and accessories featuring KAWS’ iconic characters and graphics.

Vans x Comme des Garçons x Supreme : Debuted a collection of clothing and accessories blending CDG’s avant-garde style with Supreme’s streetwear flair.

These collaborations range from high-end luxury brands like Louis Vuitton to niche cultural icons like movie directors and skateboarding legends. Each collaboration generates buzz and reinforces Supreme’s reputation as a brand that blurs the lines between street culture and high fashion.

3. Strategic Celebrity Endorsement:

Celebrities, musicians, and athletes have played a pivotal role in boosting Supreme’s visibility and appeal. The brand often builds relationships with these influential figures, who are frequently spotted wearing Supreme products in public.

Supreme utilizes celebrity endorsements as a key component of its marketing strategy. By aligning itself with influential figures in music, film, art, sports, and more, Supreme creates buzz around its products and taps into existing fan bases. This section provides an overview of how Supreme leverages celebrity endorsements effectively:

Music Industry Partnerships: Supreme frequently partners with prominent musicians and DJs who embody the brand’s edgy yet sophisticated image. Examples include Pharrell Williams, Drake, and Travis Scott, who have each collaborated with Supreme on exclusive merchandise lines or special events. These collaborations help attract younger audiences and amplify Supreme’s reach through social media sharing and word-of-mouth recommendations among fans.

Hollywood Influence: Supreme has also formed relationships with actors, directors, and producers in the entertainment industry. For instance, director and actor Jonah Hill co-designed a clothing collection with Supreme, while Academy Award winner Martin Margiela wore Supreme during his acceptance speech. Such associations further enhance Supreme’s reputation as a covetable brand among influencers and taste-makers.

Athletic Ambassadors: Supreme recognizes the power of athletes in promoting its brand. NBA superstar Stephen Curry sported Supreme gear during press conferences, and professional skateboarder Nyjah Huston represents Supreme in advertising campaigns. These athlete endorsements resonate strongly with Supreme’s core audience of young males interested in action sports and street culture.

Art World Affiliations: Supreme engages with contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, and Takashi Murakami, who have created limited edition items or participated in collaborative projects with the brand. By associating with these respected creatives, Supreme positions itself as a purveyor of cutting-edge design and supports emerging artists in the process.

Political Alliances: In rare instances, Supreme may choose to support political causes or individuals that align with its values. For example, the brand released a “F*ck Trump” hat during the 2016 US presidential election, which generated significant controversy but also solidified Supreme’s position as a rebellious and socially conscious brand. Other notable examples include Supreme’s collaboration with artist and activist Shepard Fairey on a “Hope” print referencing Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. While these moves can be polarizing, they demonstrate Supreme’s commitment to standing up for what it believes in and capturing attention within its target demographic.

This serves as organic and powerful promotion, as their endorsement aligns with the brand’s edgy and rebellious image. This connection between Supreme and celebrities helps to bridge the gap between underground street culture and mainstream recognition.

4. Limited Advertising:

In a surprising twist for a brand of its magnitude, Supreme relies very little on traditional advertising methods. Instead, it harnesses the power of word-of-mouth, social media, and organic buzz generated by its limited releases and collaborations.

Supreme maintains a minimal approach to traditional advertising methods, instead relying heavily on strategic product drops, celebrity endorsements, and viral marketing tactics to generate buzz and drive sales. However, when Supreme does employ conventional advertising techniques, it often focuses on subtle, high-quality imagery that emphasizes lifestyle elements rather than explicit product promotion.

This approach not only aligns with the brand’s ethos but also adds to the sense of authenticity and exclusivity that Supreme cultivates.

5. Cultivating a Community:

Supreme has succeeded in fostering a passionate and engaged community around its brand. This sense of community is nurtured through its physical stores, online platform, and events.

Here are some approaches Supreme employs to cultivate a community of devoted fans:

Store Experience: Supreme places great value on the physical retail experience, ensuring stores feel welcoming and inclusive. Staff members are friendly and knowledgeable, helping shoppers navigate the space and learn about new products. Customers can browse collections at their leisure, allowing ample time to appreciate the quality of materials and craftsmanship. This inviting atmosphere encourages return visits and strengthens emotional connections between consumers and the brand.

Digital Interactions: Supreme maintains active presences on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, regularly updating followers on new arrivals, restocks, and pop-ups. Engagement with customers occurs via comments and direct messages, fostering a sense of camaraderie and shared passion for the brand. By responding promptly and thoughtfully to feedback, Supreme shows appreciation for its audience and reinforces the idea that everyone belongs in this tight-knit community.

Collaborative Design Process: Supreme involves its audience in the creation of new products by soliciting input and ideas from customers. This participatory approach not only generates interest and excitement but also signals that Supreme values consumer opinions and wants to incorporate diverse perspectives into its offerings.

Event Attendance Encouragement: Supreme organizes occasional meetups and parties where customers can connect with one another and bond over their mutual love of the brand. These gatherings promote a sense of unity and shared enthusiasm, deepening the emotional connection between Supreme and its supporters.

The physical stores, with their unique and artistic interior designs, act as hubs where fans gather, share experiences, and build relationships. The brand’s online presence is equally important, with active engagement on social media platforms, where fans can share their latest purchases and discuss upcoming releases.

6. Artistic Expression and Subversion:

Supreme has built its reputation on being a subversive streetwear brand that pushes boundaries through artistic expression and creativity. From its early days as a skater-owned shop selling secondhand clothing to its current status as a global fashion powerhouse, Supreme has consistently leveraged its unique blend of counterculture and luxury to stand out in the crowded world of fast fashion. In this section, we will explore how Supreme utilizes artistic expression and subversion as a marketing strategy to attract and retain customers.

Streetwear Roots and Rebel Image: At the core of Supreme’s marketing strategy lies its roots in streetwear culture and its association with skateboarding, punk rock, and hip hop. The brand’s logo, featuring a bold red box with white lettering, evokes a sense of underground authenticity and anti-establishmentarianism. Its collaborations with artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Ai Weiwei further cement its image as a purveyor of edgy, avant-garde design.

Exclusivity and Rarity: Supreme creates artificial scarcity by limiting supply and producing low quantities of each item. This exclusivity fuels demand and drives resale prices sky-high, making the brand even more desirable among collectors and influencers. The rarity of Supreme items adds to their perceived value and makes them highly coveted by diehard fans.

Product Drops and Hype: Supreme masterfully orchestrates product drops and builds anticipation through social media teasers and cryptic posts. Each drop becomes a mini event, drawing legions of devotees to line up outside stores worldwide. The element of surprise keeps customers guessing and coming back for more, perpetuating Supreme’s cult status and ensuring a steady stream of income from repeat buyers.

These artistic dimensions adds depth and appeal, attracting individuals who seek clothing that communicates a certain attitude and worldview.

In conclusion, Supreme’s marketing strategies are a testament to the brand’s ability to fuse fashion with cultural influence. By employing limited supply tactics, fostering collaborations, strategically utilizing celebrity endorsements, and cultivating a dedicated community, Supreme has positioned itself as more than just a clothing brand – it’s a symbol of rebellion, creativity, and authenticity in the world of streetwear and beyond.

Marketing Mix of Supreme

Supreme’s success can be attributed to its masterful manipulation of the marketing mix, a set of key strategic elements that businesses use to effectively promote their products and build brand recognition. Supreme’s marketing mix is a carefully orchestrated combination of factors that have played a crucial role in its rise to prominence within the streetwear and cultural spheres. Let’s dissect each element of Supreme’s marketing mix in detail:

Supreme’s product strategy is a cornerstone of its success. The brand offers a range of streetwear products that go beyond mere clothing and accessories; they serve as symbols of cultural identity and exclusivity. The product mix includes t-shirts, hoodies, jackets, hats, bags, skateboards, and more.

What sets Supreme apart is its ability to infuse each product with artistic collaborations and limited-edition releases that align with its brand image. These collaborations span a wide range of industries, from luxury fashion brands like Louis Vuitton to artists like Damien Hirst and even iconic musicians like Michael Jackson.

Supreme’s products are not just items to wear; they are collectibles that carry a unique cultural and artistic value.

Supreme employs a pricing strategy that encompasses a wide spectrum.

While some items are priced relatively affordably for its target market, the brand is known for releasing high-ticket items and exclusive collaborations that command premium prices.

This pricing strategy not only fosters an air of exclusivity but also caters to different customer segments. The perception of value that comes with the Supreme label justifies these premium prices for many of its customers.

The tiered pricing approach, ranging from accessible to luxury, enables the brand to maintain its allure across diverse customer profiles.

Place (Distribution):

Supreme’s distribution strategy is a blend of physical and online presence.

The brand operates a limited number of physical stores, primarily in key fashion and cultural hubs like New York City, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and London. These stores are characterized by their unique and often artistically designed interiors, creating a one-of-a-kind retail experience. The scarcity of physical stores contributes to their allure, as fans from around the world often pilgrimage to these locations.

Additionally, Supreme’s online store plays a crucial role in making its products accessible globally. The online store, with its weekly product “drops,” capitalizes on the sense of urgency and exclusivity that defines the brand.

Promotion is a standout aspect of Supreme’s marketing mix due to its unorthodox approach.

The brand consciously avoids traditional advertising methods, relying instead on the power of cultural buzz and organic word-of-mouth.

Supreme’s product releases and collaborations generate significant anticipation, with fans spreading the word through social media, online forums, and offline interactions.

The brand’s strategic partnerships with celebrities, artists, and other brands further amplify its reach. By keeping its promotional efforts aligned with its underground ethos, Supreme maintains its authenticity and cultural cachet.

In sum, Supreme’s 4Ps – Product, Price, Place, and Promotion – are finely tuned elements that contribute to the brand’s aura of exclusivity, authenticity, and cultural significance. The strategic curation of products, pricing tiers, unique retail spaces, and unconventional promotion methods combine to create a brand that transcends mere clothing and has become a symbol of rebellion, creativity, and lifestyle.

Also Read: Swatch: Cutting-Edge Technology, Omega Swatch & Collaborations

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Supreme Streetwear’s Insane Success

Sumo Growth-studies

Supreme has the secret sauce for creating a cult-like following: 

• Over 12.3M Instagram followers.
• Their products resell at over 1200% their retail price.
• Founder, James Jebbia, net worth of over $40M dollars.

You can see from the Google Trends report below that worldwide interest has steadily rose over time for the Supreme brand:

Today I’m going to show you EXACTLY how Supreme New York has grown from a one location retail store run by skateboarders to a worldwide known ecommerce brand with a following larger than some religions.

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The best part? Supreme has grown — and continues to grow — WITHOUT spending insane amounts of money on advertising or marketing.

This means you can do it for your ecommerce business, too. 

To get Supreme’s full marketing playbook in a print friendly pdf version click the button below:

Supreme’s Marketing Playbook (PDF Version)

Or continue reading below. Let's get it on!

Traffic Sources Supreme Used to Build It’s Cult-Like Following

Supreme is a streetwear brand that started as a skateboarding shop in New York City in April of 1994. 

The brand produces clothing centered around their ‘red box logo’ which is shockingly simple, has transcended its skateboarding roots, and is fueled by the brands ability to create desire. 

Here’s how Supreme gets most of their web traffic.

With a cult-like following, and a focus on exclusivity, it makes sense Supreme relies on direct and search traffic as their main traffic drivers. 

Supreme is the most sellable clothing brand in the world. The stuff they make is statistically more likely to skyrocket in value than the merchandise of pretty much any other consumer company in the world.

To increase your own following, product demand, and direct traffic, here are nine ecommerce marketing tips you can apply in your business.

[Tip #1] The LIMITED SUPPLY METHOD To Creating Viral Content Around Your Brand Without A Blog

Supreme product drops are powerful, and the user-generated content around the brand has been enough to allow Supreme to remain in a mostly ‘underground’ status in terms of marketing with almost no paid search investment. 

Here’s just one of the online communities that create viral content for Supreme without them having to do a thing:

Supreme Talk UK/EU (aka SupTalk) is Europe’s largest Supreme fan group. It’s also one of Supreme’s biggest Facebook reselling groups.

The group started in March 2013 when founding members Adam Rose and Peter Mitchell were frustrated at the lack of a UK secondary market for Supreme compared to the USA. So they started SupTalk for Supreme fans to buy, sell and trade Supreme products without having to pay obscene shipping costs.

Supreme have been able to get groups like SupTalk and major news sites with millions of followers like Hypebeast and Highsnobiety to promote their products by limiting supply of their product. Every week dozens of articles are published around how/when and who is involved in the resale of Supreme products, like this one:

When you look at Supreme’s top backlink, you can see the enormous amount of shares it has received, and traffic it provided:

Actually, Hypebeast alone have generated over 190 content pieces around Supreme with total shares over 200,000 in the last year. Again, just one example of content and momentum created outside Supreme itself.

But even though now more people than ever want Supreme, they’ve always kept supply controlled and never released a ton of pieces. This means demand gets higher as supply stays the same, manifesting an overblown hype that creates a secondary resale market for when Supreme release new products.

To get this level of virality and organic user-generated content around your brand, it means you need to be very disciplined. When a Supreme product sells well, they never make it again. That’s what creates the hype and insane resell prices that get as high as 1200% or more, like this:

When you make things in smaller quantities, it makes people:

• Feel special
• Want to have it even more
• Increase the value for the buyer

While many businesses are trying to use “Limited Edition” as a selling point, with Supreme if you don’t get it you may never have the chance to get it again.

Supreme is the only company who sells it (they only have one retail distributor called Dover Street Market) and they only sell product through their online store and limited retail locations around the world.

• USA: New York City, Brooklyn, Los Angeles
• Europe: London, Paris
• Japan: Tokyo (Shibuya), Tokyo (Harajuku), Tokyo (Daikanyama), Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka

Supreme do weekly product drops every Thursday where they release a fresh batch of streetwear via its online store and international retail locations (with Japan getting it two days later on Saturdays). However they never say what’s coming.

This allows Supreme to gain brand momentum and organic traffic to their site every week through viral communities like SupTalk and major news sites like Hypebeast, because their fans want to know what’s coming next.

Supreme’s limited supply strategy created a demand frenzy that got so big once that when the “Supreme Foams” were released at Supreme’s New York Store they were forced to not sell it by NYPD due to concern for public safety.

The takeaway : Intentionally release every product in limited quantities to ensure sellout and engineer viral content around your brand. (Supreme does this by limiting the quantity of every product they sell and varies the number available depending on the product and collaborators.)

[Tip #2] The Most Unusual HOME PAGE LAYOUT In The World That Gets All The Boys And Girls Chasing You   

Supreme’s homepage is largely different from most retailers homepage. You’ll notice that Supreme uses a ‘stripped down’ website theme that combines a minimalist approach with a ‘too cool for school’ feel, leaving visitors wanting to know more vs. bombarding them with information. 

Click here to reveal the web agency Supreme uses

The brand’s stripped down homepage contains: 

• Zero call to actions
• A stripped down minimalist design
• Only one graphic → Their logo

When compared to other big name brand homepages Supreme’s homepage is strikingly different, and relays a different message. Just take a quick look at Nike’s homepage for example:

It’s clear what message Supreme wants it’s visitors to understand: you need to chase them, they won’t chase you.

This simple and clear message also position Supreme perfectly in its target audience’s mind as a high-end, exclusive brand. Supreme has actually been quoted in the documentary “Sold Out” as being: 

“The girl that gives you her number but never answers when you call.”  

The takeaway : Will this homepage approach work for everybody? Absolutely not; however, if you are looking to create a high-end, luxury brand, it’s something you should look into. (Supreme does this with a site design that hasn’t changed since it launched in 2006 to stay elusive and on brand with 1 logo, 9 page links, 2 social links and 1 link to their mobile app.)

[Tip #3] The EMAIL MARKETING Strategy That Makes Your Customers Constantly Check Their Spam Folders

Supreme’s mailing list sign up is not plastered all over their website.  There is a very modest link to their mailing list page in two places:

• The bottom of their homepage
• Their ‘shop’ page for a few months before their next collection releases

Click here to reveal the email marketing software Supreme uses

When you sign up for the Supreme Email List you get… nothing! 

Crickets actually start chirping as you wait for any sort of email from Supreme.

Supreme’s email marketing strategy actually makes customers impatient for their next email. 

It’s no surprise that Supreme uses their email newsletter in a different way than most retailers. Following suite with everything else they produce, Supreme’s email sign up is not the norm. 

In an age where consumers are bombarded with emails highlighting specials, sales, and content — Supreme uses their email list as another tool to portray the message that ‘you chase us’ in their marketing. 

Supreme uses their email list for two main purposes:

1) To update consumers on their weekly ‘drops’  

"Each week you will be notified of a location where you can go and sign up for your spot on Thursday’s line. Once you receive the email you can proceed directly to the location given." – Supreme Reddit Forum

To create an inline mailing list form like this on your website, you can use Sumo .

To make sure their emails reach their mailing list subscribers inbox, Supreme use specialized email delivery software.

Click here to reveal the inbox deliverability software Supreme uses

2) To send exclusive insider emails to select customers

Supreme has been known to send messages and updates to a select group of customers. The way they come up with this list is a mystery. 

But because of that, fans are eagerly waiting with anticipation of receiving emails from Supreme.

The takeaway : Do not follow the crowds. Just because 90% of retailers spam people with emails and push for sign ups does not mean it is the best tactic for your email list. Make sure your email marketing strategy is in line with your branding. (Supreme does this by only sending emails when their products drop and “mystery” customer-only emails.)

[Tip #4] The eCommerce “Lookbook” CONTENT MARKETING Strategy You Can Use 3 Days Before Launching Your New Collection

Three days before their new collections are available for public sale, Supreme launch something called a “lookbook” on their website. Supreme doesn’t have a blog on their website; however, their “lookbooks” provide customers with rich visual engagement with the brand, like this:

When the “lookbook” goes live on Supreme’s site, you can look through and see what Supreme is going to drop over the next few months, but you don’t know when those items are going to drop. You can basically see all the items Supreme are going to come out with in the coming season, except for collab drops and surprise drops.

Here is one of Supreme’s lookbooks for their Fall/Winter collection (they release two per year):

By releasing the lookbook before the product is available for sale, it creates a massive amount of buzz across social media and major news sites like Vogue, Highsnobiety, Complex, and Hypebeast:

Fans get so hyped about the lookbooks that they make videos on YouTube reviewing the whole season's collection (pictured above). You can see some of these videos are so popular that they get over 100,000 YouTube views.

Outside of seasonal lookbooks, Supreme do collab lookbooks. These are based on collab drops with other highend fashion and clothing brands. Here is a Louis Vuitton/Supreme lookbook from a collab drop Supreme did with Louis Vuitton:

Supreme use their “lookbooks” to further convey the exclusiveness and allure of their brand. 

Notice how the images portray a sort of ‘clique’ that further motivate customers to try to be a part of the brand culture by purchasing their products.

The takeaway : Use “lookbooks” as part of your content marketing strategy so you can build up hype and social buzz around your brand before your new products drop. (Supreme does this through their biannual Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer lookbooks which they release three days before you can buy their products.)

[Tip #5] The Only Guaranteed Way To GROWTH HACK REDDIT Without Being Trolled

Here’s a look at Supreme’s top social traffic sources: 

To get traffic from Reddit, Supreme get one of the moderators of the subreddit to post a “super thread” under the News post flair category with links that go straight to Supreme’s website with their newest lookbook.

If you tried to do a post like this by yourself in Reddit, you would get 762 Reddit trolls swearing at you for shameless self-promotion. But by getting the moderator of the subreddit to post, Supreme got 762 comments discussing their new lookbook collection.

Here is a full list of all the moderators for the Supreme subreddit:

Every subreddit has a page like this, all you need to do is type the below URL in your browser window (then replace “supremeclothing” with the name of the subreddit you want to find a moderator in):

reddit. com /r/ supremeclothing /about/moderators

Once you click on a moderator's name, on the top right of the page you will see a text link you can click on to send the moderator a private message:

Remember: Supreme managed to pull this off because they were reaching out and posting on a highly targeted subreddit. Redditters in those subreddit are there to discuss everything Supreme.

What if you don’t have a raving subreddit you can post in like Supreme?

No worries. Instead of giving up on Reddit as a traffic source, put in the time to build a strong and genuine relationship inside relevant subreddits related to your content and products, like this:

For Sumo, we recently shared our live Shopify case study in a long-form format in a subreddit called EntrepreneurRideAlong. The first post got us 141 upvotes, 195 traffic, and 100 people in our target market following our case study natively on Reddit. [ * ]

Instead of directing redditors to our website, we’re providing direct value on the subreddit about entrepreneurship, and linking to the full post with images.

The takeaway : Build a strong and genuine relationship in highly targeted subreddits by participating in conversations and adding value. When it comes time to promote your product or launch, Redditers are more likely to support you. (Supreme does this by getting moderators in the r/supremeclothing subreddit to post their newest lookbooks.)

[Tip #6] Celebrity INFLUENCER MARKETING: How To Get Collabs With Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Drake And Kate Moss 

Supreme has built their brand and boosted exposure by getting the attention of celebrities. Dozens of celebrities are captured wearing Supreme’s class box logo tee. 

Their clothing can be seen on high profile celebrities such as:

Kate Moss in her Box Logo Supreme Tee

Lady Gaga sporting the Box Logo Supreme Tee

So how does one go about getting a celebrity to endorse a product? 

One word. Authenticity. 

Supreme’s celebrity endorsement actually started with their collaboration with music artists. In the 1990’s Supreme began collaborating with different music artists to inspire their collections. Supreme authentically created relationships with music artists to gain momentum and establish collabs.

Here is the first ever artist collaboration Supreme did (with late graffiti artist Rammellzee when they opened their New York City store in 1994):

The hand-painted Supreme trucker caps with neon clouds Rammellzee helped create are amongst the rarest of Supreme products.

After the trucker cap collab with Rammellzee, Supreme created dozens of celebrity inspired t-shirts, hoodies and caps over the next three decades. When a music artist works closely with Supreme to create a piece of clothing inspired by them, there is a bond that is formed. 

Celebrities who work with Supreme can feel the authenticity oozing out of everything released by Supreme, and are likely to wear the products themselves.

Supreme’s key influencer marketing tactics for getting collabs with major celebrities and brands are:

• Authentically create real relationships with brands/influencers that you want to collab with. You do this by helping them with things they are involved with first — way before the collabs (attending events where they are, connecting via social media, etc).
• Do things that allow your collabs to actively participate in the collab with you . Create a product together. 
• Outline the benefits of working with you (massive exposure, tapping into a new market, etc).
• Ensure that the brands/collabs you are trying to reach out to are in line with your morals, values, and overall ‘culture’ you are creating with your brand.

If you do these four things right, then leverage the success of your first collab to get your second and third, you can get celebrity influencers promoting your product for you.

The takeaway : Look at the influencers your target market admires then brainstorm ways to help them with what they’re working on in order to authentically gain their trust and collaborate with them. (Supreme does this through collaborating with top names like Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Drake and Kate Moss – all artists who their target market admire).

[Tip #7] Use This INSTAGRAM GROWTH Hack To Grow Your Instagram Account To 6 Million Followers

Supreme’s Instagram posts average over 230,000 likes, and over 1,400 comments:

To maintain brand consistency, exclusivity, and mystery for each of their Instagram posts, Supreme uses simplicity and celebrity endorsements/collabs to gain followers. 

They posted their first Instagram post in March of 2013, and use the social media platform to post images from their lookbooks and highlight their collabs.  

Their top hashtag is related to their collab with Louis Vuitton — #LVxSUPREME

The brand has collaborated with brands and influencers such as Vans (pictured below), Nike, Fila, Levi, and dozens of well-known brands. 

• Vans (pictured below) 

Supreme has nailed doing collabs with well-known brands and then promoting that collaboration on their Instagram. By focusing on growing one social media channel (ie: Instagram growth ) Supreme are able to show collab partners they are able to promote the collab to their over 12 million Instagram followers, creating a flywheel for more collab opportunities and more Instagram account growth.

The takeaway : You can’t win on every social media channel. Focus on growing one social media channel and finding the types of posts that work best for your business. I saw a marketing company called HubSpot doing the same thing, but instead focusing on Facebook growth by using Facebook video posts. (Supreme does this by collaborating on products with major brands like Vans then using that as social proof to hack their Instagram follower growth).

[Tip #8] The POSTER ADVERTISING Campaign You Can Run To Build Insane Hype

Instead of the standard PPC advertising campaigns most clothing brands do, Supreme instead chooses to do periodic celebrity poster campaigns to stay true to their brand exclusivity. 

When a campaign runs, Supreme will glue posters of celebrities rocking the brand’s signature box logo design on walls, scaffolding, and mailboxes around New York City and other cities where they have retail stores, like this one with Kate Moss:

Supreme will then make a photo t-shirt (based on the poster) available for sale to Supreme fans in future months. These t-shirts are some of the most desired pieces in Supreme’s collection.

Here are some of the most famous poster ad campaigns Supreme have run over the years:

• Raekwon & Elmo, 2005
• Dipset’s Jim Jones & Juelz Santana, 2006
• Mike Tyson, 2007
• Kermit the Frog, 2008
• Lou Reed, 2009
• Lady Gaga, 2011
• Prodigy of Mobb Deep, 2011
• Three 6 Mafia, 2012
• Kate Moss, 2012
• Neil Young, 2015

Other than the photo tee and poster campaigns, the closest Supreme comes to advertising is through their behind-the-scenes videos that you can find on the “random” link on their website. Here’s what it looks like: 

The takeaway : When you find an advertising campaign that works, keep doing it. (Supreme stay true to their brand identity and have been doing photo tee and poster campaigns since 2005.)

[Tip #9] Turn Your Customers Into Millionaires By Following These 2 ECOMMERCE MARKETING Rules 

Every Thursday entrepreneurs (and Hypebeasts) line up at Supreme stores to get the latest drop. The online web store sells out so fast that two guys built an ecommerce bot called “The Supreme Saint” that people can buy the option to use for sixty minutes every Thursday at 9am on their website.

From 9am to 10am on Thursday you can pay anywhere from $10 to $100 to get these guys to buy Supreme for you. Then at 11am when the Supreme online store opens, their bot will connect to Supreme’s servers with your shopping list and credit card number, and complete the checkout for you before other ordinary online shoppers can.

One time these guys made $20,000 in five seconds, by selling 200 pairs of Nike/Supreme Air Jordan 5 sneakers for $100 (that’s not the price of the Air Jordan’s, that’s the price people paid to use The Supreme Saint bot to get a crack at spending another $200 on Air Jordan’s.) [ * ]

Another bot maker called EasyCop Bot sells a Supreme app-based bot for $595 that people can use on their own. By mid-2016, more than 500 people had purchased it raking them in nearly $300,000:

The reason add-to-cart bot services like this exist, and why so many resellers line up for Supreme is because founder James Jebbia follows two simple ecommerce marketing rules:

• Scarcity: every product is sold in limited quantities.
• Consistency: new products go online only on Thursdays, and only at 11am.

By following these two rules Supreme have created a culture where customers know when to come back and know that they will find something new every time. This strategy has been so successful that Supreme’s website got almost one billion pageviews in 2016 when a box logo hoodie dropped (data I found in a deleted tweet from Supreme’s web agency.)

Obviously a lot of that is from bot traffic, but the bots are actually helping Supreme sell out quicker and make more money. They work so well that items are selling out quicker every week (between 19 seconds and 173 seconds.) 

The resellers then flip and profit.

Supreme is trying to reduce bots so customers who want to wear the clothing can buy (and not just attract resellers), but their two rule strategy has worked so well that the resale market has become insanely lucrative.

Wealthsimple, an investment company in New York found that if you flip 149 Supreme items at an average profit of $67 per item, you would make $10,000 profit per year. If you then invest that $10,000 every year and the market goes up by an average of 5.5% per year, in 35 years you will be a millionaire.

Most ecommerce companies can’t replicate this sort of math for their customers because they’re missing scarcity and consistency from their business model.

And just look at the math on this business model for Supreme (this Redditor said it best):

Supreme make this money in under 10 minutes every Thursday too, like damn 😉

The takeaway : If you want a predictable ecommerce business model where you sell out of stock every week and do massive sales volume in a short time period of time, limit your supply and drop your new product at the same time and day every week/month/year. (Supreme does it by limiting supply and dropping new products every Thursday at 11am.)

9 Key Takeaways From Supreme Streetwear’s Insane Success

Supreme Streetwear has a marketing strategy so legendary, so mysterious, and so successful that entire documentaries have been created around it’s ‘marketing strategy’. 

Supreme without a doubt displays the same characteristics of exclusive couture brands; however, their products are fairly simple.

• Intentionally limit the quantity and create exclusivity for every product you sell.  This is how you can build a demand frenzy around your brand and get people in internet groups and major news sites promoting your product for you.
• Match your homepage design with your brand image.  Your website is more than a pretty front page. First, design your homepage around your goal, whether it’s virality, conversion, or sales. Beyond that, make sure it delivers your brand image and message.
• Rethink your email marketing strategy.  Are your customers replying to your emails excited to get the next one, or do you send out so many they just ignore you? Just because 90% of retailers spam people with emails and push for sales does not mean it is the best tactic for your email list.
• Release content your target customers want.  Just because everyone is writing blog posts, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right marketing tool for you. Supreme use “lookbooks” that get the attention of their fans and the media. Think outside the box for what content your buyers want to engage with, and how often.
• Build a strong and genuine relationship in highly targeted subreddits by participating in conversations and adding value. When it comes the time to promote your product or launch, Redditors are more likely to support you.
• Get collabs with celebrities.  You do this by helping them researching them and helping them hit the goal they are working on right now, building your product with them and showing them how you will promote them to your audience. 
• Focus on growing one social media channel.  You can’t win on every social channel, but you can double down on one like Supreme did with Instagram by finding what type of posts your audience most like to engage with. 
• Double down on advertising campaigns that work.  Supreme have being doing photo tee and poster ads for over a decade. They haven’t jumped around between different marketing channels, they just do what’s worked in the past. Look at what’s worked best for your business in the past and double down on it today.
• Use these two ecommerce marketing rules together: Scarcity and Consistency.  By limiting the quantity of product you sell and releasing product at a consistent time and day every week/month/year, you create a large group of raving fans with high anticipation, which means you can sell out of product consistently.

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The Best Don't Get Caught: The Case of Supreme

What can Supreme— one of the most popular brands in fashion and the world—teach us about delinquency and the rise of site-specific commodity logic? You might be surprised.

• Arianna Gil
• May 12, 2020
• X (Twitter)

I started thinking about how products emerge from specific places after a friend sent me a social media profile called “NYC Hood Hoppers.” I swear I walked around the city differently for a few hours after seeing it, gloating that thousands of people were entertained by representations of a very nostalgic community, built around 2000-10, that I was a part of. I’ll never forget a meme that read, “if you weren’t around when he skated with his twin girlfriend then you definitely not from here.” (At one time, skateboarder Nate Rojas and his girlfriend had similar-length hair and were always together with their skateboards and skinny jeans.) Though their style proved to be ahead of its time, it wasn’t just the portraits of this group of skaters that called attention to the page. The “you wasn’t there” tone joined other memes that posed a fundamentally fair question: if you are not from New York, why should you start a skate brand based on skateboarding culture from New York? I was cracking up. People were getting “flamed,” including brand founders and high-profile professionals. It wasn’t quite nativist—most New Yorkers aren’t anti-immigration—nor was it a complete shade room, but the topic did grab the community’s attention in a spirit of anti-gentrification.

Around 2008, Mike Wright’s “I Skate New York” T-Shirt replaced the heart icon of the classic “I <3 NY” T with a skateboard, selling hundreds of units. Skateboarders love NY, the capital of American commerce that also harbors a large and accepting community of people who skate street terrain. It makes sense that these transplants saw the value of the space they entered. All of this encouraged me to question how product emerges, and in what relationship to where? Canal—another skate brand established in 2013—has fittingly produced logo interpretations of tourist Ts sold on Canal Street. NY skate brands may not sell the image of an NYC skyline; however, there is a metaphorical equivalent and they are people. The product’s value is asserted through the corporal real estate of the person wearing it. But where does the commodity come from: the body or the space? Here, I will use Supreme—now one of the most mythical brands of all time—as a case study for how the social and site-specific nature of fashion products has come to define their value.

Nobody doubted that a small group of skateboarders and street captains, gathering in Lower Manhattan over three “skate generations,” conspired in the formation of a new, information-based economy. Perhaps it is also not hard to believe that the way this information was translated into commodities—into decks and hoodies and T-shirts—actively contributed to defining value and discourse in the period some call “post-capitalist.” Capitalism has moved beyond the structure of two dominant classes (capitalists and workers) and now includes the production of malleable information. Brands, coined “vectors” by scholar McKenzie Wark, work with information producers to develop “new information,” usually by reinventing references or sourcing ideas from groups of people. These information producers are skaters, designers, artists and curators, people who use map apps and social media, programmers and beyond. At the very top are the owners of the intellectual property related to the vector. Supreme joins “tech” brands in the vector class while outsourcing manufacturing to factories that make everything from apparel to plastic trinkets.

While information is abundant and amorphous by definition, situating it in relationship to physical places uncovers some of its logic. Supreme was built on an exclusive, “you can’t sit with us”-type of cultural knowledge about Lower Manhattan, correspondingly an epicenter of global capitalism. Skate spots like Brooklyn Banks are only a ten-minute ride from the Wall Street Bull, where people hedge the direction of the marketplace at the Stock Exchange. Founded in 1994, the same year Rudy Giuliani was elected Mayor of New York with the goal to be “tough on crime,” Supreme’s first spatial and temporal relationship is to crime. Delinquency is a crucial component of the information the brand has been developing over the past thirty years. Founder James Jebbia, once a factory worker himself, migrated to NY from the UK at age nineteen, where he helped open Union NY and then Supreme, a skate shop on Lafayette Street, as part of a wave of streetwear businesses in the area that included Keith Haring’s Pop Shop.

Though its clothes are of objectively good quality, that is not why Supreme became so valuable. To build authority on the style and cultural practices of Downtown, in situated relationship to the formal economic production that Wall Street contributes to the entire world, is hugely powerful. The Empire State benefits from intimate knowledge of crime and degeneracy at the margins by working this information to aesthetically mediate the spectacle of prosperity supposedly pouring out from the center. Homeless and unemployed people regularly appear in Supreme’s videos, joining skaters in fueling sales. Every piece of the equation, even unproductive and illegal activity, from kicking wood to smoking dope to graffiti, eventually becomes productive in some capacity; this is the power of empire, of its heart Downtown and of the arteries of information flowing from it. It is no surprise that the information produced in the literal cracks, ledges, security gates and handrails of the market’s center has influenced its direction.

Designing product that is relevant to a small group, located in the right place, seems to be the “trick” to harnessing information with global market relevancy. Beginning in the spring of 2017, BRUJAS , with ethnic (Latinx), gender (female) and place (The Bronx) niche qualifiers in skateboarding generated millions in mood board inspiration for retailers. The group, which I helped found, was cited by Vogue magazine in a twenty-year retrospective of Supreme as co-opting the brand with an “impressively genderless approach to dressing and living.” No matter how big the company gets, the logic of “small groups” remains integral to its marketing narrative. For its biannual drops, a curated list of NYC brand reps receive a catalogue from which they select three items in each apparel category. Getting “seeded” Supreme is a status symbol for Downtown cool guys, but the product is not necessarily “free,” in the sense that this group consents to representing the exclusive base of a billion-dollar company. In the effort to expand, Supreme built out the vector for these groups—street teams, muses, models, shop employees, vandals, artists and skateboarders—at different stores in other major cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka and London. The store managers and teams from each city get to know each other through travel and skating, building a transcontinental bond over their shared lifestyles which is mediated through the brand. This is somewhat consistent with the logic of Whiteness: create an exclusive “group” based on an elite social and financial positioning, then build their power by absorption.

Fast forward almost thirty years, and what was once an “insiders” club of self-identified “outsiders” is valued at a billion dollars by The Carlyle Group, a multinational private equity firm. The Carlyle Group purchased a fifty percent stake in Supreme in 2017, resulting in a 500 million/500 million split between Jebbia and the portfolio, which holds 193 institutional investors including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Chase. The Wall Street Bull and the Brooklyn Banks’ short-distance relationship starts to unveil with facts.

In Luc Sante’s cult classic text, Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (1991), he writes in the preface:

“the ghosts of Manhattan are not the spirits of the propertied classes; these are entombed in their names, their works, their constructions. New York’s ghosts are the unresting souls of the poor, the marginal, the dispossessed, the depraved, the defective, the recalcitrant. They are the guardian spirits of the urban wilderness in which they lived and died. Unrecognized by the history that is common knowledge, they push invisibly behind it to erect their memorials in the collective unconscious.”

Streetwear—if anything at all anymore—is an expression of the collective unconscious of delinquents. You cannot watch designers attack the same ideas, in uncoordinated fashion, season after season, without realizing that there is a visual and political discourse being accessed and shaped by those who are “tapped in.” Perhaps designers and art directors are tapping in with guardian spirits, or maybe they are simply outside, adapting to the newest inventions of property by the owning class. Bad creative directors get their inspiration from the internet, but the outdoor sensibility of style never quite translates into online images.

Supreme’s objects and apparel are designed for Sante’s “urban wilderness”—Swiss Army knives, camouflage, water bottles, wheels— and there is a strong underlying “survival of the fittest” messaging that coordinates itself well with market logic. Yet fitness, like style, requires context. NY is one of the most expensive cities in America. In a skater-wide survey conducted by the Harold Hunter Foundation , sixty-five percent reported having an annual household income of less than $40,000. The only skateboarding nonprofit organization in NYC that authentically serves low-income populations has received only very small donations from Supreme. Public good and community are not values the company expresses often. Growing up, I remember the ledge obstacle they dropped on 12th Street and Avenue A being about waist-high—too high for the majority of the park to skate.

The repeated nostalgia for the degeneracy of the brand’s constituency further complicates this skate-Darwinism. Aaron “A-ron” Bondaroff ( now excommunicated from the scene because of repeated allegations of sexual assault ), who modeled their “lifestyle” professionally, has called these individuals “train-hopping, taxicab-jumping, runaway kids.” As previously mentioned, Supreme’s founding in 1994 coincided with the city’s “war on crime.” Between 1994 and 1997, misdemeanor arrests shot up by seventy- three percent and prison populations soared in the wake of “broken windows” policing. The survival of poor Black and Latino teenagers, young adults and their families was under direct threat.

For Supreme to extract from the same populations the city is actively disciplining, without creating equity or advancing justice on behalf of the brand, all while upholding exclusivity and social fitness as tenets, unfortunately reveals much of Supreme’s legacy as yet another commercial manifestation of carceral logic. Its position further amplifies the disillusionment that the state relies so heavily on: only the best don’t get caught. This is not to say that Supreme has not also built positive foundations for skateboarding and for design, but the implications of their extraction and its transference into carceral capitalism only grew more transparently dangerous as the brand expanded.

The worldwide or “world-famous” presence of Supreme’s retail outlets also became more internationally implicated with The Carlyle Group’s investment. When commodified, local obsession can ultimately become materially nationalist. Skateboarders—mostly youth of color in Lower Manhattan—have convinced a global consumer base to spend millions annually at an American company. Even if the culture consumed is anti- establishment and features marginalized and policed bodies, the money moves with the reality of American hegemony.

Some of the companies The Carlyle Group is or has invested in occupy the categories of “government” and “defense”; these include the Dynamic Precision Group, which produces military aircraft engines; Novetta Solutions, a software company that offers “solutions to detect threat and fraud, and protect high value networks for the government”; and United Defense Industries, a “leader in the design, development and production of combat vehicles, artillery, naval guns, missile launchers and precision munitions.” Some people reading this analysis may misunderstand my critiques by assuming I’m implying that the trajectory was somehow masterminded by Jebbia, or even in his control. Every teenager needs something to punch and perhaps, at least in theory, Supreme is helping to grow the anti-position away from minority scapegoats and towards the government. Multiculturalism, a truly liberal self-purpose, is written all over the brand story. However, in practice, collecting and selling information on delinquency is a dangerous game. Tracing how this information becomes both materially (as part of cash pools for weapons developers) and ideologically disciplinary (people in fashion resist speaking out against the Supreme mafia for fear of being black-balled or fired) can teach us about the emergence of new systems of policing. Supreme has collaborated with the police on a local, national and even global level, all while selling hoodies, T-shirts and hats printed with images of burning cop cars (these items were part of the FW19 collection).

On any given Thursday, when Supreme “drops” new clothes, the NYPD regulates the lines. The same police that will ticket you, confiscate your skateboard and arrest you for skating on private property cooperate in the distribution of products. I’ve witnessed first-hand officers leading groups of kids in single-file lines down the street to the entrance of Supreme’s Brooklyn store. In the process of selling back “outlaw” culture, Supreme actively puts their consumer in contact with the police; for many with open cases, warrants or parole, this means danger. Therefore, the brand’s very muses risk the most as consumers.

Last summer, an article about an altercation at Black Rock, a local skate spot in San Francisco, between the GX1000 skate crew and an irate security officer was published in The New York Times . The encounter resulted in a life-altering brain injury for the security guard and the jailing of pro-skater Jesse Vieira. The authors reference skateboarder Tyshawn Jones’s appearance in Supreme’s 2019 video Blessed, arguing that it glamorizes conflicts between skateboarders and security. The skate team, who physically model Supreme’s clothing, also model the desired consumer’s position in relation to power. The spectacle of conflict between security/police and consumers/skateboarders is welcome, even in stores, as it ultimately contributes to the spectacle that makes their goods sell.

Select Supreme products themselves embody this conflict. The Supreme-branded crowbar, an often-weaponized object used to pry open doors and windows, released in the FW15 collection (which also included a windbreaker reading “Justice For All”), most concisely represents the driving narrative of criminality. The infamous Supreme brick, released the following fall, has been described as a play on the slang for a kilogram, or a pound of cocaine. Though Supreme sells some kind of drug, it’s not the illegal kind. Yet this clever sale was constructed with information gathered from people who actually do break the law to survive.

The plot continues to thicken because crime and geography, central to Supreme’s production style, are both heavily racialized within our society. Race is not a weapon in this analysis, but rather an essential context that brings the spatial logic of economic extraction into solution building. A FW19 Dead Prez collaboration, the SS18 Martin Luther King capsule, the Public Enemy Fear of a Black Planet pieces from the same season, the Harold Hunter Comme des Garçons collaboration of SS14 and, finally, the 2010 Haile Selassie T-shirt, all comprise a critical thread in Supreme’s messaging. My personal favorite was a SS08 T-shirt with a red, black and green American flag, mapped into an anarchist symbol and printed on pink cotton, that I received in a product toss at the King of Spring skate competition. Black nationalism, which rose to popularity and influence in the US during the Black Power movement of the 1960s (but originated much earlier in the 19th century) advocates for self-determination for Black people, often by conceptualizing a separate and liberated Black Nation. The red, black and green colorway comes from the Pan-African flag designed by Marcus Garvey.

While Supreme contributes to the US materially through the international distribution of branded goods, Black nationalism recognizes how economic, cultural and government apparatuses alike build and protect power and value together. But without the existence of a Black nation, what is achieved when Supreme sells images of a Black radical politics, or even of Black people? Who benefits from the circulation of these images? And, for skateboarders who are constantly having their photos taken Downtown, this question begets another: what is in skateboarders’ best interest? Might demanding territorial autonomy be a necessary protectionist trade policy, this time for skateboarders? What would it look like if we had our own piece of the city?

Ultimately, I believe Supreme does want a piece. Adam Zhu, an up-and-coming creative influencer at Supreme, gathered 33,000 signatures to save Tompkins Square Park’s “Training Facility,” a heritage site for Downtown skaters that was slotted to be redeveloped with AstroTurf. The victorious defense of this territory is a prime example of action that advocates for respect, not extraction, for the community and the inspiration all skateboarders, not just the best ones, resourcefully provide the world. A week later, “Save Tompkins” T-shirts were for sale at Supreme’s Brooklyn store, where Zhu works. Young people in and around the brand, and in the city at large, are demonstrating awareness of their own value through design and action, hopefully encouraging Supreme to help incubate the conversation around what can and should come next. Only one thing is for sure: the police and their weapons will have no part in the build. Regardless of where we come from, all skateboarders should be able to agree on that.

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Guerrilla Fashion: The Story of Supreme

By Alex Williams

• Nov. 21, 2012

“PUT your hands up, let’s go!” barked the gangly young man in the red varsity jacket, his sneakers planted atop a bike rack on Lafayette Street in SoHo, as he produced a wad of crumpled bills from his slumping jeans.

A crowd of hundreds of street kids flashing a dandy streak in their camo and their leopard print had been assembling like a slow-motion flash mob since the night before — ever since word trickled out that the 2012 spring-summer collection for Supreme , the cultish street-wear brand, was about to drop. In certain urban circles, a new Supreme line qualifies as an event, on par with a new iPhone. Fans camp out on folding chairs and sleeping bags.

The die-hards, however, can get restless, so to break the tension, the young man, adopting the role of hip-hop hype man, decided to “ make it rain ” — to use a strip-club parlance. As ASAP Rocky’s rap anthem “Peso” thumped from a car parked nearby, he sent bills fluttering over the whooping crowd before tumbling into a triumphant crowd surf.

Passers-by in suits offered quizzical looks. But that’s perfectly fine with Supreme. No offense, but if you don’t know about Supreme, maybe it’s because you’re not supposed to.

For much of its 18-year existence, Supreme was confined to the in-crowd, a scruffy clubhouse for a select crew of blunt-puffing skate urchins, graffiti artists, underground filmmakers and rappers.

“It is a little club, a secret society,” said Tyler, the Creator, the rapper with the group Odd Future, who showed up at last year’s MTV Video Music Awards decked out in Supreme.

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Inside Supreme: Anatomy of a Global Streetwear Cult — Part I

• Guest Contributor

In a two part series, courtesy of our friends at  032c , BoF takes you inside notoriously press shy, New York-based streetwear brand Supreme . Today, in Part I, we examine how Supreme — the Chanel of downtown streetwear —became a global cult brand with its own myths, iconography and belief systems.

NEW YORK, United States —  When the controversial young rapper Tyler, The Creator won the award for Best New Artist at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards in August, he offered an enthusiastic, yet expletive-laden acceptance speech. "Yo, I'm excited as fuck right now, yo," he said. "I wanted this shit since I was nine. I'm about to cry." But with MTV's censors on high alert, the speech was broadcast more like this: "Yo, I'm excited as  - - —  - -  - , yo. I wanted  - -  - -  - - – —-  - -.  -   - —  - - -."

With the audio missing for about a minute straight to avoid any profanities and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fines, viewers were left with no choice but to absorb Tyler’s image in mute. Clad in skinny dark jeans, an oversize tie-dye T-shirt with an image of a cat’s face on it, and a Supreme baseball hat with a leopard print brim, Tyler, who is 20 years old, was the only artist at the award show who could be said to actually embody how young people dress today. No outfit made from meat, no fancy three-piece suit with a cocked fedora, no oversize bling: Tyler looked exactly how certain young men at this very moment choose to wear their clothes on the streets all over the globe.

It’s no coincidence that the only logo the image-conscious Tyler wished to communicate was the one on his Supreme hat. After all, Tyler’s hodgepodge street aesthetic – a big chunk of skateboard culture and urban hip-hop with a dose of American sportswear prep and a winking, intelligent take on hipster irony – is the one Supreme has been cultivating for the past 17 years since opening its first shop on Lafayette Street in 1994.

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The flashy sartorial sensibilities of, say, Russell Brand or Kanye West have mutated into their own category of sub-entertainment and, more often than not, their personal styles do not reflect the current vogue. So how then did the Supreme aesthetic finally become one of the most honest representations of how men choose to wear their clothes in the global mainstream today?

It's easy to answer that question if one concedes that Supreme currently makes some of the best clothes for men in America right now. And for a brand routinely overlooked by fashion publications and menswear experts as "skate clothes" or, perhaps even worse, just a fad in a niche subculture, this may come as something of a surprise.

But can you blame the press for sleeping on it? For almost two decades, Supreme has existed in a cult-like bubble. Many of their short-run products have a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shelf-life; you’ll pretty much never, ever receive an invite to some Supreme-sponsored open-bar fête (because they almost never happen); and unless you’ve been systematically tracking its product developments on the array of feverish blogs devoted to the brand, or know a mole on the inside who can text you when a new shipment has been delivered, you’ll miss out entirely.

Starting with its swagger-filled moniker, the label certainly has built a colossal and often intimidating public aura. “The most important thing I think is the name – Supreme,” says the art photographer Ari Marcopolous, a frequent collaborator whose images have helped define the brand’s visuals, including having his work silkscreened on an assortment of sneakers for the label’s partnership with Vans. “Really, you cannot do much better than that.”

Being sovereign – the supreme ruler of culture – is the brand’s unofficial mission statement; everything is appropriated, recontextualised and refitted in Supreme’s hands to be made better. (Not the least of which is the fire-truck red box logo ripped from the oeuvre of Barbara Kruger.) Chinos are constructed with military-grade reinforcement, hats are made with a sturdy square brim, and T-shirts are twice as thick. They’ve carefully chosen to cross-pollinate their homegrown image with unhip but timelessly macho brands like Hanes and The North Face, worked with blue-chip artists such as Jeff Koons and Christopher Wool for their art-deck series, and built ad campaigns around a motley crew of celebrities that have no direct connection to skateboarding, including Kermit the Frog, Mike Tyson and the pop star Lady Gaga.

In fact, the brand’s biggest appropriation of all is the very idea of what a skate shop is – or isn’t. “I don’t see Supreme as a skate shop at all,” says Steve Rodriquez, the owner of 5boro Skateboards and one of the founding members of the New York City Skateboarding Association. “It started a whole new genre of store. To some people, it became like a religion.”

Like most religions, James Jebbia , Supreme's founder, is fiercely protective of his shop's doctrine, its history, and of who is allowed to retell its myths. To him, most articles in the press about his brand get it all wrong. "All the magazines, if they're being nice, just think we're some cool little skate shop doing kick flips downtown," Jebbia says. "They always write the same thing over and over."

Because of this belief system, Jebbia and his team are notoriously press shy. Although Jebbia is soft-spoken and quite generous (by the end our conversation he offered me a checkered North Face for Supreme hat that was no longer on the shelf at the store but still in stock), he is cautious and skeptical about the media and those who write for it. “If you don’t understand us, then what’s the point?” he huffs, referring chiefly to the confusion on how to treat the brand (is it an X-games label like Quicksilver and Billabong, or a legitimate small fashion label more similar to agnès B or A.P.C.) and, more troublingly, the frequent pigeonholing of skateboard culture within the fashion industry as just a passing fad, no different from big shoulders or neon colours.

There are so few examples of stories about Supreme that Jebbia finds successful, he treats the chosen pieces like scripture that he is eager to share. The holy writ includes an interview with Glenn O'Brien from Interview magazine from 2009, a 1995 article from Vogue comparing the persnickety shopping habits of the uppity uptown women who peruse the racks at Chanel's boutique on East 57th Street and the baggy-pants, bed-head boys who wait in line for hours at a time to shop at Supreme in SoHo; and of course, the 300-page retrospective of the brand released by Rizzoli last year (of which Mr. O'Brien wrote the introduction, and in which the Vogue article was reproduced in full.)

The message is clear: Supreme is sacred, and it’s sacrilegious to get the story wrong.

“The fashion industry doesn’t understand Supreme,” says the stylist Andrew Richardson, who has helped facilitate several projects with the label, including a calendar with Larry Clark. “And that doesn’t bother James one bit. They want James out and about, paying for dinners and hosting parties. But he’s not. Fashion people want something that is uncomplicated and easy to digest – those are the opposite things James embraces. But really, at the end of the day, James doesn’t care. Why should he?”

Hearing Jebbia talk about the press, you don’t get the impression that he is paranoid about being criticised or that he is tyrannical over what is written about his beloved brand. Most articles simply do not live up to the gold standard he has set for his label and himself, or the one expected from his fastidious customer-base. The impression is that most writers and publications are not worthy.

“We always try to shoot for the very best and go for it,” he says. “Some people call that snobbery, I guess. But it’s not.”

Indeed, selectivity and exclusivity are an integral part of the brand’s DNA. When the shop opened in 1994, it immediately became an epicentre for what Aaron “A-Ron” Bondaroff, the label’s front man, has called “train-hopping, taxicab-jumping, runaway kids.” And dudes from all over the city followed in reverence, often lining up for hours to be the first to score the latest products to come in, like candy-collared baseball caps or spacious bomber jackets with the Supreme logo shown discreetly on an outside tag. And even if you made it inside, the really real cool kids knew to ask for the hidden, in-the-know merchandise in the back storage room.

Remembers Bondaroff: “The social club wasn’t so inviting, though, and had a lot of attitude. We made the rules and ran a business that was very successful. People were addicted to the clothes like a drug. We didn’t want to work so hard so we developed a sales style that worked in our favour. In the early days, it was like, come in, but don’t touch. You can look with your eyes, but not with your hands. It was a crazy way to sell garments but the customer learned the deal: don’t fuck with us and we won’t fuck with you.”

The store was so cool, it was, well, scary. “I remember being so nervous walking past it, I would walk across the street,” says Jen Brill, a freelance creative director and “friend” of the brand since it’s inception, “even though a lot of the guys that worked in there were my friends. It was effective, though, and set an impeccable aura around the shop.”

In an interview with the graffiti artist KAWS from the Supreme retrospective, Jebbia maintains that, even in his own tank, he too felt like a fish out of water: “There were 50 or 60 skaters who’d just hang out there. And right at that time, too, Larry Clark was filming Kids. For me, again, it wasn’t part of my world, but I knew it felt very rebellious. It felt right and I liked it.”

Hiding out in the back room and letting the kids rule the roost allowed Jebbia to observe the natural habits and tendencies of his clientele, not unlike the objectivity achieved from a behavioural psychologist studiously taking notes behind a two-way mirror. He didn’t have to be a skateboarder at all, he just had to know what this new generation of skate kids wanted and what they weren’t getting anywhere else.

Most importantly, Jebbia developed the cunning to anticipate what they needed next. If you’re too far in it, you can’t see outside. The distance from the lifestyle, conversely, gave Jebbia a sublime ability to understand how best to represent the lifestyle. “I think James is always thinking with a 25-year-old skateboarder somewhere in his mind with everything he does,” says Richardson.

Tomorrow, in Part II , we explore the creative and commercial philosophies that underpin Supreme’s lasting success.

This article was written by Alex Hawgood and was first published by  032c . Click  here  for a preview of the current issue of 032c.

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How A Strategic Brand Partnership Drives Sales: Supreme Case Study

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Thanks To Supreme, You Can Get This Week's Newspaper for $50

Streetwear brand Supreme has one of the best branding success stories of all time. From stickers to water bottles to now newspaper, you’ve seen that bright red and white logo everywhere. In fact, just today we were sitting in a meeting with a 40-odd year old executive from a multinational business and he had a Supreme sticker plastered on the back of his laptop.  Some brands transcend age and are more in tune with psychographics than demographics. 

Somehow, someway, Supreme has figured out a way to slap their logo on virtually anything, and sell out within days. Including bricks. But, their most recent stunt has caught the marketing world by storm. In this blog, Hollywood Branded discusses how a strategic brand partnership drives sales, and a case study on how Supreme was able to make a newspaper cost $50 with their remarkable marketing campaign.  

From Local To Global

If you’re into fashion at all, you have undoubtedly heard of luxury streetwear brand Supreme. What started out as a skate wear brand in 1994, has now turned into one of the hottest global streetwear brands of all time.

It’s extreme supporters, also known as Hypebeasts, love all things Supreme. People will stand in line for days on end to purchase whatever their latest drop is, whether it be a water bottle, sweatshirt or Louis Vuitton x Supreme collab piece. Or a brick .

If you ever take a quick drive by one of their 11 stores worldwide during one of their releases, you will see hundreds of dedicated fans lined up outside praying to get their hands on whatever it is that Supreme is selling. It is this loyalty and love for the brand that has turned Supreme into one the most well known fashion brands in the world. 

A Brand Unicorn

Brands spend many years and many dollars to try and accomplish what Supreme has done, yet, few have been able to. Similar to how Apple can release any product and their fans will buy it, Supreme takes this to a whole new level. We aren’t trying to throw any shade to Supreme, in fact quite the opposite, but Supreme has been able to build a brand so strong that they can throw their logo on any ordinary product and it’ll sell out almost immediately. Not to mention, they can sell these products at prices that are sometimes 5-10x times higher (or even 100x) than their non-branded counterparts. For example, a Supreme kanteen water bottle sells for $150 whereas a regular kanteen bottle sells for around $10. To the modest shopper, that’s ludicrous! But to the Hypebeast, it’s an easy decision. This is because Supreme has harnessed their brand so perfectly that its items have almost become somewhat of a collector’s item. Who cares if it’s just a water bottle? What matters is that it’s a SUPREME water bottle. This is the type of mindset that any brand marketer dreams of creating.

And why creating a branding campaign - and not striving soley for direct response advertising - is so important.

Supreme Newspapers?

Supreme has done a lot of great collaborations with other brands in the past.

Most recently, they did one with Louis Vuitton that had every Hypebeast in Los Angeles dressed in bright red sweatshirts and carrying bright red bags.

But, their most recent collaboration may have been one of the most unexpected, yet brilliant, collaborations of all time. Now, for anyone that is a, or knows about Hypebeasts, we all know that they sometimes make some outrageous purchases. A $189 pen? Outragous.

A $400 beach towel? Even more outrageous.

However, that bar was raised to an entirely new level this week. After rumors began surfacing on the internet about a Supreme x NY Post collab, New Yorkers this week were circling their local bodegas only to see stacks of Supreme branded NY Post newspapers. The front page of the Newspaper was plastered with Supreme’s bright red and white logo. By noon, every newspaper in New York City had been bought and placed onto the resell market. What originally sold at the local corner store for $1.50 was now being sold online for $10, $20, $50, even $85 online. And better yet....people are buying them! Why? Because Supreme is on the front of it, duh.

The Brilliance

Now, what makes this campaign so brilliant? Well, it’s one of the best examples of a brand blending both digital media with legacy, or printed media to create such a wave of marketing exposure.

Not only did Supreme win the internet with this campaign (like most brand campaigns these days try to do), but they won the street market as well. Not to mention, the amount of earned media that Supreme was able to receive from this campaign was tremendous as well. From TV news coverage to even blogs like ours who are writing about their brilliance!

Kudos To Supreme

Just when we thought Supreme might be overplayed, they continue to surprise us and make us eager to see what they do next. And that is something truly magical for a brand to have.

Since its inception, Supreme has continued to solidify itself as a major name in fashion and pop culture. Where most brands fail to stand out, Supreme seems to do the opposite. Their continual reinvention and experimentation over the years has proven to be the oil that keeps this machine moving. We tip our hats off to the team behind this campaign and are looking forward to what’s to come.

To learn more about influencer marketing, check out these six blogs we've written that dive more deeply into how you can successfully create an influencer marketing campaign:

• 3 Insights To Create Affordable Influencer Marketing Campaigns
• 3 Things Brands Need To Understand About FTC Guidelines On Influencers
• 3 Tips To Make Your Brand Appealing To Top Social Media Influencers
• 5 Signs Your Brand Should Invest in Influencer Marketing
• 8 Step Guide On How Much To Spend On Social Influencer Marketing
• Why An Influencer Isn't Responding To Your Inquiries

Read our blog  5 Ways Brand Marketers Secure Product Placement To Increase Sales .

And check out these blogs on product placement as well:

• 3 Reasons Why Productions Use Product Placement , as well as these blogs:
• 4 Common Myths About Product Placement Debunked
• 10 Surprising Reasons Why Brands Do Product Placement
• 8 Ways To Use Product Placement Assets To Amplify Your Brand Into Sales
• 3 Important Steps In Planning Product Placement Strategy
• Thinking Product Placement Cost Is High (It Isn't!)

If you are looking to implement a strategic branding campaign, where your brand can partner with another brand or content entity to create stand-out marketing campaigns, then check out our influencer marketing course below to learn more about how you can start building successful banded partnership campaigns, and keep Hollywood Branded in mind for when you need an extra set of hands to help you! Goodbye for now, you Hypebeasts.  

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Supreme: Remaining Cool While Pursuing Growth

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The company has kept its essence under VF, but is entering into a new phase as it expands into new markets.

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The corporate life for Supreme ? 

Maybe, eventually — but not quite yet. 

It’s been nearly two years since the apparel giant VF Corp. bought the white-hot luxury streetwear company for $2.1 billion , parking Supreme alongside Vans, The North Face, Timberland, Dickies and a host of other brands. 

Despite some initial worries from diehards, the brand has stuck to its knitting — it certainly doesn’t feel like accountants have taken over. 

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Still, the pace of Supreme’s brick-and-mortar growth has remained glacial, adding only two stores during the pandemic, with a total of 14 globally. Its collaborations sell out in minutes. And buyers are still flocking to secondhand sellers at StockX and elsewhere to snatch up hard to get looks at handsome premiums. 

The moment of truth for Supreme as the beloved, quirky, hard-to-find and altogether unique brand that took fashion by storm seems to lie in the future. 

But perhaps the not-too-distant future. 

VF, which logged revenues of $11.8 billion last year, is a company of scale with a portfolio of brands and deep supply chain expertise that is the subject to the big expectations of Wall Street investors. 

Supreme is a brand built on scarcity. 

It might only be a matter of time before those two realities collide — especially with Supreme embarking on a major expansion with plans to double its prepandemic store count, growing to 24 doors by 2027.  

The consensus inside and outside the company is that the growth plan — while rapid by Supreme standards — is still measured, pushing the brand into new markets like China, where it just opened an outpost in Dover Street Market, instead of blowing up the business. 

Steve Rendle, VF’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, noted to WWD that consumers in only 20 percent of the globe have access to Supreme either physically or online — through websites in over 40 countries. And that it is just a very small subset of those consumers who actually buy Supreme. 

The idea is to expand access — to let Supreme be Supreme, just in new places. 

“It’s the physical environment of Supreme that drives the engagement, that drives the awareness that then unlocks the potential of the digital platform,” Rendle said. 

The brand operates as something of a pseudo autonomous nation within VF, with Timberland’s global brand president Susie Mulder acting as liaison between founder James Jebbia and the Supreme crew and Rendle’s leadership team.

Rendle, who earlier in his career was president of The North Face for seven years, understands brands and is confident that Supreme can keep its DNA. 

“When we sit with James and his product merchandising, his store operations team, they are the core consumer and they live and breathe what goes on in that New York marketplace…in Los Angeles, Milan,” Rendle said. “The store employee is the consumer, they’re representing the brand to the consumer. That’s what makes this brand go.…What they spend the most time obsessing about is the employee, that employee represents what Supreme stands for.” 

Mulder gave VF investors an overview of just how the Supreme business works at a meeting in September, noting the brand creates two seasonal collections each year made up of 90 percent new products with about 20 releases a season. Apparel makes up about 70 percent of the assortment, complemented by footwear, bags and accessories. 

“Supreme is authentic,” Mulder said. “It’s a product-led company with an agile, trend-driven approach. The products are fresh each season, and they’re rarely repeated.”

The brand is also global in that it has only one product assortment. 

“It’s identical in every market and it creates a shared experience across the worldwide community,” she said. “We also do collaborations, many flavors and structures. We do them with brands, media, artists. And it’s important that we do these things. But this isn’t the business model itself. It’s a tool that we use to enhance excitement and novelty.”

Historically, Supreme has spent very little to build the brand in a traditional sense. 

“We see the world changing and we’re going to invest in the brand through exciting new content and community building so that we can continue to authentically connect with our consumers,” Mulder said. 

What that looks like remains to be seen, but clearly Supreme is evolving — something that would likely have happened no matter who ultimately controlled the business.   

And the company needs both the front and back ends of its business to be working right to reach its potential. 

Kleinewillinghoefer stressed the importance of Supreme’s nimble approach with quick small product drops to keep its profile in the streetwear market, which is expected to grow just 1.5 to 2 percent annually over the next five years.

“ Streetwear is very moment-driven,” she said. “You really have to be on the pulse of what’s going on in the market. There’s a lot of competition in that space and there’s constantly smaller challenger brands. As a leader in that space, it’s actually hard to stay leading.”

At this moment, Kleinewillinghoefer said Supreme can hit its sales mark and retain its essence. 

“Right now, VF’s bigger concern is making Vans work ,” she said. “The Supreme piece definitely needs to work, but it is set up to track well toward their goal — it is a much better story.” 

Andrew Almasy, a data scientist at StockX, said monthly trades of Supreme goods have stayed consistent on the marketplace this year. 

“Supreme was the top-traded apparel and accessories brand on StockX in 2020 and 2021, and it’s on track to rank as the top-traded apparel and accessories brand in 2022,” Almasy said. “While Supreme remains in the top spot for apparel and accessories, we’ve continued to see independent and smaller brands carve out space for themselves in the secondary market.”

So far this year, Supreme goods have commanded a 60 percent premium on StockX, on par with 2021 and down from the 67 percent premium seen in 2020. 

Some sense the brand has softened lately, particularly compared with its go-go days before the pandemic, but part of that could be tied to supply troubles last year, which constrained the business. VF initially said the business would drive revenues of $600 million last year, but that came in under that given the supply chain disruptions. 

“The question is can the core values of the brand and the DNA of the brand still exist while still growing the brand globally, and hopefully they can,” she said. “It seems so challenging to take on such an innovative brand. The culture was, not anti-society, but rebellion and do your own thing, that was so much part of what the brand stood for.”

Now Supreme — like it or not — is part of a big corporate machine. 

“I don’t know if the customer sees that or feels it or knows it,” Schmidt said. 

If the consumer does ever sense the presence of VF in the Supreme brand, that will answer the question of whether the brand can walk the scale/scarcity tightrope.  

“Acquisitions are rarely seamless,” said Simeon Siegel, an analyst at BMO. “And acquisitions are rarely judged by their immediate results. The burden of proof to scale Supreme and maintain their air of exclusivity was always going to be on VF and that has certainly not changed.”

It is not in VF’s interest to simply hit the accelerator at Supreme.  

“VF does not win if they get a few really good years out of juicing their acquisitions,” Siegel said. “They need this business to work. They’re in the business of creating long-term brand equity that can be enhanced by what the VF entity has to offer.”

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Supreme Reigns Supreme on the Secondary Market, Study Says

An extensive report from therealreal show just how valuable the iconic skater brand truly is., martin lerma, martin lerma's most recent stories.

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It’s no secret that fashion retail has been in a slump over the past few years, but that hasn’t stopped the secondary market from booming. And no brand has propelled that surge more than Supreme . In a report released on Thursday , e-retailer TheRealReal cited the New York streetwear label as the number one-ranked brand of the past decade when it comes to resale value.

A leader of the secondary luxury market, TheRealReal aggressively collects data relating to every product that goes through its shop. The new report extrapolated the glut of information to “chart the trends, brands and styles that defined the decade.” The study noted a pronounced rise in the demand for streetwear, a category that has made “a rapid migration from niche to mainstream,” according to Sean Conway , TheRealReal’s streetwear and sneaker expert .

Not only did Supreme’s style transcend its niche roots, the label managed to penetrate the uppermost reaches of high fashion with fans like designer Kim Jones . Jones, formerly the lead designer of menswear at Louis Vuitton and current menswear director at Dior, went so far as to collaborate with the brand during his tenure at Vuitton.

Partnership like that one are now paying big dividends on the secondary market. Items from the Supreme-LV collaboration have a reported resale value 4.5 times stronger than plain old Vuitton swag. Indeed, a Christie’s auction last year featuring pieces from the collaboration blew past estimates, with a monogrammed Malle Courier 90 Trunk hammering down for $125,000 . For context, that sum was equal to that of a rare Hermès Birkin, arguably the king of accessories, sold at the same auction.

Impressively, Supreme beat out signature styles from venerable brands like Goyard and Van Cleef & Arpels to claim the top spot in TheRealReal’s report. That fact points to shift not only in consumer interest but in generational habits: The report found that millennials have now overtaken other demographics as the top purchasers of resale goods. So, whatever you might think about the world’s most maligned generation, it appears they may also be our savviest consumers.

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Supreme’s Pioneering Model

A red box logo with white, bold lettering characterizes the ever so iconic Supreme brand. Established in April 1994 as skatewear, Supreme has evolved into one of the world’s most popular and in-demand streetwear fashion labels, valued at one billion dollars. The impact that Supreme is leaving on the fashion industry as well as the way companies think of the traditional supply and demand model is impressive.

Supreme has built hype around its brand with its innovative business model. The company artificially maintains scarcity of its products by creating two collections spanning two seasons every year. Every Thursday acts as a “drop day”  during which a limited number of products from that season’s collection are released, in the meager quantity of five to seven of any particular sweater or hoodie.  

The “drop” is a sales tactic employed by several streetwear brands to “supercharge the traditional supply-and-demand model”. Information is usually slowly leaked via one small announcement, and then amplified on social media through celebrities, collectors, and influencers. Some die-hard fans go as far to pay an e-commerce company to deploy web bots to connect to the Supreme server at the moment of the drop. To be able to “shop the drop” at one of Supreme’s eleven stores, customers must get on a list weeks in advance and wait in long lines. 

Once products are released online, they sell out in a matter of seconds, before quickly appearing on resale websites often marked up ten times the initial price. A few high-end fashion houses such as Gucci and Moncler have begun to adopt this strategy . These houses will make certain designs and colors a rarity, making each article of article of clothing much more valuable not only in monetary value, but in terms of street cred.  

Moreover, this scarcity model has opened up a thriving secondary market. Those who resell can make upwards of $200,000 every year in revenue. Such entrepreneurs find their customers through online marketplaces such as GOAT, Grailed, or StockX. 

StockX is particularly innovative. It describes itself as the “stock market of things.” The website operates with the same principles of the stock market, bringing buyers and sellers together into one platform. The website’s team works to authenticate each product, thereby regulating the market and maintaining the reputation and exclusivity of individual brands and products. 

This secondary market has revolutionized the way fans of brands like Supreme approach the fashion industry. Since pieces increase in value over time, therefore increasing the longevity of items, consumers are willing to invest time and money to build their collections. In today’s fast-fashion dominated industry, this is quite rare.

Supreme’s billion dollar valuation comes after the company sold a 50 percent stake in its business to the Carlyle Group for a reported $ 500 million. As of September 2018, only 168 companies in the United States had reached billion-dollar valuations. However, many investors wonder how, with only 11 stores that are open once a week and an online shop, Supreme takes in enough revenue to justify being valued as a one billion dollar brand. Supreme does not mark up its products on its website. Investors such as  the Carlyle Group are betting that Supreme will increase future production, but that would sacrifice it’s reputation as a hyper-exclusive and niche brand.

Over the past 25 years, Supreme’s founder, James Jebbia, has placed a focus on slow growth, so that the brand can maintain its reputation in the “underground, in-the-know streetwear fashion scene.” The brand doesn’t pay for traditional advertising; instead, it relies on word-of-mouth and the reputation that it has built, transforming the act of purchasing a Supreme product into a micro-experience. Collaborations with other brands and designers such as Louis Vuitton and Comme de Garçons as well as the release of novelty accessories such as bricks, dog bowls, and hair clippers have also bolstered the popularity of Supreme and its distinguishment as a brand that challenges boundaries in the fashion world. 

Supreme has refused to compromise, and has maintained an authenticity throughout the years. As said by Jebbie himself, “We’re making stuff we’re proud of…not doing stuff to stay alive. I don’t think enough people take risks, and when you do, people respond – in music, in art, in fashion .“ Thus far, Supreme’s billion dollar valuation has not led to any sacrifices from the brand. Jebbia has been vigilant in keeping the brand close to its roots – a skatewear brand inspired by the skaters of Lafayette Street in New York City’s lower Manhattan.  

When Supreme was founded, skate culture was immensely popular. Released around the same time, the movies  “Kids” and “Clueless” both depicted different, yet “equally stylized” skate crews. ESPN had just held the first X Games (an annual extreme sports event), placing skateboarding on the map as a mass-market spectacle. Supreme grew out of this culture and has catered to this fanbase ever since.

The brand itself holds a rich history of a scene that has largely contributed to pop culture, and its success can largely be attributed to its business model. Over the years, Supreme will prove to be a case study for how important scarcity is to a brand’s desirability. Next time you see a piece from Supreme, just remember, that it carries a rare legacy of art, sport, and fashion. 

Photo: Image via Magdalena O! ( Flickr )

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Supreme Case Study

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Tara Atkinson

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What lies behind the Corteiz and Supreme collab

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Last weekend, a bright red billboard bearing the distinctive Corteiz Alcatraz logo stacked below the Supreme logo was quietly put on display in West London. To those in the know, it was a clear indicator that a collaboration between the two brands was imminent. Streetwear content creator and commentator Fabio Dessena, also known as “Voice of the streets” on social media, where he regularly posts videos announcing and analysing upcoming drops, spotted the billboard and posted a photo on his Instagram page. Less than 24 hours later, the post went viral and was viewed over 100,000 times.

On Tuesday, Corteiz founder Clint419 confirmed the partnership on Instagram with the caption, “By any means necessary”. Further details of the collaboration have not been released. It’s Corteiz’s second major tie-up to date, following the Nike collab, which resulted in a limited edition of the Nike Air Max 95 sneaker in three colourways. That drop caused a frenzy among streetwear fans and sold out within minutes.

Corteiz, founded in London in 2017, has developed a cult following in a crowded category. Part of the appeal is its elusive nature: pieces sell out within minutes on a private e-commerce site that’s password-gated, and no drop is ever the same, a tactic designed to keep its cult fanbase engaged. It’s, in some ways, a streetwear antithesis to Supreme, which has long outgrown its underground roots and is now owned by VF Corp , the parent company of The North Face and Timberland .

It’s a marriage between two generations: Supreme, who helped shape the streetwear industry in the late ’90s and early 2000s, and Corteiz, who dominates the streetwear landscape today. Experts expect it to lend a halo effect to both brands and for products to sell out quickly.

Supreme is betting on this partnership to help it regain momentum. Creative director Tremaine Emory resigned from the company in August, publicly airing accusations that systemic racism prompted his exit (Supreme refuted this claim in a statement at the time). Sales for the brand declined in fiscal 2023 from $561.5 million to $523.1 million, VF Corp reported in June. Projected sales for the year were $600 million. The company completed the acquisition of the brand in December 2020 for $2.4 billion.

For both brands, it’s a way to cut through the noise. The streetwear market has become increasingly more saturated, with brands that once dominated the market falling to the sidelines. “Supreme continues to be relevant today but has lost some of its momentum,” says Jessica Ramirez, senior analyst at research firm Jane Hali & Associates. “The streetwear market has become competitive and, much like outdoor and sportswear, there has been a boom of DTC brands and luxury chasing the market.” (Supreme, VF Corp and Corteiz did not respond to Vogue Business ’s request for comment.)

Supreme does not typically collaborate with other streetwear brands, Dessena notes, which underscores the international impact Corteiz is currently having on the streetwear landscape. It’s not the first time the two brands have worked together. In August, Clint appeared as the face of Supreme’s Autumn/Winter 2023 campaign, dressed in various Supreme pieces, including jerseys, tracksuits and a range of Supreme outerwear pieces. As for Corteiz, it’s receiving the co-sign from a streetwear giant that has played a vital and historic role in shaping the market. “There’s still massive queues for Supreme every single day; they’re still selling out on the website,” says Dessena.

Streetwear players need to innovate or risk becoming irrelevant. “Brands that are able to benefit from hype for an extensive period also need to understand they cannot rely on a retail model or product forever and must evolve their strategy in order to future-proof their brand,” says Ramirez. “The key is evolving while staying true to the roots of the brand.” Corteiz has managed to do so by keeping its product drops exclusive while also hosting public stunts that draw attention and hype to the brand: previous stunts include a takeover in Shepherd’s Bush Market in London, selling Corteiz cargo pants for 99p in 2022. That year, it also hosted a puffer swap, drawing massive crowds to a location in London where fans could trade in jackets from competitor brands in exchange for a free Corteiz Bolo coat.

While much is still unknown about what will come out of the collab, the resale potential will have fans — and resellers — eagerly waiting. Corteiz’s partnership with Nike has performed well on sneaker and streetwear resale platforms such as StockX. The Nike x Corteiz shoes currently have an average price premium of 102 per cent, which puts it among the top 30 releases of the year when ranked by average price premium, says Drew Haines, merchandising director of sneakers and collectibles at StockX. The sneakers’ average resale price on StockX is $384, up 56 per cent from its original £170 ($216) price tag.

“Both brands bring something exciting to the table, and whatever they create together, I'm sure is going to be a success,” says Haines. “Over the past few years, Corteiz has exploded across the scene due to its fresh designs and marketing prowess. It has gained a loyal following that can be seen from its sold-out drops and the noise created around its releases, including the recent Nike Air Max 95 collection. Supreme is one of the top-traded apparel brands on StockX and created the playbook for drop culture.”

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