On any Thursday afternoon during “season,” it is not uncommon to find teenagers and young adults lined up for hours outside one of the Supreme stores on Grand Street in Brooklyn or Soho in Manhattan. As a matter of fact not only do these people spend their time waiting in line to buy clothes, they’ve also entered a lottery a couple of days prior to even have the right to wait in line. This scene is common not just in New York, but worldwide at the other 11 Supreme stores located in cities such as Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, and San Francisco. Supreme obviously understands how to run a successful business, and has developed somewhat of a cult-like following. Understanding the reasoning behind that following is a harder task.
According to Supreme fan Ryan Hund of Fort Salonga, Supreme’s business model works primarily to drum up excitement and anticipation. “Each season starts with the release of the look book. Items included in the look book are released in very limited quantity throughout the season on Thursdays (one of each item per customer). This allows the hype to build for select items based on both stock and style. The hype results in prices to skyrocket once stock runs out,” Hund said. As a result of these limited quantities, as well as the fact that Supreme is only sold physically at 11 stores around the world, a sub-culture of reselling Supreme has emerged. This is why many of the people on line show up: to buy rare or limited products to resell, as opposed to wearing it themselves.
“I personally stand on line for Supreme or anything that is hyped because it’s all about the idea of investing money into something that holds a higher value,” said Anthony Allman of Brooklyn, who spent almost three hours waiting on line for Supreme, all while skipping class. He has good reason to believe it is a sound investment. The Supreme Airforce 1 sneakers he bought for $95 later sold on sneaker website “stockX” for $250. And that’s just one item from the drop…
What about the clothes themselves? As much as Supreme does a good job creating artificial rarity and hype, many celebrities can be seen wearing the skateboard companies clothes, many, allegedly, without any paid endorsement. Supreme has also paired with several other clothing companies such as North Face, Nike, LV, Bape, Gucci, and Timberland to name a few. Supreme even releases items that aren’t wearable such as Supreme snow tubes, Supreme candles and even Supreme Oreos (Yes, really).
“I wear Supreme because the brand is one of a kind. Supreme’s ability to partner with celebrities and other brands is unmatched by almost any other clothing company,” said Hund. However, people wear the brand for different reasons.
“What I like about Supreme is that due to the rarity of the items, I am able to have a completely unique outfit that other people cannot copy. The price is a little steep sometimes but I like knowing that my look is completely my own,” said Supreme fan Cassidy Zhang of Manhattan. Although some look at it with a more cynical eye. Allman simply thinks it’s all hype; “People would pay anything for something with a name and hype around it. It doesn’t matter how it looks as long as its hyped people will buy it.”