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  • Supreme, baby!

  • I just bought a faux-fur jacket for $1,000, so.

  • People want to know, "Hey, look, that guy's wearing Supreme."

  • But people also make a living off it too, so.

  • These two jackets are nearly identical, both made by The North Face, and both using Gore-Tex technology.

  • This one on the left costs $300.

  • The one on the right is currently selling for nearly $1,300.

  • So what's the difference?

  • This one just happens to be a North Face collaboration with Supreme.

  • So why would someone pay nearly a thousand dollars more for basically the same jacket?

  • And what is it that makes Supreme so expensive?

  • From the eye-catching logo to the limited product releases and artist collaborations.

  • Over the past 20 years, Supreme has transitioned from a small skateboarding store in New York to a $1 billion streetwear company.

  • But for its fans, Supreme is more than just a brand.

  • It's often an obsession and an entire subculture of its own.

  • Since its origin, Supreme has maintained an image of being authentic.

  • Founded by James Jebbia in 1994, Supreme started as a skateboarding store in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan.

  • The store started out selling hoodies and sweatshirts aimed towards the burgeoning New York skate scene.

  • Throughout the '90s and early 2000s, Supreme functioned as a skate brand catering to both skaters and those interested in the emerging streetwear style.

  • But Supreme's limited releases and attitude has pushed them far beyond their beginnings.

  • The most iconic Supreme design is their box logo, originally, simple white, italic lettering over a plain red background.

  • This design so closely echoes the work of conceptual artist Barbara Kruger that it is hard not to see it as a direct copy, and copyright theft is something that's in Supreme's DNA.

  • Supreme's appropriation of images is one of the keys to its popularity.

  • Pop-cultural imagery and logos are copied and adapted in a way that makes the designs feel more like contemporary art or graffiti than a big fashion brand.

  • Supreme's first branded T-shirt was simply a photo of Robert De Niro in the film "Taxi Driver" along with the iconic red and white logo.

  • And the company's use of often unlicensed imagery has led to Supreme being served cease-and-desist letters from Louis Vuitton, the NHL, and the NCAA.

  • The more we've been exposed to a brand, the more likely we are gonna be developing an association, a familiarity, almost a sense of connection with it.

  • With Supreme, there's no element of status, and they went completely for what a logo should be all about: standing out, being identifiable.

  • The recognizability is key to Supreme's power as a brand.

  • But the items are also purposefully difficult to get ahold of, and their products are kept in high demand by very limited releases.

  • Tuesday at 11 a.m., you go to the Supreme website, you enter your basic information: your name, email, phone number, and credit card number.

  • Then, they'll send you a text later in the day to let you know if you've been selected to stand in line.

  • Then on Wednesday, they'll send you a text telling you the time and store to report to.

  • And on Thursday, you go to the store at the time that you're given.

  • There's a one... there's a one-limit-per-style rule in Supreme, so what that means is, if a shirt comes out in black, red, and gray, you can only get it in gray.

  • So if I want it in black and red, I need to get two other people to get it for me, so they need to stand in line for me.

  • A lot of the people who do stand in line are standing in line for someone else.

  • Supreme only sells their merchandise at 11 brick-and-mortar stores across the world as well as their online store.

  • It was around the mid to late 2000s that Supreme really started to pick up speed.

  • This success was partly due to what's been dubbed the "Kanye effect."

  • In 2006, Supreme released their Supreme Blazer SB, a collaboration with Nike.

  • The shoes retailed for around $150, with resale prices ranging from $300 to $400.

  • In July 2007, West was pictured wearing the shoes at the Grammy Foundation's Starry Night party.

  • After the photos were released, the resale price of the shoes doubled to $800.

  • Similarly, the teal box-logo sweatshirt worn by Tyler, the Creator in his "She" music video, originally priced at around $150, sold for $3,500.

  • But not everything from Supreme is gonna end up being valuable.

  • Sellers like Chris have to decide what's going to be popular and what items will give them the best return.

  • So how I decide on what I think is gonna resell is based mainly on what I would wear.

  • You can also go to these Instagram accounts, and they'll have Instagram polls, Twitter polls, talking about, oh, like you can upvote this.

  • You can downvote this, and it's this crowdsourcing tool to understand the market better and find out,

  • Oh, this one's gonna resell, or this one is really popular.

  • The most money that I've made off of one Supreme item is the 2017 fall/winter collaboration with The North Face, and it was a mountain parka.

  • I bought it for $398, and I sold it for $950.

  • This incredibly limited release means that buying and reselling Supreme items is where the real money is.

  • When you look at the prices of Supreme items in-store, they aren't as outlandish as you may expect.

  • They retail for around $38 for a T-shirt to $138 for a sweatshirt.

  • But it's once these products have sold out that they can reach 30 times their original price.

  • Many other big brands are now adopting this method of very limited releases to generate hype around their products from trainers to other streetwear brands.

  • These releases make people feel like they're part of something exclusive.

  • The more we make a consumer work for their particular access to a product, the more alluring these services and products are becoming.

  • So I think Supreme know very well how to make something incredibly accessible and sexy.

  • By allowing us to jump through as many hoops as possible to make it relevant for them.

  • But there's something about Supreme that's different.

  • Could any other company get away with selling a brick or a branded crowbar?

  • What is it that gives Supreme such a devoted following?

  • I think it's the hype.

  • They come out with really cool items.

  • I personally feel like they do.

  • It's a name brand, and name brands attract anybody at the end of the day.

  • In New York especially, it's a lot of streetwear.

  • So, like, people wanna have that, like, exclusive, those exclusive items.

  • So I feel like Supreme, they keep their quantities very low because of the high demand.

  • People will pay that price if it's something they like.

  • Supreme, I think the thing that really causes people to spend money and wait in line is kind of the "it factor" that it has, right?

  • They've done an amazing job of limiting quantities and underproducing to the demand.

  • So in that way, their market of people that their... of people that would wanna buy the product isn't just people that are interested in the product.

  • But it's also people that are interested in making money, and that demographic is way bigger than people that are just interested in streetwear.

  • So when there's an opportunity to make money, then there's gonna be a huge line of people around the block regardless if they want to wear the product or not.

  • Supreme has managed to somehow keep their cool, alternative and exclusive image despite their expansion.

  • And has still maintained its skater credentials despite selling a 50% stake in the brand to a private equity firm.

  • With more and more people wanting their products, for now, it looks like Supreme isn't going anywhere.

Supreme, baby!

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