Supreme, the hype definition.

The New York brand created by James Jebbia in 1994 is today at the top of the fashion industry, but how this skateboard-brand is becoming a must-have for all the rappers and their young rich fans? Why are people from all over the world are ready to do many hours of queue for buying just one item? For answer to these questions we should go back to the origins of the brand. At the start, the brand created very simple t-shirt which are call ‘box logo’ where you can find a red rectangle with the white name of the brand inside. The staff and the consumers of the Manhattan shop were particularly New-York skaters and artist. Supreme was identified as a rebel brand at the time but what about these days?

More than the rebel aspect, it’s the Marketing strategy of the brand which makes his success today. I explain myself, the brand doesn’t work like others luxury brands. The release of the collection happened weekly every Thursday online and in shops. It’s called the « drops ». But for having a chance to cop one item you have to be very efficient. As effect, the mains items of the week are sold out in few seconds online, and it’s not better in shops because you have to own a ticket, and after that, you have to come early in the morning (or late in the night) Thursday for doing the queue. For be sure to have what you want it’s preferable to be in front of the queue or you’ll just find items that nobody wants or XXL items.

However, the collaborations and the diversity of the accessories also explain the success of the brand. Supreme have his classic collabs with giants like Nike, Bape or The North Face that we can recover all the years, but also rare collaboration like the collabs with Lacoste or Louis Vuitton. The collaboration between Supreme and LV represent a big step for the fashion industry because it combines streetwear and luxury as perfection. It’s what we call the « hype » and the fashion industry seems to take this way as well. Supreme also offers an incredible variety of accessories ranging from inflatable boat to motorcycle to red brick.

For me, the success of Supreme comes from the difficulty to buy what you want but also from the rare aspect of items. Everyone wants to be unique and wear clothes that nobody can wear. Finally, buyers like more the Supreme spirit than the clothes themselves so the « hype » is far to be over.