Founded 1994 Website supremenewyork.com | Founder James Jebbia | |
 | ||
Headquarters New York City, New York, United States Number of locations 10 (New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Tokyo) Products Clothing, shoes, accessories | ||
Supreme is a skateboarding shop/clothing brand established in New York City in April 1994. The brand caters to the skateboarding, hip hop and punk rock cultures, and the youth culture at large. They make clothes and accessories, but also manufacture skateboards that are collected like modern art. Their shoes, clothing, and accessories create a big secondary market for supreme clothing, because items are produced to a very limited quantity and also because there are only ten stores worldwide.
Contents
The distinctive red box logo containing "Supreme" in Futura Heavy Oblique is largely based on Barbara Kruger's propaganda art.
History
The brand was founded by James Jebbia. Although he was born in the US, he lived in England until he was nineteen. The first Supreme store opened on Lafayette Street in downtown Manhattan in 1994. It was designed with skaters in mind, with a unique design for the store layout: by arranging the clothes around the perimeter of the store, a large central space permitted skaters with backpacks to skate right into the store and still feel comfortable. In 2004, a second location was opened on North Fairfax Ave in Los Angeles, California, which is nearly double the size of the original New York City store and features an indoor skate bowl. Other locations include Paris, London, Tokyo (Harajuku, Daikanyama & Shibuya), Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka. The additional locations emulate the original Lafayette Street store's design. Supreme stocks its own clothing label and Vans, Nike SB, Spitfire, Thrasher and Girl Distribution Company.
Unlike other clothing brands, who release their new collections all at once, Supreme releases a few items at a time, typically five to fifteen. This "drop" occurs online and in store once every week on Thursdays at eleven in the morning (eastern US time and 11 am (GMT)). This strategy maintains the aura of "hype" that the brand creates.
Collaborations
Supreme has a line of collaborations with brands such as Nike, Air Jordan, Vans, Clarks, Dickies, The North Face, Hanes, Playboy, Levi's, Timberland, Comme des Garçons, Stone Island, Undercover, and White Castle. On January 18th, 2017 luxury fashion company Louis Vuitton held a fashion show where a collaboration between the two brands was confirmed.
Supreme has released skateboard decks featuring the artworks of Urs Fischer, Harmony Korine, George Condo, Rammellzee, Ryan McGinness, KAWS, Larry Clark, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Christopher Wool, Nate Lowman, Damien Hirst, and John Baldessari. They have also collaborated with other photographers, artists, and designers such as Blade, David Sims, Toshio Maeda, David Lynch, Nobuyoshi Araki, Robert Crumb, Marilyn Minter, Takashi Murakami, Daniel Johnston, Peter Saville, Futura 2000, Adam Kimmel, Bad Brains, H. R. Giger, Mark Gonzales and recently Dash Snow.
Popular culture
Fashion photographer Terry Richardson has produced some of the most notable pieces which include photographs of Michael Jordan, Kermit the Frog, Three Six Mafia, Lou Reed, Lady Gaga, Neil Young, and Morrissey. Kenneth Cappello is the man responsible for some of Supreme's most notable photo tees like Mike Tyson, Dipset and Raekwon
Notable people who have worn Supreme clothing in public include members of Odd Future - particularly Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, and Frank Ocean - Kanye West, Travis Scott, Chris Brown, Wiz Khalifa, ASAP Rocky, Schoolboy Q, Drake, Nas, Pharrell Williams, BTS, James Lavelle, John Mayer, Gucci Mane, Arif, Kid Cudi, G-Eazy, Kylie Jenner, Tony F, Wayne Santana and Skepta.