Why is Supreme so expensive? The Nike Air Force 1 arrives

Does it make sense for Supreme Spain to charge over €100 for a box logo sweatshirt? Why does this brand have such high prices? As you read this, someone on eBay is selling a Supreme Louis Vuitton sweatshirt for €22.000.

• • Related: Supreme's 15 Most Expensive Products

There are more than 600 people following the price evolution of the product. And, like this one, dozens of items, almost all of them in fashion: parkas, jackets and even trench coats. Many with a PVP that is counted in thousands of euros or dollars. Oreo cookies included. That's why we have to insist: the new Nike Air Force 1 Supreme that go on sale TODAY are NOT expensive. In a way.

Nike Air Force 1 Supreme: Bargain or Scam?

Depending on how you look at it, paying $10 for a tiny embroidered logo is a rip-off. But if the logo is Supreme's and it's embroidered on a pair of Nike Air Force 1s (or whatever), it's a different story. As with ALL original Supreme products, very few of these sneakers will be released . The resale market could reach record highs (and this is 100% certain) of several thousand dollars.

Buying cheap Supreme products is easy. Just take a look around Amazon:

Post-postmodernism is this: that paying $96 for a pair of sneakers seems like a steal. The regular model without the logo costs $90 and has been on sale since 1972. Considering the hundreds of dollars Kanye West charges for his Yeezys and, above all, the ridiculously low prices that all original Supreme products fetch on resale markets (from bricks to fire extinguishers to Oreo cookies), the Supreme Nike Air Force 1s are going to be a huge hit on eBay.

Originally priced at eight dollars, Oreo Supreme cookies have been seen fetching $17.000 on eBay. What are you waiting for?

Supreme: the most expensive

1. PINBALL MACHINE: $35.000. Launched in 2018 at a price of $11.000, it is one of the brand's most sought-after products on second-hand markets.
2. SUPREME X COLEMAN MOTORCYCLE: $3.500. The stock lasted only six seconds in the United States and four in Europe.
3. BOX LOGO OF THE SOPRANOS  $5.400. There are only one hundred units of this shirt in which the letter erre has been modified in homage to the mythical HBO series. Possibly the most sought after in the world.
4. SUPREME X DONALD TRUMP T-SHIRT: $15.000. There are only two shirts, because it was not really a launch to use by Supreme, but a kind of test or example.
5. SUPREME X LOUIS VUITTON SKATE SET: $ 100.000.
6. SUPREME X LOUIS VUITTON SUITCASE: $ 125.000.

But hey, what is Supreme?

Some don't even know what Supreme means on shirts. For others, the brand is a status symbol among hipsters, but also among rappers. Today, Supreme is the ultimate indulgence for the millennial with no financial worries. Pure luxury.

But it's also a whim of influencers hungry for tons of likes . Interestingly, many people are unaware that Supreme started out as something very different, which, in theory, it aspires to remain: a treat for lovers of postmodern art . Clothing understood not as clothing, but as a message.

Supreme is the umpteenth exploitation of the spirit of counterculture and anti-system action, but without the headwind, and many bills being printed by the bucketload.

Supreme is the latest in a capitalist craze coated in art and fashion, with subtle hints of hip hop. Luxury urban fashion. Or luxuriously streetwear. With touches of pop art and postmodern transgression.

Anyone who thinks that Supreme sounds like an abbreviation for SUPER PRICES is on the right track. If Supreme had to be summed up in one sentence, we would have to use six words:

• Skateboard
• New York
• Modern Art
• Moda
• Cool
• Exclusivity

It is essential to understand a golden rule: Supreme is not a typical company with a normal supply-demand relationship like Amazon, Walmart, or Pollería Hermanos Rafael.

Supreme spends exactly $0 a year on advertising.

Its founder, James Jebbia, has even said that if he knew that he could sell 600 shirts, he would prefer to put 400 on sale. And here is the reason why we are talking about Supreme today: they are masters at ¿ art? to endow its products with an aura of exclusivity and, consequently, desire.

If you have some time, this documentary explains everything perfectly:

Why is the Supreme brand so expensive?

Supreme has gone from being a neighborhood store with t-shirts, hoodies, caps and other products for skateboard enthusiasts to a brand valued at more than one billion dollars (the purchase of 50% in October 2017 by the venture capital firm The Carlyle Group).

For its fans, Supreme is much more than a luxury brand or brand name. For his fans, it's a lifestyle. An unmentionable. A something. Again, the same word: exclusivity.

This is the only way to explain, for example, the prices of the famous collaboration between Supreme and Louis Vuitton or The North Face . Two almost identical coats, both with the same waterproof design and Gore-Tex technology; one costs $300 and the other $1.300 . The difference? You guessed it, the embroidered word "Supreme" on the hood.

The first Supreme T-shirt to feature a copyrighted image was the Taxi Driver one; essentially, a photograph of the film's protagonist, Travis Bickle, with the iconic Supreme logo. In its early days, the brand was notorious for simply stealing copyrighted content. They even received a lawsuit from Louis Vuitton . Today, they collaborate with them.

nuances

An unconventional company

Supreme didn't register its name and logo globally until 2013. And even then, it's a thorny issue that translates into something very simple: thousands upon thousands of imitations have proliferated (and continue to proliferate) in countless countries, especially in Asia. In Thailand, for example, it's easy to buy a Supreme t-shirt for just over a euro.

In Spain we have Supreme Spain and in Switzerland Supreme Italfigo , all blatant copies of the original that take advantage of the numerous legal loopholes caused by pure carelessness.

That said, the legend is true: Supreme put a brick up for sale.

Wearing Supreme is synonymous with being cool. At least, that's how it works on Instagram. The brand, whose communication policy is similar to that of Area 51 or the CIA, rarely comments on the matter.

Supreme simply releases a few new products once a week in extremely limited quantities . What resellers (also known as hypebeasts) or TikTok influencers do with them is beyond their control.

To give you an idea of ​​what we're talking about: three Supreme skateboards designed by Jeff Koons were auctioned for $16.250 in 2006.

Who invented the brand and where was it created?

Supreme was born in 1994 in the Soho neighborhood of New York City. While working for the Stussy label, James Jebbia noticed that, in addition to hip hop, skateboarding culture was beginning to gain significant traction . Jebbia immediately grasped that all the members of this new urban tribe shared a certain aura of cool mystique . He was captivated and decided to do something about it.

Jebbia opened its first store on Lafayette Street. It cost him $12.000 the first month, and it soon became a place of pilgrimage for skateboarders.

But that was NOT just a store.

Today, Supreme stores are like museums. Skateboard fashion boutiques . The very first one already had that 100% anti-store vibe: it was more like a hangout for friends . You didn't even have to buy anything. People would just hang around, say hi to the regulars, and that was about it. The atmosphere was legendary, and word spread quickly.

The fact that we're not talking about a typical company is evident from the very act of trying to buy a new product. Forget about simply going to the store and choosing whenever you feel like it.

AND!

How and where to buy Supreme

• Choose store. There are 11 physical Supreme stores in the world where new garments arrive once a week. And no, SupremeSpain is not an official store. There is no Supreme store in Spain, Mexico or Argentina (at least, official). There is a Supreme store in New York, Los Angeles, Paris and London, and six in Tokyo (mostly because of Nigo, a symbol of pop/urban consumerism).
• Register on the web. To buy a garment you have to register on the Supreme website, where you will add all your data, including your credit card number.
• Being selected. As if it were a visit to the chocolate factory, Supreme employees have to select you.
• Receive SMS. Every Wednesday SMS is sent with the time to go to the store.
• Go to the store. Time to guard the famous queue of Supreme buyers from which you can see a wide variety of videos on YouTube.
• Purchase limit. You can only purchase one style per garment. That is to say: if you like a t-shirt that comes in several color models, you can only buy one model.

When did the price craze start?

Although the company was founded in 1994, the Supreme craze began sometime in the 2010s. It's likely that Kanye West , the rapper behind Jesus is King , was largely responsible for everything that followed.

After being photographed at the Grammys wearing the Supreme Blazer SB sneakers (Supreme's collaboration with Nike, by the way), the value of the pair of sneakers on the resale market went up to $800 when in the store they only cost $150.

Shortly after, in 2011, Tyler, the Creator (remember, the artist behind the best rap album of 2019, despite not being a rap album, Igor ) contributed to its popularity. The rapper sported the famous hoodie with the brand's logo in the music video for " She" ( a collaboration with Frank Ocean). Although the hoodie cost $150 new in stores (which is already a rather exorbitant price), its resale value reached $3.500, according to Business Insider.

The list of celebrities who have been seen wearing Supreme clothing is very long and includes many rappers such as RZA or Mobb Deep.

Postmodern contemporary art icon (or postposmoderno?)

Art plays a fundamental role in Supreme. In fact, the brand's raison d'être is impossible to understand if it is separated from the artistic factor and, more specifically, from the path initiated by conceptual artists such as Marcel Duchamp or, of course, Andy Warhol.

It's another story if they're profiting from it. Although this paradox could easily apply to contemporary art as a whole. In James Jebbia's work, everything is symbolic . A Supreme t-shirt isn't just a t-shirt. It's a Supreme t-shirt.

Let's look at the work of Barbara Kruger , a key inspiration for the Supreme logo . Let's look at her most important piece, that photograph that reads: "I buy, therefore I am" (alluding to Descartes' famous phrase). Isn't it clear that we're dealing with something that goes beyond fashion? Yes.

Part of the reason why anything bearing the Supreme logo has become a cult object lies in contemporary art. Just take a look at some of the artists its founder has collaborated with: Larry Clark, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Christopher Wool, and Damien Hirst. And Kate Moss, too.

 The same thing happens to Supreme as to art: it is open to interpretation.

One thing needs to be clear: Supreme can't control whether Kylie Jenner decides to post a selfie wearing one of their shirts. Supreme can't regulate or control the current value of posing/ flexing that wearing one of their garments grants to any influencer ( or aspiring influencer).

Supreme's reselling business

It is safe to say that practically all the people who queue up at a Supreme store every Thursday have only one goal in mind: reselling.

In this regard, James Jebbia said the following in one of his very few public appearances (an interview in 2002):

"I don't like it simply because we strive to make our products affordable for young people. After all, Supreme is a skate brand , and when I see our stuff on eBay, the prices are at least double what they should be. I'd rather someone buy something from us to wear it, not to resell it."

While it's difficult to put the words "affordable" and "Supreme" in the same sentence , the truth is that their in-store prices are typical for a brand of this type. The fact that they release limited editions is a different story. This, of course, directly contradicts their supposed (and laudable) mission of launching affordable fashion for skaters.

The fundamental fault that Supreme is associated with expensive prices is the fault of resales. Does this suit Supreme in the construction of brand image and prestige?

Undoubtedly.

Supreme Oreos

Recently, the company that makes Oreo cookies announced a collaboration with Supreme. Those who know the brand should not be surprised. They have been sold from electric scooters to fire extinguishers or iron bars.

On February 20, the Oreo Supreme went on sale: eight dollars for a package of three cookies. It would be absurd to eat them.

In 2017, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority briefly offered subway cards featuring the Supreme logo. They cost five dollars, and it was unclear which subway stations issued them . Resale prices on eBay ranged from $50 to $1.000.

And yes, the Supreme brick we mentioned earlier is true . The brand put several on sale for $30 in September 2016, and they sold out in minutes, both in physical stores and online. Right now, there are several on eBay for around €200-€300.

In a few days, the Nike Air Force 1 Supreme. The show must go on.