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.
Narrator: 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.
Dimitrios Tsivrikos: 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.
Narrator: 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.
Chris Magnaye: Tuesday at 11:00 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-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.
Narrator: 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.
Chris: 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.
Narrator: 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.
Dimitrios: 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.
Narrator: 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 people want to have 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 would want to 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.
Narrator: 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.