Peter Bici vividly remembers his introduction to Supreme when it launched in 1994.
The unique Supreme crew member skated from Queens to downtown New York towards Lafayette Road however could not discover the store. On the time, Lafayette was reasonably barren. Bici had by no means been there and stored skating the improper means till lastly, he noticed a retailer that learn “Supreme” on it with brown paper over the home windows.
“I walked in and I used to be identical to, ‘Whoa.’ This can be a state-of-the-art, trendy skateboard store,” Bici mentioned in ESPN Movies’ “Empire Skate,” which is launched Monday. “That is sick.”
Music performed loud sufficient to shake the home windows. Skateboards held on the wall subsequent to the register. T-shirts needed to be neatly tucked and folded or else you would need to reply to founder James Jebbia, a perfectionist.
No one knew it again then, however the earliest skaters at Supreme marked the start of a multibillion-dollar enterprise that advanced right into a cultural phenomenon — and single-handedly revolutionized the style resale market.
From Nike to Comme des Garçons, Supreme kick-flipped the idea of manufacturers collaborating and reached unseen heights.
When Odell Beckham Jr. had season-ending surgical procedure on his ankle in 2017, the NFL star opted for a Louis Vuitton Supreme strolling boot. He additionally has a tattoo of the emblem on his again — retired NBA participant JR Smith has the same tattoo on his calf. Brazilian soccer celebrity Neymar wore a Supreme cap sitting courtside on the 2023 NBA Finals. Travis Kelce arrived at a January Kansas Metropolis Chiefs recreation with a Supreme beanie and Timberland boots made in collaboration with the model.
Again within the Nineties, Jebbia gave New York skaters an nearly unique clubhouse. They repaid him with a transcendent model.
“We have been the rotten apple. We have been the cool children …” Alex Corporan, an unique member of Supreme, instructed ESPN. “However the way in which we carried ourselves was in a means [where] folks have been like, ‘Who’re these menaces to f—ing society over right here? They suppose they’re the s—.’ And we’re like, ‘Yeah, we’re the s—.’ That carried quite a lot of power … Individuals needed to be us.”
So, they purchased Supreme. And the remaining is historical past.
To know Supreme is to grasp New York’s skate scene within the early Nineties.
Skate outlets slowly popped up across the metropolis, however struggled to final. Most went out of enterprise within the late Nineteen Eighties, and skateboarding went underground, in accordance with Ryan Hickey, a member of Supreme’s skate crew. In response to Corporan, on the time “there was no actual skate store cash” in New York. Nonetheless, the skating scene and tradition discovered its means again in 1993.
Zoo York was based that yr and started promoting skateboards and streetwear. Jebbia, who left England for New York within the early Nineteen Eighties, and Mary Ann Fusco created Union in 1989 as one of many first streetwear boutiques.
After the success of Union, Jebbia expanded and opened a Stussy retailer, one other streetwear enterprise. Union and Stussy created a basis of streetwear in New York that constructed as much as Supreme, Washington Put up trend critic Rachel Tashjian mentioned in “Empire Skate.”
A skate renaissance was underway however with no skate store to assist it. So Jebbia took issues into his personal palms.
“On the time, I am at Union and I am skating,” Frank Crittenden Jr., higher often known as Chappy, mentioned in “Empire Skate.” “And James was like, ‘Yo, what do you concentrate on opening up a skateboard store?'”
However Jebbia needed it to be a boutique store with the “flyest and most interesting s—,” Chappy, one among Supreme’s early managers, mentioned. Whereas deciding on the title, Supreme stored popping up, so that they selected it.
Supreme advanced right into a legit skate store in a metropolis dying for one, the primary hub to satisfy up, manage and determine the place to skate. Skaters all the time wound up again there at night time.
They began to do every part there, however enterprise wasn’t booming but. Corporan put it matter of factly, saying they have been “bored.”
Jebbia caught with it and had a imaginative and prescient. He discovered inspiration within the skaters that rode across the metropolis. He checked out how they dressed — in dishevelled garments — and located it compelling.
He designed garments for them to put on, resulting in the inaugural Supreme skateboarding crew in 1996. That group included Hickey, Justin Pierce, Mike Hernandez, Giovanni Estevez, Jones Keeffe and Bici.
The Supreme crew and others who visited the shop wore the model with pleasure. Individuals began to concentrate.
Across the identical time, Jebbia gave the crew packs of purple Supreme field emblem stickers, and the skaters began putting them across the metropolis. The long-lasting emblem is impressed by American artist Barbara Kruger’s work.
Individuals within the metropolis caught on to the Supreme aesthetic. It created one thing paying homage to an unique model.
“We have been simply the fellows that wore a model that belonged to us, that James gave us a clubhouse for,” Corporan mentioned. “And when you have got a home like that, everybody needs to be in the home. However we did not let folks in like that.”
The skaters by no means discovered themselves in it for the cash. However their willingness to rep Supreme led to loads of it.
“They modified skateboarding and trend after which in quite a lot of methods, enterprise,” Josh Swade, the director of “Empire Skate,” instructed ESPN. “With out these children cosigning the model and the store within the early days, it would not turn into what it turned.”
Supreme adopted a restricted buyback technique early on and weekly drops occurred on Thursdays, a follow nonetheless in place. Irrespective of how a lot cash a buyer introduced, they may solely buy one shirt. The restricted provide led to a better demand, which ultimately birthed a large resale market.
Corporan estimates 80% of Supreme’s earliest clients have been from Japan. The primary retailer exterior of New York opened in Japan in the course of the late ’90s.
“[Japan has] a fascination with Americana but in addition subcultures of Americana and so as a result of Supreme was so particular in its references,” Swade mentioned. “I believe that these avenue references linked with Japanese tastemakers they usually have been fast to say, ‘Wow, this can be a New York model/skate store that is doing one thing we expect is admittedly cool, that we have not seen earlier than.'”
The nation birthed curated resale outlets for secondhand objects. The restricted nature of Supreme’s enterprise match into the Japanese tradition of shopping for one thing, promoting it, then seeing its worth rise over time — in different phrases, a hypebeast tradition.
A number of the Japanese clients at Supreme have been nicknamed “consumers,” who would come to the shop, buy the identical objects individually, after which fly over the Pacific to resell them.
Corporan referred to the time when the consumers began coming to Supreme because the “large starting.”
A reseller would fly out 20 consumers who one after the other got here to the shop and ordered the identical sizes of assorted objects. Corporan grew suspicious, so someday he hopped on his Supreme bike and adopted one among them.
Corporan caught as much as the group with baggage of Supreme laid out on a Starbucks desk, then approached the primary procurator with a brand new system: Carry order requests on to the employees, they usually’d ship it — permitting for bulk orders — although the client must pay 30% further in money on prime of the transaction’s retail worth.
The consumers acquired purchasing lists that included objects to purchase for the cashiers in change for giving them objects in bulk. The consumers would additionally depart their bank cards with the cashier, who would ring up objects in smaller particular person transactions all through the day so it regarded like regular purchases — as a substitute of a bulk order.
Staff could be taken care of on the finish of the day and Corporan merely mentioned “nobody left unhappy.”
“We caught on and did this resell factor. Then that is how the model obtained huge as a result of it was like, oh there is a resale worth right here,” Corporan mentioned. “Then after we did a collaboration with Nike SB. That is after we actually took off.”
Nike dove into the skateboard sneaker scene in 2002, first collaborating with Zoo York for dunk lows that dropped in June. Months later, Supreme obtained its personal model of Nike dunks in what Swade known as a “monumental collab.”
These featured a spin on the long-lasting cement design of the 1988 Jordan 3, which hadn’t been seen till Nike repurposed the print on these dunks.
“The truth that then that comes out on a skate shoe, that is a type of moments the place like individuals who did not skate have been like ‘Oh, what is going on on over right here, lemme take note of this,'” he mentioned.
Nike gave Supreme 300 pairs, then a restricted quantity to different skate outlets. Corporan remembers folks being hungry for the footwear and defined that is the place it obtained intense as a result of Supreme managed what number of they may promote.
One reseller who obtained their palms on it was Lam Xie, higher often known as OG Ma, a monumental determine within the fanatical reseller market.
OG Ma moved to the U.S. from China in 1992 and was launched to Supreme in 2000. She step by step began shopping for and accumulating objects, being enamored by the designs and their restricted launch type.
In 2006, one among her pals confirmed her a basement-level vacant retailer in Chinatown, New York, and requested if OG Ma needed to make use of it to begin her personal enterprise. She did not hesitate.
“By that point, I’ve already stored quite a lot of Nike SB sneakers and Supreme objects. That is why I made a decision to get the store to resell as a result of not too many individuals know what Supreme was [at the time],” she mentioned.
She determined to call it “uniquehypecollection” and first posted her merchandise on eBay, then social media. The enterprise grew sufficient for her to maneuver to an even bigger location in 2014. That is when the clientele obtained well-known.
Rapper Wiz Khalifa was the primary superstar buyer in 2014. Others adopted — Kylie Jenner, rappers Travis Scott, Juice WRLD and Playboi Carti and Colombian singer J Balvin — all with the objective of shopping for Supreme from OG Ma.
Swade likened her retailer to the 1984 movie “Gremlins,” which features a store that boasts a particular magic.
“In that store, that’s sort of what OG captured,” he mentioned. “She took this model that was already actually secretive and felt very insider after which put this coveted spin on it the place such as you even needed to be additional within the know to hunt out this tiny little store.”
Connections go a great distance within the reselling enterprise and OG Ma’s aided her in 2015 when Supreme collaborated with Louis Vuitton, arguably their most well-known partnership. A number of the objects are extraordinarily desired, just like the Skateboard Trunk, which bought for $75,600, per Sotheby’s. In fact, OG Ma owns one of many 10 on the planet, boosting her iconic assortment.
OG Ma pinpoints Supreme’s 2012 collaboration with Japanese label Comme des Garçons as a pivotal supply of elevation, with the Louis Vuitton partnership being one among many who later pushed the model to new heights.
“They realized very early on that bringing in outsiders who had achieved unimaginable issues on the planet of tradition and discovering a solution to carry that paintings into their merchandise was solely going to make it extra coveted,” Swade mentioned. “And simply f—ing cool.”
Supreme revolutionized the thought of collaboration, which coincided with a resale market that erupted and aided its longevity.
Even because the hype peaked within the mid- to late-2010s, Supreme all the time stayed true to itself, including a component of brilliance, Swade mentioned. It paid off in 2020 when VF Company purchased Supreme for $2.1 billion earlier than promoting it in July 2024 to EssilorLuxottica for $1.5 billion.
Corporan admitted he by no means might have thought the model would develop into what it did. But it surely turned larger than the skaters’ imaginations and turned that purple Supreme field emblem into gold.
“We’re grateful that we had one thing that was wonderful that we name it dwelling and that is the raddest half about it,” Corporan mentioned. “We had one thing that nobody on the planet might ever have. There isn’t any retail store that would ever try this ever once more.”