Host
Ronnie Rodriguez
Podcast Content
Pop culture images and logos have been copied and adapted to make the design feel like a work of art, like everything else on the market today. The design is so closely linked to Supreme's history that it is hard not to see it as a direct copy, and copyright theft is something that is in the Supreme's DNA. The Supreme 8 / 31 Skatedecks, which breathe life into the basic Supreme design ethos with creativity and collaboration, offer artists a unique canvas on which to create their work, and provide collectors with a rare opportunity to hold a work of art in their own hands for the first time.
Supreme's first branded shirt, which is simply the first in a limited series of Supreme 8 / 31 skatedecks, can be pre-ordered on the Supreme website.
The use of frequently - unlicensed images has resulted in Supreme being served with injunctions from the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, as well as with an injunction to Supreme. Many other major brands have adopted this method of very limited publications to generate hype for their products, but the service of these products has become more seductive in recent years, making them more accessible to a wider range of consumers.
So I think Supreme knows very well how to make something incredibly accessible and sexy by allowing you to jump in and out of it, which makes it relevant to them. Supreme fans jumped in to pay for a table tennis set at Supreme, and they jumped up from their seats and paid to pitch it for Supreme.
If Supreme bosses can't get a place in the queue to get an item before selling it, they can put it at the back of the queue.
That Migraine is obsessed with collecting Supreme items before other fashion brands release them has to do with his respect for Supreme's back story, as its influence has grown over the decades from a small skateboard shop to a global brand. Supreme is the rare brand that can inspire private equity billionaires and streetwear aficionados to the same degree of extreme devotion. It has only 12 stores around the world, is notoriously shy of the public and has a long history with the company's founder and co-founder, Dwayne "The Rock" Simmons.
That's why the brand has managed to garner a growing following, as it has become a symbol of the ultimate underground coolness. Although his status is well known, he is still a relatively unknown brand to most people outside the hip-hop community.
With the rampant hype culture that follows Supreme everywhere, the brand is known for its diverse and expansive collaborative releases. Their collaborations cover a variety of styles, from high-end sneakers to limited-edition T-shirts and a feature-length film.
The sneaker collaborations continue to be among the most sought-after shoe releases of all time. In the early 1990s, James Jebbia was an aspiring fashionista in New York City who worked his way up the ranks before opening Stussy. Dunking madness that followed for the next decade, but then, after leaving the retail game, he looked for his next big step and found it in Supreme.
The store began selling hoodies and sweatshirts aimed at the burgeoning New York skate scene, and in the 1990s and early 2000s Supreme served as an outlet for the emerging streetwear styles of the time, such as skateboarding and street punk. Supreme opened its first brick and mortar store on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1999 and later, a second store in Brooklyn in 2000.
While the brand has been criticized as "Boys' Club," the general trend in streetwear has been to dispense with the kind of nondescript snobbery that eschews labels, and although it has provoked some criticism for being "the Boys' Club," it has also been the most iconic Supreme design, with its simple white lettering italically on a plain red background.
When the first Supreme store opened, its first employee as a child was an extra in a movie, and Supreme's first outpost in New York was in Japan. Supreme is embroiled in an ongoing legal battle to gain control of its trademark in China, as well as litigation with the US government.
It has been more than a decade since Supreme opened a second location in Los Angeles, and since then it has expanded to divest ownership of its first store in New York City and New Jersey. The brand also had to retreat after ceding control of the brand's flagship stores in San Francisco, San Jose, New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta. It is in the process of opening a site in San Diego in 2019, as well as sites in London, Paris, Berlin, London and Tokyo.