Supreme and the Drop

A skate shop on Lafayette Street

In 1994, James Jebbia opened Supreme at 274 Lafayette Street in Manhattan. It was a skate shop first, laid out so skaters could roll right in. The red box logo borrows from artist Barbara Kruger, known for white words on red bars.

The drop

Supreme’s big idea was the drop. New items appear in small numbers on Thursdays, and once they’re gone they’re gone. That created:

• Lines around the block, sometimes overnight.
• Bots buying online stock in seconds.
• Resellers flipping items for many times the price.

Everyone copied it: Nike’s sneaker app, rapper merch, fast-food collabs. If you’ve ever set an alarm for a release, you’re living in Supreme’s world.

They sold a brick

Supreme puts its logo on almost anything, partly as a joke about hype itself. In 2016 it sold an actual red brick with the logo on it. It sold out instantly. Other drops have included a crowbar, nunchucks and a fire extinguisher.

Louis Vuitton, full circle

Around 2000, Louis Vuitton sent Supreme a cease-and-desist over skate decks that copied its monogram. In 2017, the two brands did an official Supreme x Louis Vuitton collab, and it was one of the biggest fashion moments of the decade. Streetwear had officially arrived in luxury.

The money

• 2017: investment firm Carlyle buys about half the company.
• 2020: VF Corp, which owns The North Face and Vans, buys Supreme for $2.1 billion.
• 2024: VF sells it to EssilorLuxottica, the company behind Ray-Ban, for $1.5 billion.