Just over 25 years ago, James Jebbia opened Supreme on Lafayette Street in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. Over the last 25 years, Supreme has established themselves and streetwear as a mainstay in both popular culture and capital “F” fashion. Over the last twelve months, we’ve been looking at Supreme’s rich 25 year history and as Supreme’s 25th Anniversary year comes to a close, we thought it was only right to take a look back on their silver anniversary year in particular. Whether it be new locations, the eye-popping sale of every Supreme skate deck ever made, or a Supreme Tee appearing at Virgil Abloh’s Figures Of Speech Exhibit, we’ve taken note of all of 2019’s biggest moments for Supreme.
New Store News – Bowery and San Francisco Open, Lafayette Closes
After several years of skepticism and rumors, Supreme’s ninth brick and mortar location opened in San Francisco in October. Released alongside the opening of the new store was the traditional Store Opening Box Logo, this time featuring an orange box logo printed on a black tee. While many felt the orange color to be somewhat lackluster after Brooklyn’s yellow camouflage logo, the tees still sold out instantly and resold by the thousands, averaging resale values of over ten times the retail price of the tee. While one sun was rising, another was setting as it was announced shortly before the opening of the San Francisco store that Supreme would permanently be shutting doors at its Lafayette location. This was announced after Supreme moved to a different SoHo location (Bowery) for renovations of the Lafayette store announced prior to SS19. The closing of the Lafayette location marked the end of a 25 year run.
Box Logos Galore
Traditionally released in scarcity with drop dates few and far between, Supreme did Box Logos a little bit differently this year, releasing 24 box logos total across four different drops. The first came on the calendar week of their 25th Anniversary in April and featured a full crystal Box Logo pattern courtesy of a Swarovski collaboration. The release marked the only Box Logo release of the SS19 collection and resulted in over 3,000 total sales on StockX. Three separate Box Logo drops occurred over the course of the FW19 season however, with the first coming in the form of Supreme’s San Francisco Box Logo tee and the next two releases coming later in the season. First announced as a part of the FW19 Preview, Supreme released their Bandana Box Logo Hooded Sweatshirts on Thursday December 12th and then released Bandana Box Logo Tees just one week later on the 19th. Shop a selection of the Box Logos released by Supreme this year below and every Box Logo released this year on StockX here.
Collaboration Of The Year – Supreme x Jean Paul Gaultier
In 2017, Supreme collaborated with Louis Vuitton, marking a gigantic moment for both streetwear and luxury as the two worlds collided. Those two came together yet again in 2019 as Supreme this year linked up with high fashion label, Jean Paul Gaultier. The collaboration checked a box for seemingly every consumer, featuring graphic tees, tailoring, faux fur coats, and even sunglasses. Rumored at the beginning of the season to be a partnership with Dolce & Gabbana, Jean Paul Gaultier was Supreme’s highest reselling collaboration of 2019 with the tees alone reselling over 7,500 units across both colorways. This makes for yet another successful partnership between the streetwear brand and a high fashion house, a move that other brands, specifically any brand besides Kith and Versace, may want to take heed of.
Virgil Abloh Displays A Box Logo At The MCA
While it wasn’t a CFDA or an appearance on the runway at Paris Fashion Week, Supreme received a different kind of recognition in 2019 as Virgil Abloh put a Supreme Box Logo on display at his retrospective exhibition, “Figures Of Speech.” An unreleased Box Logo t-shirt was put on display as a part of the exhibition and was shown in two instances, once framed in a glass case hanging on the wall and a second time in Supreme Photo Tee fashion graced by Chief Keef. The displayed Box Logo Tee replaces the traditionally red background of the box logo with the red, black, and green colors of the Pan-African flag and has since sparked rumors that the tee will eventually be released.
A Full Collection of Supreme Skate Decks Sells For $800,000
Late in 2018, StockX partnered with LA’s Jason Vass in order to present full collections of every single accessory and skate deck Supreme has ever released. In February of 2019, the full collection of skate decks was sold via an online auction through Sotheby’s for $800,000. StockX authenticated every single deck and hosted a post-sale installment at our New York Pop-Up where the boards were put on public display for one final time. If you want to check out the entire collection of boards that sold, take a look at our Complete Supreme Skate Decks Catalog.
“Big Items” of the Year
Every year Supreme releases at least one “big” accessory. These “big” accessories are traditionally defined by high retail prices and very, very low supply. The pinball machine from SS18, for example, was a “big” item. The first “big” item of the year, the Supreme Meissen Cupid Statue, released early in the SS19 season alongside Supreme’s collaboration with Stone Island. The statue retailed for just two dollars short of $4,000 at $3,998 and features 100% hand-painted details. The second “big” item to release this year was Supreme’s Pearl Session Drum Set, an item that retailed for just short of $5000 and has resold for more than double that on StockX. The Drum Set released during the SS19 season and dropped on the same day as Supreme’s second NFL Raiders collaboration delivery. Two “big” items also released during the FW19 season, the first being the Supreme Honda CRF 250R Dirtbike and the second coming in the form of a collaborative Wassily Chair with storied furniture brand, Knoll. The Dirt Bike was “sold” (friends and family only) on October 3rd, 2019, the same day as the rest of the Supreme x Honda x Fox collaboration but was not delivered until a later date. Supreme’s Wassily Chair with Knoll released on December 5th, 2019, and retailed for just below $3000. The chair, which is decorated in leopard print, has not been resold on StockX yet although there are multiple active bids for more than $1000 above the chair’s retail price.
Thanks for checking out this final edition of our Supreme 25th Anniversary shopping guides. Make sure to view the rest of our featured posts, and check out our entire catalog of Supreme 25th Anniversary content here.
