Supreme x WTAPS Grills Incense Burner: Supreme Pick of the Week

After collaborating with legendary Japanese designer, Junya Watanabe just a few weeks ago, Supreme is back again this week with another Japan-focused collaboration. For the first time in more than ten years, Supreme has reunited with Japanese streetwear brand WTAPS. This season’s partnership has resulted in the pair’s largest collection in their collaborative history, featuring apparel and accessories from hoodies and crewnecks, to jackets and skate decks. The Pick of the Week is the collaborative Supreme x WTAPS Grills Incense Chamber, which has emerged as the fan-favorite piece from this collection.

Likely thanks to market domination by some of their competitors, incense is a relatively unexplored category for Supreme, though collaborations with Japanese brands, and particularly WTAPS, is nothing new. In 2009, Supreme both released an incense holder and collaborated with WTAPS, though these releases were totally separate and had nothing to do with each other. Despite the odd coincidence, Supreme’s WTAPS Grills Incense Burner is a relatively novel accessory from the New York streetwear brand. It’s this novelty, combined with the nostalgia of a resurrected collaborative relationship, that has made the Supreme WTAPS Grills Incense Burner so exciting. 

The Incense Burner features a molded gold grill set slightly open, so that the incense smoke can rise from inside it. The front of the gold grill shows off molded Supreme and WTAPS logos in the teeth and the top features both brands’ logos etched into it. The Supreme x WTAPS Grills Incense Burner comes with a pack of five Kuuma AGAPE incense cones and additional 20 packs of branded incense cones were made available on Supreme’s website. The Incense Chamber was made exclusively for Supreme and retailed for $485.

Supreme’s previous 2009 collaboration with WTAPS has become something of an urban legend among long-time fans of the brand. The release included three t-shirts, two jackets, and two pillows in a baseball-themed collaboration. Plastered on nearly every piece from the collection is the number “21203”, a combination of New York and Tokyo’s area code. Pieces from this collection have become extremely difficult to find and often fetch resale prices in the thousands of dollars. 

For those who don’t consider themselves savants of the world of Japanese streetwear, WTAPS is one of the country’s most popular brands. Founded in 1997 by ​​Tetsu Nishiyama, WTAPS was long-known for being hard to get. For years, WTAPS sold only out of their own showroom before opening the brand up first to specialized shops like Union LA, and then to online retailers. Like Undercover, Neighborhood, and other Japanese apparel brands spawned by the 90s, WTAPS leans heavily on an Americana-inspired military silhouette. After nearly 25 years, WTAPS has stayed true to Tetsu Nishiyama’s original ethos, delivering a sense of continuity of identity to long-time fans of the brand and providing high-quality, utilitarian apparel to customers who are just getting into it. 

The Supreme x WTAPS Grills Incense Chamber can be shopped on StockX below alongside other popular pieces from the collection.