Supreme is known to introduce new styles and graphics on a seasonal basis., but one of the few designs that remains a constant in their collection are their classic photo tees. These shirts are the equivalent to Cracker Jack prizes – you never know what you’re going to get. Subjects of the coveted shirts always vary, being donned by the likes of rappers, rockstars, and other prolific figures. The tee is always of a celebrity that is quintessentially what Supreme represents: breaking barriers, out of the norm, and extremely authentic. Check out the lineage of photo tees from Supreme as we all wait to see who gets featured on the shirt next.
Mr. Illmatic himself is the latest person to be featured on a Supreme Photo Tee. The Mass Appeal MC is still considered one of the best rappers to grace hip-hop to date and is an artist that is constantly delivering with his heavy flows and vivid story telling. Pointing at Nas’s remarkable flow, the Terry Richardson-assisted photograph graced Supreme blanks with Nasty Nas signed on the front. Compared to the other photo tees, the Nas Tee is considered the cheapest shirt to date, being resold for as low as $210 at the time of this writing. Click here to shop Supreme Nas Tees.
Do y’all remember when Gucci Mane was released from prison? If you don’t, where the hell were you?! It was by far one of the biggest events to happen in late 2016, and for good reason. Guwop dropped three amazing projects, including his post-prison album Everybody Looking that debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts. Gucci was on a role, and Supreme capitalized on it. When you’re Gucci Mane, you get to do what you want, which leads to him being the first in the Photo Series to actually have text on both the front and the back of the tee. This shirt is banging out for cool $500, being one of the cheaper photo tees but still undeniably a great shirt because, come on, it’s the East Atlanta Santa. Click here to shop Supreme Gucci Mane tees.
In 2015, Supreme approached Morrissey with the opportunity to shoot with the brand for their next photo tee campaign. They came to an agreement that paid Morrissey a substantial fee upfront and in result Morrissey could not unreasonably withhold approval for use of the images. After a shoot with Supreme’s go-to photographer Terry Richardson, Morrissey rejected all the images with no reason and insisted on using a photo he took himself wearing a Supreme t-shirt. Supreme rejected this request and gave him options to either select an image from the first shoot, reshoot the campaign, or return the money. Morrissey ignored all three options and started making unreasonable claims that because he is a known vegetarian, Supreme’s collaboration with White Castle was enough to terminate their contract. Morrissey refused to give back the money he was paid so to follow the original agreement, Supreme published the Morrissey photos they owned and released them as a tee. Although Morrissey does not eat bacon, the resale of this tee requires some. This shirt resells for around $800 (at the time of the writing) in some of the more coveted colorways. Click here to shop Supreme Morrissey Tees.
Supreme is always digging through history and shining a spotlight on cultural game changers whether they are important in the past or present. When folk rock legend Neil Young was announced as the face for the Fall/Winter 2015 photo tee, Neil Young fans were ecstatic and shocked because Neil never does anything close to this type of thing. For customers who did not know who Neil Young was, Supreme gave a reason to do the research and understand that what Neil Young gave to the world runs in Supreme’s DNA. Young is an activist and a strong voice for individuality. If you would like to “Rock the Free World” and don the Godfather of Grunge’s photo tee, it runs at a resale cost of around $700. Click here to shop Supreme Neil Young Tees.
2013: Shane MacGowan
If you look up “Celtic Punk Bands”, one of the first results is The Pogues. It is here that you will learn more about Supreme’s 2013 Photo Tee inductee. Shane MacGowan has been apart of many bands throughout his life, starting off with The Pogues, then moving on to the Nipple Erectors, then Shane MacGowan and the Popes, and now The Shane Gang. He’s been around, let’s just say that. But what makes him stand out the most as the perfect subject for this photo series is his extremely punk look. In the picture above, you can see MacGowan striking the peace sign with a pint in his hand and shades that might as well read “F*** You” across the lenses. This shirt donning one of “The Boys from County Hell” can be found on the secondary market for about $300.
2012: Kate Moss
Kate Moss and Supreme are practically family. Since 2004, the British supermodel has been plastered all over Supreme advertisements and tees, solidifying their long-term relationship. So it only made sense for the brand to utilize Kate Moss for their photo tee series. The photo itself is by far the most Kate Moss thing yet, with her wearing a cheetah print jacket, an almost burned-to-the-butt cigarette, and of course, her best “Tyra Banks fierce” face. Though it took 3 years for this shirt to drop after the last photo tee (Lou Reed in 2009), it did not disappoint. This shirt retailed for less than $50 and is now reselling on the secondary market for about $1,500.
2009: Lou Reed
By 2009, the Supreme portrait series had fans on their toes, eager to find out what face would debut next. It was in January of that year when inspiration hit and Terry Richardson captured some badass shots of New York legend Lou Reed. Rocking a black box logo tee, aviators, tight jeans with his arms crossed, Lou Reed looks like he’s about to take you back to the 70’s and steal your lunch money. As the former frontman of rock group, Velvet Underground, Reed perfectly represented the rebellious ethos Supreme was founded on.
Despite Reed’s form fit appearance for Supreme’s portrait series, the iconic picture received a good amount of hate when it dropped in the SS09 poster campaign. As it turns out, the younger generation of Supreme fans just didn’t feel it that hard. Regardless of what the kids think, the Lou Reed Supreme Photo Tee resells for about $800 USD. Unfortunately, Lou Reed passed from liver disease in October 2013. Although, he will remain eternalized through his music and this gnarly photo tee. RIP to a real one and a rock and roll OG.
2008: Kermit The Frog
In early 2008, posters of Kermit The Frog wearing a box logo t-shirt started appearing on the streets of NY and LA, pushing people to question a possible collaboration between Supreme and the famous Jim Henson character. Shortly after, Terry Richardson featured photos of Kermit wearing the box logo tee in an exhibition at Colette Paris. When the collaboration was made official, the streetwear community went crazy. You would think that Supreme learned their lesson with puppets, since their past fall out with Sesame Street’s Elmo, but Supreme has been known to continually push the envelope. The skate brand also pulled out all of the stops for The Muppets frontrunner, adding a series of skate decks and a Medicom Toy-assisted Kermit Kubrick figure. This tee is going for around $2-3K on the secondary market, having resellers bring home the bacon like Ms. Piggy.
2007: Mike Tyson
After using NY rappers to grace the trademark photo tees, Supreme switched it up and tapped Brooklyn-born, former heavy-weight champion of the world, Mike Tyson. Taking place in his Las Vegas hotel room, photographer Kenneth Cappello was able to capture photos of Tyson for Supreme in between hours of Iron Mike cursing him out and intimidating his assistants. Although at the time Mike was not in the mood, his fierce, royal look for Supreme that day became one of the most iconic photo tees in Supreme’s history. With a legacy filled with unforgettable moments and stories, it’s only fitting that Mike Tyson’s encounter with Supreme is one for the history books. This tee’s resale price imitates the style of Iron Mike being that it can knock-out your pocket for a price of $2,000 in some of the more coveted colorways.
2006: Dipset
Kenneth Cappallo comes back for round two of Supreme’s photo tees, this time showcasing the Harlem talent that is Dipset. Back in 2006, Dipset was one of the most sought after rap groups and made waves with their album Diplomatic Immunity. Co-creator of the group, Jim Jones, and youngest signee to the ‘Set, Juelz Santana, can be seen wearing both of the red box logo shirts, with Santana’s signature gravity-defying bandana headpiece. This tee has hit a bit of controversy between Jim Jones and the skate brand, with Jones thinking that they didn’t get the amount of respect and money that they deserve for the photo. At the time, Supreme was still being built up into the colloquial brand we all know today, while Dipset was already on an all-time high in the music world. Despite not knowing what the brand was at the time, Jones believes that the two of them were underpaid, only getting $14,000 all together for the pose. In a past Instagram post, Jim Jones says “They owe us piece of th[e] company rappers n my black people had no idea wht supreme was we didn’t even know wht they was they had tht bag and they [k]new who dipset was”
No one could predict Supreme to be as big as it is today, especially that iconic tee, which is now worth $2,500 resell, and that’s not even for a deadstock shirt!
2005: Raekwon
Da Chef was the first to be featured on the famous photo tees. The heavy hitting spitter from The Slums of Shaolin was shot by Kenneth Cappello as well. The photo features The Purple Tape rapper accompanied by a friend holding an uzi, with Raekwon on the left holding an overalls-suited Tickle Me Elmo.
Before Supreme had their famously unreliable website, the shirts released the old fashion way, just in their New York, Los Angeles, and Japan brick and mortars, without any announcement. The shirts sold at their own time but was later confronted with controversy after Sesame Street got word that their beloved puppet was being paired with a firearm. Someone should’ve told big homie Big Bird that Elmo would soon be a part of a hot streetwear commodity, seeing that the 14-year old shirt goes for more than $2,000 on the secondary market.
Thanks for checking out this edition of our Supreme 25th Anniversary content. Stay tuned to the StockX blog throughout 2019 for more featured posts, and check out our entire catalog of Supreme 25th Anniversary content here.
