![]() They’re members of an entire subculture built around streetwear brands and getting access to the rarest products available. There’s a label for these super-consumers: “hypebeasts”. London DJ Ross Wilson is selling his collection of more than 1,000 Supreme items. Video by Dan John and Javier Hirschfeld. “The beauty of fashion is that it’s conspicuous everyone knows what you’re wearing, so if you’re wearing a scarce, fashionable product, you get the benefit of knowing privately that you own something scarce, but also the benefit of being able to show other people that you own a scarce product.” “If you want to create a scarcity frenzy, and your brand has a strong following, all you need to do is release a large number of different products, but very few of each one,” says Adam Alter, a marketing professor at NYU Stern School of Business and the author of Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked. Most in-demand streetwear labels follow a similar method, with similar results. This method isn’t exclusive to Supreme, though. (Still others can take their chances on the web store, or even pay an ecommerce company a premium price to deploy a web bot to connect to the Supreme server at the moment of the drop). Then each Thursday at 11am, flagship stores around the world open their doors to long lines of mostly young men, often teenagers, who are ready to spend what they can on Supreme gear. Once news of a new product or collaboration is announced, word spreads quickly across fan sites, with aficionados earmarking the ultra-rare products they really desire. The company releases new, limited-edition products weekly in two “seasons” every year. Streetwear culture site Highsnobiety said the novelty item showed Supreme’s “sadomasochistic relationship with its fans.” In 2016, Supreme even released a branded brick, which sold out in minutes. The Supreme box logo is far more than just a label, but a brand insignia that endows any item with cult appeal. Supreme has built its reputation on maintaining product scarcity, collaborations with other brands or designers and limited releases of odd accessories such as hair clippers, nunchucks, and dog bowls. (Carlyle Group declined to comment on the acquisition, and Supreme did not respond to requests for comment for this article). ![]() It’s now estimated to be worth an billion dollars: last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that private-equity firm Carlyle Group had bought a 50% stake in Supreme for about $500m. One company in particular has harnessed this hype to its full extent: Supreme, a cult clothing brand founded as a small skate shop in downtown New York City in 1994. Streetwear fans queue for hours at a store opening in Brooklyn, New York, to get their hands on a valuable T-shirt. For the brands who have mastered the art of the drop, and for the legions of fans buying and reselling their products, such hype can produce remarkably lucrative results. Once these items are released, some can sell out in a matter of seconds before emerging on resale websites, marked up 1,000% or more. Next, the message is amplified across social media, especially Instagram, where celebrities, fashion-forward influencers, and collectors create an echo chamber of excitement. Welcome to the world of the “drop”, a sales tactic deployed by a number of streetwear brands to supercharge the traditional supply-and-demand model.Īn announcement on social media about the limited release of, say, a new sneaker is all it takes to cue the hype. But less than a minute later, they had sold out: by some estimates, it had taken just 15 to 30 seconds for online buyers to clear the shelves. The hype reached a crescendo at 10am, when these sneakers became available for sale. For days before the sneaker was available for sale, forums and Instagram accounts buzzed with hype of the release. Sneakers or trainers in this particular colour were the most limited release to date, and would fetch big sums on the lucrative resale market. The difference was the colour: Semi Frozen Yellow, a muted fluorescent hue with grey and red highlights.įor those in the know, this was a huge deal. This sneaker – the Yeezy Boost 350 V2 – was not a new model, and cost $220, the same as other sneakers in the range. On November 18 last year, a major event in the sneaker community came to pass.Īdidas had just released the latest shoe in the Yeezy Boost collection, its famed footwear collaboration with Kanye West.
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