Supreme

James Jebbia opened Supreme on Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan in April 1994, a skate shop with an open floor so riders could roll straight in. The red box logo, white Futura Heavy Oblique on a red bar, comes straight from the artist Barbara Kruger. Our main Supreme story is about the release calendar. The brand designs two seasons a year but drops them in small batches every Thursday, online and in store at the same time, and most pieces never restock. That habit built a resale market and was copied by sneaker brands, luxury houses and small labels from Brooklyn to Tokyo. The collaborations run through the archive too. The 2002 Nike SB Dunk Low borrowed the elephant print from the Air Jordan 3, the 1996 Supreme Old Skool came out of Brendan Babenzien's time as design director, and a Louis Vuitton collection reached the Paris runway in January 2017. When Supreme opened in London in 2011 it stocked Palace on day one, which did a lot for that brand. Carlyle took a large stake in 2017, VF Corporation bought the company for $2.1 billion in 2020, and EssilorLuxottica paid $1.5 billion in 2024, with Jebbia staying on. The Fall/Winter 2016 collection included a clay brick stamped with the logo. It cost $30.