Supreme: The Resale Market

Supreme is a clothing brand out of New York and it's one of the most iconic and popular brands in streetwear. Recently Complex Magazine released a short documentary about Supreme's resale market which is one of the most profitable brands in the market. The documentary dove into the actions re-sellers are taking to ensure that they get their Supreme product and also the reason's why the brand itself is held to such a high standard.

Supreme is a brand that started in 1994 as a skateboard shop out of New York. The brand grew in popularity and the demand for their products has grown substantially since then. Their success can be attributed by the endorsement of artists and gatekeepers of pop culture, including a major surge in recent years with members of the popular hip-hop group Odd Future wearing the brand. This has also led to collaborations with other clothing and shoe companies including The North Face, Nike and Jordan. Supreme however is very limited with their products and releases and the only place to purchase their products is out of their stores. They only have two store's in the U.S. however, the other being in Fairfax, California. The name of the documentary is properly named Sold-Out, since the demand is much higher than the supply. Most people will only get their hands on Supreme products from re-sellers.

In the video we meet a handful of Supreme re-sellers, some showed their faces and names while others withheld they're identity. These re-sellers also varied in age from young 13 year old teens to a 30 year old husband and father. They explained their tactics and plans of attack when looking to purchase Supreme products, which isn't as easy as just walking into the store. People will line up outside the doors for days awaiting new releases by the clothing brand. Some will pay people to stand in line with them in order to buy more when inside. The reasoning behind this is that with Supreme's popularity they have placed several limits on buying products and are very aware of re-sellers. One re-seller explained how Supreme will not let him buy more than one size on any item because they are aware of his business. To many these actions seem a bit extreme but for the re-sellers it is a way of life and often times the way they make money and live. Some of the profits listed by the re-sellers included $4,000, $5,000, and $17,000. They deem the money sufficient enough to continue their businesses.

Here is the link to the video.