Supreme, why in Japan?
New York. Sunday noon. It’s sunny outside. You’re walking around in a park, and you hear a sound of wheels rolling over a smooth surface. You walk over to see what’s going on and see a crowd of young people in an open area, gliding over the ground and doing tricks on the ramps on their skateboards. On their shirts, there is a bright red box with white letters: Supreme.
This logo is very recognizable to many of us in the world. Established in New York city in 1994 originally as American skateboarding lifestyle brand by James Jebbia, Supreme has shown immense popularization and become much more than a mere streetwear. The brand has grown to be a luxury. The brand’s success is often contributed to its simple yet bold design that can easily seem fashionable and cool and its marketing strategy that utilized celebrity’s fame and their “Kanye effect”. Today, when people hear the word “Supreme”, the skateboarding scene in New York is not what they imagine. They think about a long line of people in front of the Supreme store early in the morning, hoping to acquire the limited items they have been wanting for a long time. Those people are not only skaters. Many plan to resell those items for a better price, making the market even more competitive.
However, what many do not realize is that its popularity in the United States is incomparable to that of Japan. Out of only 12 Supreme stores in the world, half of them actually exist in Japan, a country smaller than the size of California. You may be wondering, why specifically in Japan? Why did they decide to concentrate it in such a small country? The answer lies in Supreme’s business model and Japanese people’s consumption style.
Supreme uses a so-called hype business model. They release only two collections a year, dropping a few items with limited quantity throughout the season. Because they have a limited amount of supply that does not meet the overwhelming demand, the brand creates a competition among the customers. The competition will put customers in a hype, making them willing to pay extra money to get the items.
Although it may not be obvious, Japanese people are used to this business model. When you travel in Japan, you often see packages of food and souvenirs with a tagline, “only available in this area”. This is because of rich subcultures that exist in each prefecture that allows those items to be rare. Most of those items have ingredients or designs only traditional and authentic to the specific area, making it only buyable there. The scarcity of those souvenirs drive visitors to purchase those goods, sustaining the rural prefecture’s economy. Children in Japan are also suckers for limited edition toys that require competition. From premium Pokemon cards to plushies in claw grabber machines, there are many toys in Japan that require kids to spend their money and time. Supreme drops create a similar situation for fashionable, young people in Japan. Growing up in those business models, Japanese people are more likely to try and purchase Supreme items than in other countries.
The reason why there are so many limited editions in Japan has roots in the Japanese class culture. Even though the caste system was abolished in 1871, its aftereffects are still very much evident in Japanese culture today. The class culture is particularly visible in their conspicuous consumption. Conspicuous consumption is an expenditure of luxuries and unnecessary goods to demonstrate one’s wealth and power. In the example of limited edition souvenirs, having those items from a rural area shows that your family is wealthy enough to travel. A better example of conspicuous consumption is a luxury brand bag. On open class days in Japan where parents get to observe children’s typical school day, you will witness many moms with expensive brand bags from Hermes Birkin and Louis Vuitton. This is driven by their desire to show off their family’s class and culture. Supreme has the same effect as those brand bags for the younger generation. Through the red box logo, they show off their resources that allowed them to get a hold of those rare, luxurious items.
Now, I want you to imagine the same scene I mentioned in the beginning of this essay again. That scene I mentioned was the inspiration for James Jebbia took when he was making the brand. In the interview James Jebbia did with GQ, he mentions that the origin of Supreme was to make cool clothes for skaters, representing young people’s rebellious, bold attitudes. Jebbia says, “[young skaters in New York] wouldn’t all wear just the typical stuff. It’s the way people would mix it up. And I think that’s really what we try to do, just mix it up… We just tried to make what we thought was the coolest shit we could make… You don’t have to be stuck in a box, whatever you’re into”.
I believe many Japanese consumers overlook this origin of Supreme when they purchase their items. Are they buying those goods to be an unique self, or is it because wearing the red box logo indicates their wealth and power? When they’re in line in front of the Supreme store, are they trying to be rebellious, or are they conforming to the class culture? The answer is most likely the second ones. Although globalization has helped brands like Supreme to reach more audiences in the world, the origin of Supreme could not reach the audience like those clothing items. Globalization may allow objects to spread and become more popular, but invisible things such as hidden meaning and criticism may not translate well into different parts of the world that lives with different cultures.
The success of supreme in Japan is due to its business model’s appeal to the citizen’s consumption style there, which has a deep root in the history of class culture. While the design may be simple, Supreme as a brand symbolizes a bigger meaning there: the customer’s affluence to win the competition and acquire an expensive, rare item. This unfortunately is ironic, since Supreme was inspired by the individual, rebellious atmosphere that young skaters have. While those pieces of clothing cross across the borders, the origination may be lost in translation, and the new meaning will arise at the destination.
