Muhammad Ali once said: “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will never accomplish anything in life.” And by the taking of risk is how Supreme became successful.
James Jebbia is the founder and CEO of Supreme, a skateboarder, and hip-hop urban clothing fashion brand. Started in 1994, Supreme is a confluence of hip-hop and skateboard culture. Widely popular for its uniquely distinctive high urban fashion designs. The initial premise of Supreme was to be an alternative to traditional west coast centric skateboarder fashion design. Later it evolved into a high-end posh urban streetwear brand.
Since its inception, supreme was remarkably successful. To date, it valued at over $2.3 billion.
The secret to Supreme’s success seemingly resulted from their strategic decision to under manufacturer their products. As a result, consumer demand are strategically rebuffed, rejected, and neglected. And consequently, these paradoxes drive demand further up. However, the main reason for Supreme’s success is rather simple, and yet amazingly clever.
Supreme emerged during the 1990s where the fashion market was oversaturated with urban streetwear clothiers brands including Sean John, Phat Farm, Karl Kani, Rocawear, Marc Echo, and FUBU.
A marked feature of urban streetwear was oversized logos, icons, and fonts. A clothing company’s logo was often prominently displayed on shirts, pants, jackets, hoodies, hats, and sweaters specifically to enhance brand recognition. A tactic referred to as advertisement integration. This occurs when an advert is stealthy -integrated into the product itself. In the case of fashion, this strategy where it is effectively employed pays huge reoccurring dividends. The wearer of the clothing is essentially a free billboard.
While some, exclusively urban, fashion brands experienced some moderate success during the 90s . Ultimately they were subsumed by competitive over saturation. While some executives aim was to exploit urban culture by way of
laser beam profit-driving focus, Supreme built bridges and refined culture.
As stated previously, Supreme began as a skateboarder clothing brand. But James recognized that the love of skateboarding and high fashion was a resilient thread binding urban black youth, and suburban white youth together. James Jebbia effectively employed skateboard fanatics and hip hop enthusiasts as witting brand ambassadors. He used their shared fashion sensibilities to mesh their worlds together. James made unconventional collaborations with Japanese contemporary artist Takeshi Murakami, English artist and Art collector Damien Hirst, and Cultural artist and sculptor Jeff Koons.
Now, here are three key takeaways to growing your brand
First, take risks and make stuff you can be proud of. Do not do things to stay alive. When you take chances and risk good things can happen. James says “not enough people take a risk, and when you do, people respond”.
Second, be forward-looking. Don’t get comfortable think steps ahead. Go into the future, then plan backward.
And lastly, build bridges. Bridges can bring people together plus serve as a means of accessing previously untapped resources whether in business, arts, music, or culture.