Supreme has just been sold to Essilorluxottica, four years after the streetwear label was bought by VF Corporation in 2020. The move follows VF Corp’s falling revenues, which declined 34.5 per cent so far this year, with Supreme’s revenue also down by 6.8 per cent in 2023.
VF Corp bought Supreme for $2.1 billion in 2020, at what felt like the peak of streetwear in its most commercial sense, following numerous collaborations between the New York streetwear label and luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton and Rimowa. When the news of Supreme’s first sale to VF Corp was announced, many felt like it was the death of the brand and the final death knell of the label’s lingering downtown cool.
Despite this, Supreme has continued to kick up a storm across the worlds of streetwear and fashion, including a recent Maison Margiela MM6 link-up that sold out instantly – in true 2016 style.
Keep reading for the full lowdown on Supreme’s latest acquisition.
The numbers
VF Corp bought Supreme for $2.1 billion in 2020. However, it sold the label to EssilorLuxottica in a deal worth $1.5 billion, meaning that VF Corp sold the label for less than they initially paid for it. Interestingly, Supreme is the first streetwear label in the eyewear conglomerate EssilorLuxottica’s portfolio, which distributes Ray-Ban, Prada, and Oakley sunglasses. In a joint statement from EssilorLuxottica’s chief executive Francesco Milleri and deputy Paul du Saillant, they saw the move as an “incredible opportunity to bring Supreme” on board.
A shifting fashion landscape
Between 2016 and 2018, Supreme reached peak Supreme. It was easier to get into Buckingham Palace than the brand’s London store, and everything sold out. Thanks to scarce supply and massive demand, there was a healthy resale market, with items featuring the brand’s fabled box logo often fetching more than double their retail price.
At this point, Supreme was still being worn by the annoying cool skaters, models, and IT Girls, including Chloë Sevigny and Lourdes Leon (who featured in its 2020 Jean Paul Gaultier collaboration), with rappers such as Travis Scott flying the flag for rare box logos, helping push the brand further into the zeitgeist.
New stores in new locations
Under VF Corp, Supreme’s brick-and-mortar retail operations expanded rapidly, with new stores opening in Milan, Berlin, Chicago, Seoul, and Shanghai, with its LA outpost moved to a new location in the years since the sale. These new store openings made Supreme easier to get hold of and removed a layer of scarcity that made it so cool to so many.
Is Supreme dead?
People have been calling Supreme dead for years, even before its first acquisition by VF Corp, with many seeing this popularity as the nail in the coffin. With revenues of $523.1 million reported for the year ended March 2023, down from $561.5 million in the same period the year before, according to parent company VF Corp’s annual report, Supreme’s cultural appeal appears to have lost its edge. Admittedly, for a label that has built an image around subculture and downtown skate rats, billion-dollar deals do feel at odds with the image presented to consumers. Whether or not this is the nail in the coffin for Supreme is yet to be seen.
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