the flagofsupremeisthe flag
of
my
enemy

On Monday, August 13 2018 Supreme “collaborated” with
the New York Post1 creating a sort of crazy meta uber-newyork cover wrap (i.e. advertisement) for the day’s edition. I
was researching and writing the first draft of this essay as
it happened, a couple time zones away in Japan. Not that itmatters much, but do you know how many Supreme stores
there are in the world? Do you know how many of those are in
Japan? Eleven and six, respectively. What does this say about
consumerism? The consumers (or as one poll put it: “mostdesirable brand for upper-income teens”)?
If there is one thing I’ll grant to Supreme it's that the brandhas somehow transcended the borders between blatant corporatism, culture appropriation, and super-consumerism. In
the process it has become somewhat immune to a coherent
critique. Anything negative or confrontational about the brandis absorbed, deflected, even re-purposed into another selling
point. The way we talk and write about the store and its power
seems to always be in the exceptional; SUPREME CAN DO
NO WRONG.
For my part, I’d honestly rather not waste the breath. Plus,as they say, all press is good press, and in this case justprinting the word seems to already improve their ever-fertile
situation.
But the reason I want to discuss it and analyze its authority
is because like any other well-oiled machine of shamelessgreed, vanity, and waste, it deserves to be dismantled. And I
think that the most apt group to do this is the same one that letthemselves be so embarrassingly duped and appropriated in
the first place; skateboarders themselves.

Just think about this; James Jebbia did not and does not,skateboard. From the very start (and by his own words) he
used skateboarders and skateboarding because it was the“cool” thing at the time. If you think this fact is superfluous justtry to picture the brand minus the skateboarding. Its ongoing
popularity and staying power is due in large part and perhaps
entirely to the creative energy, style, and culture of street
skating. This includes of course the countless skaters, skate
photographers and videographers who have and continue tocontribute to what is basically a never-ending “street culture”
advertisement campaign.
All this despite the fact that skateboarding is not evenon the fringe or periphery of mainstream culture anymore.
This isn’t really an opinion. There’s no other reason the
Carlyle Group sought and bought a 50% stake in the brand.
Skateboarding is hot. But it’s also so cool. And a brand like
Supreme that tries so incredibly hard to appear like it is nottrying so incredibly hard is by all accounts the coolest.
The Carlyle deal was kept under wraps out of fear for damaging the “street cred2” Supreme boasts. But honestly, doesit even matter? Are there really street credentials to damage
if it never came from the streets in the first place? Chains like
Zumiez sell skateboards and skateboard related soft goods
too, in fact they carry much of the same exact product. So why
do we, as skaters, readily mock and boycott the likes of suchchains while putting Supreme on a pedestal? Essentially, they
operate with the same business acumen, no? They just use
the image of skateboarders and skateboarding to sell it to theherds.
With our generations’ unquenchable lust for more, with our
cynical and ironic dispositions about everything and everyone,
where all news is fake news and the cult-of-self dominates,
Supreme is the shining red reflection of our infantilized, drooling selves.
So if skateboarders still possess any sense ideas like“rebellion”, “anti-establishment”, or at the very least “independence”, doesn’t Supreme represent the antithesis? Isn’t the
only sensible way to talk about Supreme to start with “FuckSupreme”? Why do we need some fashion-minded kook todictate and perpetuate “drops”? Or some mindless celebrities and ultra famous artists to lend their “collaborations”?
Why do we need perfect wooden bowls to be constructed as
set pieces inside of stores and given access only to the most
exclusive? Since when did skateboarding become so exclusive
anyway?
Skateboarding can be and still is subversive. It can undermine the system, break the rules, and threaten the status quo.
It has nothing to benefit from Supreme while conversely, Supreme has everything to gain. So let’s take back skateboardingfrom the brand. Let’s make that distinction again; on one sideus, the skaters, and on the other them, the poseurs. The flag ofSupreme is the flag of my enemy. Put that on a t-shirt.

1) Reading about the New York Post thing and its subsequent media reverberations was a bit much. I felt disgusted and exhausted.
Every time I clicked on a new Supreme article I felt like it was assisting the brand somehow. It’s clear what a circus this whole thing
is. The way we write about Supreme is utterly absurd and surreal
at the same time. There’s touches of religious fanaticism, juvenile
obsession, and passionate subjectivity. We get it. You think everyone thinks its cool. Anyway, this original writing was planned to bemuch longer but I felt I was not getting anywhere. Hence the visual
essay that follows.
2) As in: “According to WWD’s sources, the deal was kept underwraps because Jebbia feared if the sum became public knowledge,
it could hurt the street cred Supreme has meticulously cultivatedsince its establishment.” This is the same street cred that, for example, tried to wash and clean away their tagged Layfayette storefront
after being confronted with an honest challenge from graffiti writer
Kidult the night before. From Kidult: “Supreme likes the streetsand graffiti? I put them the test. Graffiti, street culture, is taken out
of its context. Today, these brands make it luxurious and superficial, pointless. They try to intellectualize the practice by eliminating its crude essence, and that’s too bad.”2018年8月13日月曜日、SupremeはNew York Post*1とのコラボレーショ
ンでメタ・ウーバー・ニューヨークな表紙(いわゆる広告)を飾った。ちょうどその頃私は日本でこのエッセイのためのリサーチと最初の草稿を書き進めていた。たいして驚くことでもないが、世界中のSupremeの総店舗数のうち日本には何店舗あるかをご存知だろうか？計11店舗のうち6店舗が日本にあるという。この数字が世界の消費主義について語ることは何だろう。日本の消費者について？または高所得の若者にとって最も望ましいブランドについて?
Supremeに関して強いて言うなら、露骨なコーポラティズム、文化の流用、超消費者主義の境界線をどういうわけか超越したブランドだということ。後をついて回る批判に対してもいくらか免疫がついたのか彼らは動じない。ブランドに対する否定的・対立的なものは全て吸収され、歪められ、それどころかブランドの新しいセールスポイントとして再利用されたりもする。意義を持って彼らについていくら書いたり話したりしたところで例外扱いされてしまうのだ―何があっても「正しいのはSupremeだ」と。
正直言って、私も息の無駄遣いはしたくはない。「すべての批評は良い批評」と彼らが言うように、ここで私が自分の言葉を印刷したところでその肥沃な土地にまた水を与えるようなものだろう。
しかしそれでも私が彼らについて議論しその権威を分析したい理由は、油を注いだ機械のように暴走する恥知らずの欲望、虚栄心、無駄の塊を解体する価値は確実にあるからだ。そしてその役目を果たすべきなのは他でもない、初めから彼らに騙され利用されることに身を委ねたスケー
トボーダー自身だと私は思う。
考えてみてほしい。Supremeの創設者ジェームズ・ジェビアはスケー
トボードをしたことがない。彼は当時の“クール”なものとして最初からスケートボーダーとスケートボードを利用したのだ(実際に彼自身がそう語った)。この事実が過剰だと思う人は果たしてスケートボードの要素を取り除いたSupremeを想像できるのだろうか。このブランドの継続的な人気とパワーの理由はおそらく、いや完全にストリートスケ
ートのカルチャーが持つ創造的なエネルギーやスタイルが大部分だと言える。これにはもちろん、終わりのないストリート・カルチャー広告
キャンペーンに貢献する数え切れない数のスケーター、スケートフォト
グラファー、ビデオグラファーの活躍も含まれている。

スケートボードは今やメインストリーム・カルチャーの周縁や周辺にあるものではない。これはもはや意見ではなく、事実だ。カーライル・グ
ループ(アメリカの大手投資ファンド)がSupremeの株50%を購入した理由が他にあるだろうか。スケートボードは最高に“ホット”で“クール”なのである。中でも必死に“必死じゃないふり”をするSupremeのようなブランドが今一番かっこいいのだ。
カーライル・グループとの取引はブランドが持つストリートの信用*2 を傷つける恐れがあるため、あまり公にはされていなかった。しかし正直なところ、今更何を隠す必要がある？そもそもストリートから来ていないのに、ストリートの何を守りたいというのだろうか？スケートボー
ドや関連グッズの大量生産品を販売するという点ではZumiezのようなチェーン店も同じだ。なぜ我々スケーターはこのようなチェーンは簡単に嘲笑しボイコットする一方で、Supremeを崇めたて続けるのだろう。
本質的には同じビジネスじゃないか？彼らは大衆相手の商売のためにスケートボーダーとスケートボードのイメージを利用しているだけだ。
フェイクニュースと過剰な自己愛が支配するこの世界で、我々の世代は抑えられない欲望にまみれながら全ての事に対してシニカルで皮肉な姿
勢を取ることしかできない。Supremeの存在はヨダレを垂らしながら幼児化していく我々自身の姿を映し出している。

＊1 New York Postの話題とそれに対するメディアの反応はちょっと過剰だった。私はうんざりして疲れてしまったし、Supremeについての新
しい記事をクリックするたびにこのブランドを何かで支援しているような気持ちになった。この騒ぎが全てただの“サーカス”であることは明らかだ。世間がSupremeについて書くときはいつでもまったく不条理でだからこそ思う。もしスケートボーダーが「反乱」「反体制」あるいは
少なくとも「独立」のような感覚やアイディアをまだ持っているなら
Supremeはそれら全てとの対立を表していないか？Supremeについて話すのならば“Fuck Supreme”で始めるのがもっとも道理的なのでは？
なぜファッション志向の変人が指示するグラフィティが必要なんだ？
あるいはくだらない有名人や超有名なアーティストとの“コラボレー
ション”が？なぜ完璧な木製のボウルをセットピースとして店内に建設
して上流の人しかアクセスできないようにする？そもそもスケートボー
ドはいつからこんなに排他的で高級な存在になった？

現実的じゃない。宗教的な熱狂、子供っぽい執着心、情熱的な主観性がにじみ出ている。もうわかったからそろそろ勘弁してほしい。誰もがそれを“クール”と感じると、思っているんだろう？とにかく。この執筆を始めた時はもっと長くなる予定だったが、結局どこにも行き着かないと感じたため、このあとは視覚的エッセイで終わろうと思う。
＊2

WWDの情報源によると、ジェビアは総額が公になりSupremeが設立以来慎重に耕してきたストリートの信用に傷がつくことを恐れた
ため、グループとの契約を未公開にしていた。彼が信じるストリートの信用とは何か？それは例えばグラフィティ・アーティストのKidultがニューヨークのSupreme店頭に率直な挑戦状をスプレーで投下したそのスケートボードは依然として破壊的だ。システムを弱体化させ、ルールを破り、今ある現状を脅かす力を持っている。Supremeから受ける恩恵は何一つとして無いが、Supremeはすでに全てを手にしているのだ。
彼らからスケートボードを取り戻そう。もう一度その違いをはっきりさせよう。我々スケートボーダーと、目立ちたがり屋の彼らとの違いを。
Tシャツにはこう書こう、「Supremeの旗は敵の旗だ」と。

翌日に洗ってきれいにしようとした彼らの行動をよく考えてみればわかるはずだ。Kidultは言う。「Supremeはストリートやグラフィティが好きだって？私は彼らをテストしてみた。グラフィティやストリート・カ
ルチャーは、もはやその言葉の意味を失っている。これらのブランドが贅沢で表面的で無意味なものにしてしまったのだ。彼らはその純粋な本質を取り除くことによって知性化しようとするが、それはひどい」

“The line is the new community,”
Glancing at them furtively, one petitioner stammered:“I can’t talk to you. I’m going to getthrown off the line.”“The possibility ofnever getting in is
exciting,”
Warholmused.
“But after
that, waiting to getin is themost exciting.”
Travelingin packs has additional perks.

“You can’t find this stuff at Bloomingdale’s or Macy’s,” said a 40-something, suede-clad man at Supreme,
too press-shy to provide his name.
“I like the exclusiveness of people always seeing me and saying, ‘Wow.’ It’s

“ The death of the shopping center has
created this void in kids’ lives, ”

kind of like beinga movie star.”

The store began to grow in popularity and Jebbia’s decision to stick to usingskaters as staff worked in his favour. They
were arrogant and cocky, but just the rightamount of it. Does James Jebbia skate?
No, but what does it even matter. He hascreated one of the best businesses in theworld thanks to his commitment to sticking

to a strong aesthetic and vision based on
skating, and people love it regardless.
“we just want to make really great-looking
clothes that are well-made, fit well… that you canskate in. It’s just about rebellious youth who areinto cool shit.”
So I was like, “Okay, cool, maybe I’ll do a skate shop.” It costme, like, $12,000 to open the store. Rent was two grand. It
was like, “Hey, if we do five grand a week, then great!”Supreme was founded in 1994 by

James Jebbia and is catered to skaters.
There’s an air of mystery about the brand,
and Jebbia gives few media interviews.
Nike, Adidas, and Vans are all well represented in the shoe rack. These are thethree most popular brands among younger
consumers, and it’s further evidence that
Supreme is plugged into what’s hot.
The shop also sells skate gear likedecks and trucks — an obvious nod to its
roots serving skateboarders.

The experience of shopping in
Supreme kind of feels more likea parody of a store, and I can’t
help but feel that’s by design.
There’s no way to tell who is inon the joke, but with Supreme’s
new $1 billion valuation, it nolonger matters — Supreme is demanding to be taken seriously.

This was New York pre-internet, pre-mobile phones, pre-gentrification... Pre Rudy
Giuliani bringing out the NYPD street-sweepers and cleaning up the city. Aaron Rose was
showcasing the emerging new generation ofstateside art and photography talent in his
Alleged Gallery. That summer, photographer
Larry Clark documented the downtown tearaways in his epochal movie Kids, scripted
by a teenage Harmony Karine. It was also theyear James Jebbia opened the doors to his
Supreme skate store on Lafayette Street in
downtown Manhattan, in its own way also an
incredible NY moment. Without realising it,
Jebbia managed to bottle the energy of the cityand the style of the streets with his skate andfashion brand.

The brand’s effortless logo
- a Barbara Kruger-influenced
red box surrounding a whiteblock typeface - is an iconic emblem for a worldwide
gang as recognisable as the
LV monogram or Hells Angels’rocker for those who know.

“We’re big fans of Radiohead, and welike a bit of art,” said Mr. Gamble, thepreening owner of a “pill shirt,” a Supreme item influenced by a signature artwork by Damien Hirst.

shell glasses. He told me, ‘I’m a lawyer
meeting with a client, but I want first to
get a sweatshirt here.’”“I like Supreme,” he said, shrugging, “butthey could be Old Navy as long as it helps
pay my rent.”“One time I saw a guy with a threepiece suit,” Mr. DeLeon said. “He was
wearing immaculate Moscot tortoise-

The peak experience: going social
with your trophy. “Once you have it,”he said, “you get to snap it a couple oftimes on Instagram.” And after? “It’s onto the next thing,” he said.

The New York Post is a Rupert
Murdoch-owned, right-leaning newspaper that has lent
its support to several of Donald Trump’s policies in thepast. Compare and contrast
that with Supreme, which recently donated a percentage
of T-shirt sales to families
affected by the president’s
anti-immigration policies. In
this year’s collection even, Supreme paid tribute to former
Democrat president Barack
Obama with a selection of colorful beanies.
Now, by plastering its logo
over the Post’s front page, you
could argue the skate brandhas essentially taken a piss ona publication it stands ideologically opposed to. A bit likegraffitiing a right-wing mural.
In this dynamic, Supreme isthe heretic interloper that has
penetrated the establishment.
Additionally, Supreme would
have been aware of how coveted the newspaper would
be upon release. The factthat it’s managed to turn it into
a commodity could be read asa veiled barb at Trump’s brandof capitalism.
It also raises the age-old
question that has plagued
Supreme from the start, but
especially since the brand’s$1 billion valuation just under a year ago: is the brandthe high-concept fashionm e et s - a r t- m e et s - s kat i n g
project that its most loyal fansclaim it is? Or is it simply acynical albeit brilliant marketing play on Supreme’s partthat speaks to James Jebbia’sprescient knowledge of thecurrent and future media landscape?

Last but not least, the collaboration
gives everyone (in the Big Apple atleast) the chance to finally own aSupreme product. In comparison
with this week’s run, last year’s
MetroCard activation almost seems
like a playful experiment. Whilethat collaborative product was only
available at a few subway stations
across the city.

Monday’s New York Post could be picked up at nearly every newsstand and bodega in
the city — provided you were quick enough.

“He told me he needed more,” Mr. Ali, who sells
the paper for $1 on weekdays, said. “I told
him ‘I don’t have any more!’”“We knew that this would be a collector’s item,”said Jesse Angelo, the paper’s publisher.
“Supreme is such a cool brand and we have somuch affinity, to the design kinship of the logos, tobeing bold, and never shy, and New York-based.”
Mr. Angelo was hesitant to say who from thesecretive team behind Supreme had approached the newspaper.
“I just want to make sure we don’t want run afoul
of our new friends and partners,” he said.

“Slap a Supreme logo on it, and it
will fly off the shelves, literally nomatter what it is.”I really liked all of the hard goods—
the decks, the wheels, the trucks.
But all of the clothing that the skatecompanies put out was crap. These
companies had to sell to a wide rangeof people, and a lot of them were very
young. When people think of skaters,
they think of, like, the 12- or 13- or
14-year-old kid. But in New York, it
was the 18-to-24-year-old hardcore kid
who wasn’t wearing any skate stuff.
They’d wear a hat or whatever, butthey wouldn’t wear the clothing,because it would fit badly and was bad
quality, and skaters want to look goodand pick up girls.

GO: How did you get big in Japan? Was it
Japanese kids coming here and then taking stuff back with them?
JJ: Yeah. Do you go to Japan much?
GO: I used to go a lot. I’m dying to go
back.
JJ: I go maybe once a year and I always get
inspired. I think what happened was, rightwhen we were starting, there was a little
scene building up in Japan. There were a
few new Japanese brands starting up foryoung people. Now, they don’t need any
more product out there, but if it’s something that’s legitimate, then I think they’revery keen to embrace it. So our eyes were
never on Japan. It was more like—

JJ: Yeah. We never pandered to the Japanese customer. We still don’t. It’s more like
we’re just trying to make stuff for that real
pain-in-the-ass, picky New York kid. And I
think that the kids in Japan could see thatand say, “Okay, yeah, that’s legit. There’s
nothing else quite like that going on.”
GO: Japanese connoisseurship is so interesting. There’s this great, educated taste.
Last night, I was lying in bed with my wife,
watching the football game. She was on
her laptop
and she said,“The Japanese are
ruining theceramics
market!” I
said, “What?”
She’s really
into modern design, and I guess a lot of
the modernist stuff she collects has gone
through the roof because the Japaneseare buying it now. She said, “Our plates
have gone up five times in price!”

When we
opened in Paris, we opened in
the Marais. And
when we opened in
London, it was inSoho. These aren’t,
like, edgy places. These are places where people—and young people—hang out. We don’t
like to be in places where people don’t go.
Elsewhere, Jebbia explains to Supreme’sfollowers the reasoning behind not opening up more company stores. “We’re here
for the long haul. A big shop in Manhattan
would feel like we were betraying our roots.”
When James Jebbia opened Supreme in1994, he didn’t think his little New Yorkskate shop would become the globally
recognized streetwear powerhouse it
is today. “I also didn’t expect Trump to
be fucking president,” he says over thephone, hours before he’ll open Supreme’s
eleventh freestanding store in theworld—just its third in the United States,and second in New York City.
“But honestly, most people I know either skate
or ride a bike across the bridge anyway.”

So when I do seea line in front of
the store, I’m like,“Cool. People still
like the stuff.”Text quoted from the following at random:https://theidleman.com/manual/life/who-is-james-jebbia/
https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/supreme-james-jebbia-interview
https://www.interviewmagazine.com/fashion/james-jebbia-is-supreme
https://hypebeast.com/2017/10/james-jebbia-supreme-brooklyn-interview
https://www.highsnobiety.com/2013/05/02/artist-barbara-kruger-responds-to-the-supreme-lawsuit/
https://vimeo.com/25111500
https://www.highsnobiety.com/2011/07/14/talking-graffiti-with-kidult/
https://www.highsnobiety.com/2013/05/02/artist-barbara-kruger-responds-to-the-supreme-lawsuit/
https://www.highsnobiety.com/2011/07/14/talking-graffiti-with-kidult/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/13/style/supreme-new-york-post.html
https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/supreme-new-york-post-opinion/
https://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-post-supreme-ad-resaleprice-skyrockets-2018-8
https://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-store-location-price-review-2017-10
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/03/fashion/waiting-in-line-supremestreetwear-merch.html

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