Supreme Apparel Case Study Analysis
INTRODUCTION
Supreme is an American skateboarding shop and clothing brand established
in New York City in April 1994. The brand caters to the skateboarding, hip hop,
and rock cultures, as well as to the youth culture in general. The brand produces clothes
and accessories and also manufactures skateboards. Its shoes, clothing, and accessories
are sold extensively in the secondary market.
The distinctive red box logo with "Supreme" in white Futura Heavy Oblique is largely
based on Barbara Kruger's propaganda art.
The brand was founded by James Jebbia. Although he was born in the United
States, he lived in England until he was 19. Jebbia has no title within the company.
The first Supreme store opened in an old office space on Lafayette Street in
downtown Manhattan in April 1994. It was designed with skaters in mind with a unique
design for the store layout: by arranging the clothes around the perimeter of the store, a
large central space permitted skaters with backpacks to skate into the store and still feel
comfortable. This store had its core group of skaters who served as its team in
1994, which included late actors Justin Pierce and Harold Hunter, and the first employees
were extras from the Larry Clark film Kids.
In 2004, a second location was opened on North Fairfax Ave in Los Angeles, California,
which is nearly double the size of the original New York City store and features an
indoor skate bowl. Other locations include Paris Opening in March
2016, London Opening in September
2011, Tokyo (Harajuku, Daikanyama and Shibuya), Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka. The
additional locations emulate the original Lafayette Street store's design; stores feature
rotating art displays, and use videos and music to attract attention.
Supreme stocks its own clothing label, as well as other skateboard brands such
as Vans, Nike SB, Spitfire, Thrasher and Girl Distribution Company, among
others. James Jebbia was quoted in saying that anything that Supreme releases will never
be classified as "limited," but notes that they make short runs of their products because
they "don't want to get stuck with stuff nobody wants."
On October 5, 2017, Supreme opened their 11th store—the second one in New York City
—in the Williamsburg neighbourhood of Brooklyn. On October 6, 2017, James Jebbia
confirmed that the label had sold a significant stake in the company of roughly 50%
(around $500 million) to private equity firm The Carlyle Group.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The purpose of this study is to know the cause of the boom of the street wear titan,
SUPREME apparel.
This study is aiming to determine what made the brand successful so that the
strategies implemented by the brand could be further improved. This study will mainly
focus on the Supreme apparel’s marketing mix (product, distribution channels, price, and
promotion). This study will help enhance the brand’s current market capitalization and
the overall satisfaction of the customers.
To be more specific, this study sought to answer this questions:
1. What value do their merchandise give to the customers?
2. What distribution channels do they use?
3. What are the pricing strategies the business implements?
4. What promotional strategies does the business use?
POINT OF VIEW
The goal of this study is to breakdown the marketing mix of supreme so that small
businesses or brand can replicate their success, So The point of view of this study is
either through the eyes of a business consultant(A consultant (from Latin: consultare "to
discuss") is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area
such as security (electronic or physical), management, accountancy, law, human
resources, marketing (and public relations), finance, engineering, science or any of many
other specialized fields.) Whose goal is to recommend strategies to his/her clients or a
small business owner looking to replicate the strategies implemented by the brand to
expand or scale his business.
TIME CONTEXT
The time context will be back when the Supreme boomed which is back in June of
2016 where the brand became known to people and when the search volume started to
rise.
STATEMENT OF THE OBJECTIVES
These are the goals which this study hopes to achieve.
