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New York based skate company Supreme
has become an underground global phenomenon since the doors first
opened on Lafayette in 1992. Ten years later Supreme
is stronger than ever. Mad money is being exchanged for the classic
box logo T; aficionados can tell which number one of their backpacks
are; Japanese magazines dedicate countless pages to their wares. A
fashion label has certainly made it once it even has fakes popping up
(including the aforementioned backpacks!) So who is the man at the
top? Englishman James Jebbia. He kindly gave me some of his time to
answer a couple of questions....
What's your opinion on the secondary market of Supreme
products (whether it be on eBay or in one of the many boutiques in Harajuku)?
JJ: I don¹t like it very much simply because we
try our best to make our clothing affordable for young people, after
all Supreme is a skate brand &
when I do see our things on ebay the prices are normally at least
double what they should be. Basically I don¹t like people
getting jacked for a T-shirt. I much prefer if someone buys something
from us that they plan on wearing it & not selling .
How did the Downlows come about?
JJ: Just through us trying to come up with a simple
sneaker that represents our look.
Boxing imagery has features frequently in your
prints etc. Who's the boxing fan then?
JJ: I’m a BIG Ali fan & find him to be an
awesome inspiration as a person as well as an incredible boxer.
Is the whole Supreme
team involved with the range of products?
JJ: There's a few heads who work on the stuff but not
everyone, too many cooks!! You no the rest.
Any plans for an action figure?
JJ: Not at this moment
How does the whole Japanese magazine thing work?
The Supreme team often are
there modelling in the pages of Boon etc. - do you contact them or do
they contact you?
JJ: I’m not sure really, my partner in Japan
handles all of that. It seems to me though that Japanese magazines
embrace underground culture much more so than European & American
magazines do. In terms of the team modelling in the magazines etc
that happens because people in Japan appreciate that we are a New
York based company & we do our best to convey that whenever
possible, so the crew from NY go out whenever its needed.
July2002
Thanks go to James Jebbia for giving me his time to
answer these questions. Man, if only I'd asked him about the Supreme Dunks...... |
The Supreme Team frequently appear in the Japanese
streetwear & lifestyle magazines.
Double names have included BAPE, SSUR & Tokion.
Chief Editor of Relax, Hitoshi Okamoto reported in an
interview for HK book Sky-H that the Supreme issue was one of their
best selling issues |