Essay three

“Why Are so Many People Obsessed with Supreme”

Supreme is a staple clothing brand that indicates a person of being a “hypebeast”, an intended derogatory term for someone who follows big trends in fashion, mainly streetwear. Supreme started and still is a brand for skaters but has now evolved to being one of the biggest streetwear brands in the world with hundreds of people lining up outside of their stores to buy items with some people having the intention of reselling on the secondary market for twice the original price or even higher at most times and people do eventually purchase these secondary market items from Supreme for the hype.

Yet why are people so obsessed with Supreme many would say it’s due to hype from celebrities wearing the brand, but whatever it is, the brand is growing with more and more stores opening every year. With all this hype around the brand come people who resell on the secondary market for large amounts of money and people willing to pay for a hoodie that was bought for $150 then resold for $1000 or more with only having the brand’s logo on the front many people who do not know of the culture see this as a waste of money yet there have always been collectors for anything from dolls to coins or currency or old comics.

This article by Clifton seems to be against the culture of streetwear and bashes the idea of paying high amounts of money as soon as it is released at the store or on the resale market saying people will “bid themselves into bankruptcy” and I do not agree with Clifton for the most part. Clifton sees Supreme as a waste of money I see it as a culture I am very fond of. Supreme to me is a great clothing brand with good quality clothing but I don’t just like Supreme for it being a nice brand but also for the value of some of the clothing has even after being worn I have been able to sell clothing I’ve bought from Supreme that has already been worn for double the price I paid for it. I see this hyped brand as an investment on clothes and a good way to get people into recycling their clothes and taking care of their clothing because if someone bought a shirt they paid $48 or more that person is more likely to take better care of that shirt and eventually resell it for more or around the same price but if that same person bought a low quality  $10 shirt from a sweatshop in China there is no resale value on that shirt and will eventually end up in a landfill there would be no care for the shirt and just be a waste of materials and money. Clifton does not see this and believes what he says is right, but Clifton has not seen the other side the side that is right the side that will help the environment though not everyone is going to want pay $48 or more for a shirt unless it’s a collector but Supreme has the right idea as well as other brands to make  high quality clothing that people will better care for.

Work Cited

Clifton, Jamie. “Why Are So Many People Obsessed with Supreme?” Vice, 19 July 2016, www.vice.com/en_us/article/5gq393/supreme-and-the-psychology-of-brand-devotion.