The first Supreme NYC collaboration with Nike were the infamous cement-print Dunk SBs. They released back in 2002, which, hard to believe as it may seem, was only 13 years ago. There was no online release, not even an on-line release if you know what I mean (back then beach chairs were for the beach). I eventually got my pair, which I still have, although at this point—with holes in the lining and a soap-shoe slick outsole—they’re more or less retired. They were made available a few dozen pairs at a time, and lasted for quite a while.
“is it limited?” became a more important question than “what does it look like?”
This is not how things work anymore.
The latest Nike x Supreme drop, five colorways of the canvas GTS tennis shoe, sold out online even before the “Online Shop Update” e-mail hit inboxes at 11 a.m. yesterday. Nevermind that first leaked images of the release were met with disdain, or that a general Nike release of the GTS would be certain outlet fodder: Supreme x Nike is an event, one that sees confirmation e-mails listed on eBay.
It makes one wonder who is actually buying the shoes for the shoes.
How far could Supreme go? Very far, I’m guessing. Try this as a thought experiment: What if the next Supreme x Nike drop was kept secret not just until the week before the release, but FOR the release. What if the only image was a box logo on a box, the only information “Nike x Supreme” and the size, for $100. Model unknown.
Would you still buy? Maybe you wouldn’t, but plenty of people still would. In fact, I’d venture to say that kind of release would sell out just as fast as the GTSs did.
Go further. What if you not only didn’t know what model you were getting, but were shipped a random size as well? Would that stop you? It would eliminate those who were buying shoes to actually wear, but psh, who does that anymore anyway? (It would also vastly simplify Supreme’s online store—one click buying!) Again, the buying pool would shrink, but not to the point where they wouldn’t sell out immediately.
This could extend to in-store purchases, too—"We’re just going to grab a random pair out of the back, still want them?" Who says no?
I kind of hope I’m wrong, that most people would pass. But that’s a rational hope, and it’s abundantly clear that the sneaker market is anything but rational these days. In barely more than a decade, Supreme went from being able to sell Dunks in a carefully meted-out manner to not being able to sell their Nike collabs in their NYC location at all. (Somewhere in there “is it limited?” became a more important question than “what does it look like?”).
Would a “take whatever we give you and like it” sales approach make this any better? Not really. But the simple fact that it probably wouldn’t slow sales should make everyone take a step back and consider what the hell they’re doing.
Russ Bengtson is a senior editor at Complex. 'The Russ Report' appears every Friday and you can read previous columns here.
