Without doubt, you know the brand Supreme and Supreme’s products. But do you know the story behind it all? Read on and find out how Supreme was founded, what history and influence the brand has, and how it has grown from a small skate shop in New York City, with the ambition of being the hang-out spot for local youths, to being a world-famous name, to finally being sold for literally billions of dollars.
Supreme was founded by James Jebbia in New York City in April 1994, but it was a multibrand store before it developed into the brand as we know it today.
James Jebbia is not American ¬– originally, he’s from Crawley, West Sussex, in England. As a teenager in the 80s, he was putting in hours at a Duracell factory for extra cash, and the money he made there was spent at a specific London store. The store carried apparel with the right look and the right quality, worn by well-informed and real people.
At 18, James moved from England to SoHo in New York City to work in the Parachute store. After a few years of working at Parachute, he opened the store Union, which primarily sold British brands and streetwear. The business was going well, but when Union started carrying Stüssy it took off. On the side, James helped running a Stüssy shop, but at one point Shawn Stussy (the founder and designer behind Stüssy) decided to pull out. “What do I do now?”, James thought. He had always liked the skate community and culture, as it had an edge and more of a ‘fuck you’-attitude.
So, he decided to open his own skate shop at Lafayette Street in New York City. James used a minimalistic approach when decorating the store, and the Supreme stores still have a minimalistic look, and in the store, there was a monitor with videos constantly playing – everything from Mohammad Ali’s boxing fights to the movie Taxi Driver – to get the passers-by to wake up. Today these monitors can be found in most of the Supreme stores.
The store quickly developed into a spot for the neighborhood’s cool kids and skaters to hang out. James began to put print on some hoodies and caps, and they were well received by the customers. The legendary logo is supposedly made with the regular Word-font Futura. The logo is strongly inspired by Barbara Kruger’s “I Shop Therefore I Am”, where the text is written within a red box.
The iconic Supreme box logo was heavily inspired by the conceptual art of Barbara Kruger.
- Artist Inspiration: Founder James Jebbia initially felt the brand’s original logo designs lacked identity. A friend gave him a book of Barbara Kruger’s work, specifically referencing her 1987 piece “I Shop Therefore I Am” and her 1989 poster “Your Body Is a Battleground”.
- Design Specifics: The logo utilizes a Futura Heavy Oblique font in white, placed inside a bright red rectangular box. This design mimics Kruger’s signature style of bold, italicized lettering on red backgrounds used for social and political commentary.
- Controversy: Although Supreme has never officially acknowledged the “lifting” of her aesthetic, Kruger famously responded to the brand’s legal battles with other designers by calling them “uncool jokers”.
- Cultural Origin: The logo debuted in 1994 with the opening of Supreme’s first skate shop on Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan.
Today, the Supreme logo remains a masterclass in visual shorthand. Whether it’s on a hoodie, a brick, or a crowbar, that red box signals a specific brand of New York grit and global hype.
Omar Suleiman 