Supreme’s World Domination Tour Starts in San Francisco

When news came out that Supreme had sold a 50 percent stake to investment firm The Carlyle Group for $500 million, this much was clear: changes were coming. And the logical assumption following the $1 billion valuation that accompanied the sale was that Supreme would have to scale up in a hurry to meet investor expectations—faster, presumably, than the famously patient skatewear brand ever had. Today brings confirmation that expansion is at least part of Supreme’s new strategy, with news that the brand will open a new store in San Francisco, on Market Street in the city's artsy SoMa neighborhood, sometime in the next year.

Rumors of a SF shop started when the Instagram account Dystant posted a flier (that was later reposted by Highsnobiety) announcing a Supreme-hosted community meeting to discuss a new store scheduled for May. The flier includes a phone number for Taylor Jordan, a press representative. Our call to Jordan went straight to voicemail, where the message explained, “If you’re calling about Supreme, there is not a store opening in SF this May. We are hosting an informational meeting for neighbors and residents only. The store is scheduled to open in early 2019.” Supreme did not respond to our requests for comment.

Supreme is presumably holding the meeting to preemptively assuage the concerns of the people who live near the store’s proposed location—and who stand to share their block with skaters, professional resellers, fashion kids, and the entire male student body of every high school within many miles. If this Supreme store is at all like the brand’s other shops, there will be security guards and lines stretching around the block daily— the sort of thing you might want to talk to the neighbors about before real opposition emerges. The flier invites its new neighbors to “meet our team, learn more about Supreme and our products, view our renderings, and ask questions about us and this exciting project.” Even if this is meant to play nice with its new neighbors, offering to show people renderings and ask questions feels distinctly new for Supreme. The brand is famously secretive. But the complete 180 in approach makes a bit more sense after a private equity fund, one with expertise in opening new stores and helping brands scale, has taken a vested interest in Supreme’s financials.

Perhaps more interesting than the expansion is the speed at which it’s happening. The brand opened only its third U.S. retail location, in Brooklyn, last year. While two years between new stores might not feel like a particularly quick turnaround, the gap between the Brooklyn store and the one that preceded it, Los Angeles, spanned 13 years. This is relative warp speed for a brand that’s succeeded by never pressing the gas pedal particularly hard.

Additionally, a new store in San Francisco means more Supreme stock—which would presumably hurt the resale value of Supreme everywhere. There’s no doubt the demand for the brand remains sky-high, but the closer Supreme gets to fulfilling those desires, the higher the risk of losing the hype that’s driven the brand for over two decades.

The SF shop will help Supreme sell more merchandise, and do more to meet its billion-dollar valuation. Opening only a fourth store in the states isn’t going to completely change Supreme's position in the fashion landscape, but it’s certainly interesting to see what looks like the brand revving up its physical locations. The moment that investment hit, Supreme became a case study in how a brand scales while keeping its cool. Now, we're finally getting to see that experiment play out.

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