Most symbols of status are same same but different. 

In Silicon Valley, it’s Crocs or casual sneakers by high-end designers. In Wall Street, it's Rolex for the junior bankers; Patek Philippe for managing directors. And then, there’s Hydro-Flask and Klean Kanteen water bottles for the eco-friendly.

But what about the anti-luxury (yet luxurious) millennials? 

Enter Supreme. What started as a small skateboard shop in NYC in 1994, has become a (billion-dollar!) global phenomenon to almost everyone under 30 today.

Supreme reigns supreme—going from being famously underground, managing queues of hundreds of people on Thursday mornings to making consumers believe sweaters with a boxed Supreme logo are worth so much more than without. 

To understand how Supreme’s success drives consumer behavior, let’s look in the depths of the alluring social brain.

Status, Symbols, and Supreme

At first sight, Supreme’s apparel looks anything but exclusive, expensive, or elegant. But in the empire of fashion, the Supreme logo rules. Founder James Jebbia, who was never really a skater himself, wanted to give the skater tribe what it didn’t have then: good quality hoodies, white shirts, and canvas pants.

Flash forward to today, the logo has the power to sell almost anything—from clothes to branded fire extinguishers, calculators, and even nunchucks. Its biggest sellout, fetching up to $1,000 on Ebay? Their $30 dollar... brick. If a conspicuous consumer wanted to build a 2,400 square foot home made from it, their mansion would set them back $4,700,000 just to lay the bricks together! So, why would anyone pay such a high premium for a shirt, let alone a brick? The science behind this lies in social psychology.

As social beings trying to survive in the wild, we were wired to evaluate—while attempting to understand—our immediate environment. Not only did we want to understand what was happening around us, but also what was happening within our communities—the system, order, and hierarchies. A core result of this understanding is what psychologists call social signaling. One way to signal love is through public display of affection; one way to signal status is through public display of symbols. And for both, there’s often the ritual of gift-giving.

Similar to how we speak differently in different social contexts, different symbols are used to signal status in different social settings. It’s why watches, suits, and yachts were symbolic in the Wolf of Wall Street and why extravagant parties and big houses were indicative to Daisy in The Great Gatsby. And in the case of Supreme, the logo itself is the symbol. The symbol of anti-establishment.

Today, Supreme’s bright red logo is as symbolic in the fashion realm as the red Solo cup is in the world of unruly parties. Its decade-long symbol as the “cool, anti-luxury, anti-establishment skater” while being a luxury brand phenomenon all lies in the belief it holds along with its price tag. 

How Supreme Became the Anti-Luxury Luxury Brand

Before the invention of money, our ancestors relied on the barter system: apples for oranges, and vice versa. Daily trades like this pulled through because the belief system in place then believed that these fruits were similar in perceived value. Today, one of the fundamental cornerstones of the belief system comes from branding. It’s why Supreme is synonymous with hype and why these things ring true: a $500 sweater, valuation of $1 billion, and (only) 12 stores worldwide. The ability to make people want to fall in line on a Thursday morning, let alone pay that kind of money for a sweater, signifies the driving force of Supreme and its symbolic status.

The purchases we make are vehicles for social signaling—how we rank ourselves in the social pyramid. Take the classic car example. If cars like Lamborghini weren’t associated with being rich, then you wouldn’t find it parked in a Bitcoin millionaire's garage.

Without branding, consumers would have to connect dots themselves, inviting a host of inconsistent belief systems. Successful brands design with social signaling in mind and take control of their brand perception by creating marketing campaigns speaking to not only potential consumers, but also its general audience. After all, in order for the barter system to work then, not only did traders have to buy-in to the system, but the whole civilization as well.

Supreme does exceptionally well on the get-everyone-to-buy-in strategy through their extensive celebrity collaborations with Gucci Mane, Mike Tyson, Kate Moss, and even Kermit the Frog. Odds are while only few buy Supreme, many grandmas today have at least heard of the Supreme hype from their grandkids. (But not Lam Zie, a Supreme reseller, known as ‘OG Ma,’ the Chinatown Hypebeast. She bought into the cult before every 90s kid did.)

Regardless of the price tag, Supreme keeps the hype alive with only a few “drops” a year. What was once a shop for skaters looking for something different, has now become the breeding ground for status-obsessed young adults and wannabe cool dads.

The oddest part of Supreme's success has been watching them become a vapid luxury brand, while having spent their early years clowning them to no end. But luxury brand or not, symbols are as universal as road signs. Without them, consumers wouldn’t know how to navigate the consumer world.

How Social Signaling Plays a Role in the Consumer World

Social signaling is, quite literally, everywhere. Take the “go green” movement as an example. Buying sustainable products, going vegan, bringing a water bottle to work may seem like consumer choices purely made to benefit the greater good, but under the hood, they are choices layered by the perception of status and symbols.

In fact, the “green” lifestyle is so much of a social signal that we’re much more likely to make green purchases that scream ‘The planet Earth loves me and I love it back!’ in public than in private (after all, why would we scream at ourselves?). It’s especially true if our social circle values environmental consciousness, and if you’re from California.

A survey of Prius drivers found that social motivators like signaling were of higher importance than ‘rational’ reasons like gas mileage and low prices. Prius drivers buy the car because it “makes a statement” about them and that “it shows the world that its owner cares.” Until today, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page—with a combined net worth of more than $100 billion—still drive a Prius. (Turns out, signaling that you can afford many of the world’s most expensive cars without having to buy one IS a social signal!)

Successful brands, aware of the symbols they mimic, go above and beyond to create personalities and instill beliefs. A Ford pick-up truck, for instance, brings to mind rugged strength, the outdoors, and old-school America. Fiat-Chrysler’s Marketing President calls pick-up consumers “fashion” buyers. Though they don’t live active lifestyles, they crave to emulate one by personifying their trucks’ toughness. With the power of symbols, Ford continues to dominate with the F-Series, America’s best-selling truck for 43 consecutive years.

Supreme or not, think of us the next time you make a purchase and remember: Who and what you are is the sum of the symbols you signal.

What’s Next?

References

Business Insider: I Waited In Line To Go To A Mysterious Cult-Favorite Skater Store Worth $1 Billion To See Why Teens Are So Obsessed, Dennis Green

Business Insider: Silicon Valley’s ultimate status symbol is the sneaker — here are the rare, expensive, and goofy sneakers worn by the top tech CEOs, Arielle Berger

Business Insider: Bitcoin millionaires are buying Lamborghinis as a status symbol of crypto wealth, and the carmaker says sales are rocketing, Melia Robinson

CNBC: How Supreme went from a small NYC skate shop to a $1 billion global phenomenon, Tom Huddleston

CNBC MONEY: 9 billionaires who drive cheap Hondas, Toyotas and Chevrolets, Emmie Martin

Griskevicius, V. Tybur, J., and Van den Bergh, B (2010). Going Green to Be Seen: Status, Reputation, and Conspicuous Conservation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2010, Vol. 98, No. 3, 392–404 http://assets.csom.umn.edu/assets/140554.pdf

GQ: The Real Story of Supreme, Noah Johnson

HighSnobiety: The Story Behind Every Supreme Celebrity Tee, Ross Wilson 

Market Watch: Wear this to feel dominant during business negotiations, Leslie Albrecht

Maynard, M. (2007, July 4). Say ‘hybrid’ and many people will hear ‘Prius.’ The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com

Miller, Geoffrey. Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior (p. 126). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Numero: The secret behind Supreme’s supremacy: a serious success story, Vilaine Schuetz

The Globe and Mail: Why Pickups are so popular even with city dwellers, Neil Vorano

The News Wheel: Ford F-Series is America's best selling truck for the 43rd year, Kyle Johnson

Vice: Why Are So Many People Obsessed With Supreme, Jamie Cliffton

Vice: How Much Would It Cost To Build A House Of Supreme Bricks? Emily Manning

Wall Street Journal: The latest eco-friendly status symbol? Water bottles, Jacob Gallagher

YouTube: Supreme Reseller OG Ma Is a Chinatown Hypebeast, Great Big Story