LV/Supreme Re-Thinks Their Strategy
Most in NoHo may recall the terrifying street permit application for a LV/Supreme pop-up event planned for two weeks closing down all of Bond St. from Lafayette to Bowery – both sides – with police barriers, security guards, and an estimated 1000/day attendance. And then there were the unplanned for camp-outs from June 30 to July 14. Well, it never happened! And, Louis Vuitton is rethinking their whole strategy with Supreme.
C.B. 2 members voted unanimously to recommend that SAPO deny a permit request for the Supreme / Louis Vuitton event on Bond St. and Bowery. C.B. 2 also requested that, for any further events, Supreme come before the community board with a comprehensive plan to “minimize or eliminate the unnecessary disturbances that have been plaguing our community for the past several years.” There is excellent coverage in The Villager on the history of Supreme events in Greenwich Village
So what are these 21st Century entrepreneurial happenings all about? Short, and sometimes free, location rentals, limited edition street fashion, an astoundingly large and quickly informed following of purchasers who sell their finds for five to ten times the purchase price – mostly online. And they are happening everywhere.
The eagerly anticipated collaboration between the luxury and streetwear giants pre-launched at several global pop-ups on June 30, drawing large crowds eager to snag pieces from the limited-edition release. This enthusiastic demand also cultivated an extreme resale market and garnered the support of celeb hypebeasts, like Justin Bieber and David Beckham. Despite this clear success, Louis Vuitton client services recently confirmed in an email to Hypebeast that the Louis Vuitton x Supreme collection “will no longer be sold in any stores or online.” REfinery29
The internet buzz on this event alone captured several Google search pages. But one with fascinating interviews of “Preme” camp-out fans offers a pretty good glimpse of the lure of this phenomenon.