Supreme, as some of may be aware, as a very popular clothing brand. Scarcity is one of the reasons why its products are so sought after. It drops merchandise in limited quantities which runs out quickly, leading to the pieces being sold on reseller sites for several multiples of the original price. Supreme also collaborates with high-profile brands and some of you might have heard that Samsung has teamed up with it. However, the Supreme that Samsung is collaborating with is not the original one based in New York City.
Samsung announced its collaboration with Supreme at its launch event for the Galaxy A8s in China earlier today. Many were surprised as Supreme is very popular in that part of the world as well. However, it wasn’t until Samsung China’s Feng En invited two men on stage did it become apparent that this wasn’t the real Supreme. The two were introduced as the co-CEOs of the brand, none of which was James Jebbia, the founder and CEO of the real Supreme.
Supreme New York never registered its brand in a few markets such as Italy and Spain. The company that Samsung is collaborating with is Supreme Italia, based in the Italian town of Barletta. It owns the domestic trademark for Supreme and uses the same logo to sell “legal fake” goods in the market.
There was a lot of discussions about this on Weibo which led to an explanation by Leo Lau, Samsung China’s digital marketing manager. “The brand we are collaborating with is Supreme Italia, not Supreme US. Supreme US doesn’t have the authorization to sell and market in China. Whereas the Italian brand got the Asia-Pacific (except Japan) product retail and marketing authorization,” he said.
So don’t expect a Samsung x Supreme smartphone anytime soon. This will likely be a marketing collaboration that strictly remains limited to China.