When the streetwear brand Supreme was sold at a loss earlier last month, analysts weren’t surprised. Its owner, VF Corp, had reported year-over-year revenue drops for the last seven consecutive quarters, and reports had swirled for months that VF Corp would try to offload Supreme to clean up its balance sheet.
Supreme’s business model, which involves weekly drops and limited-edition releases, was a departure from that of VF Corp’s other more traditional brands: The North Face, Timberland, Dickies and Vans. VF Corp acknowledged this, saying in a press release that there were “limited synergies” between itself and Supreme. But Supreme — which began as a New York City skate shop in 1994 — had long been dealing with problems of its own, too.
In fiscal 2023, VF Corp took a $735 million impairment charge against Supreme and revealed that Supreme’s revenue had dipped 7% from the year prior to total $523.1 million. Centric Software’s Centric Market Intelligence service found that search volume for “Supreme” was down nearly 30% from May 2022 to May 2024. Even resale sites have seen demand slow; in 2022, Supreme was no longer number one in StockX’s apparel category for the first time in StockX’s history, a StockX spokesperson told Modern Retail. Supreme now accounts for 16% of StockX’s apparel market, down from 36% in 2020 and 19% in 2023.
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