Supreme calls out Supreme Italia with IG video
With the straightforward title "FUCK THE FAKES"
Pills
February 18th, 2019
February 18th, 2019
The battle for the use of the Supreme box logo is turning into a real war between the NY-based brand and Supreme Italia, the legit fake brand founded in Puglia and then moved to Supreme Spain.
After the Samsung case and the announcement of expansion in China by Supreme Italia, Supreme NY has finally directly faced the issue with an IG video posted on Sunday that is a clear and direct statement against Supreme Italia, even though the brand is never directly cited.
Titled "FUCK THE FAKES", the protagonist of the video is Funkmaster Flex - a New York City DJ and radio host -who calls out the FAKES and claiming Supreme NY realness.
Among all the statements, there is a quite relevant part at the end of it, where Funkmaster Flex says that starting from today things are gonna be different:
We callin’ out the fake
We puttin' a finger on who's fake and what's fake
We sayin' who's fake
And me, I ain't afraid of saying who's fake 'cause I've never been one
Original to the left, fakers fall to the bottom
And we gonna make sure you fall to the bottom
You know why?
FUCK YOU
Supreme Italia counterattacks
Among the thousands of comments under the "FUCK THE FAKES" video there was the sarcastic response of Supreme Italia - through the profile IG @Supremespain_official - which mentioned the Instagram account @supremecopies.
For those who never heard of Supreme Copies, it is an Instagram account created in 2016, which calls out Supreme NY on stealing the design of their products. Last year they even published a book entitled Supreme Copies, a full collection of all the photos published on the IG account.
However, accusing Supreme NY of stealing designs is quite obvious because the rip-off culture is part of the DNA of the brand since the early days, when James Jebbia took the Futura font created by Barbara Kruger and made it the logo of his brand, causing most of all the contemporary legal issues.
The concept of realness - cited also by Funkmaster Flex - is one of the cornerstones Supreme NY's myth: it is rooted in the skate and underground culture in which Supreme was born and today it lives through the attachment of the fans. It is something that Jebbia has always wanted to keep, even after the 500-million-dollar acquisition by the Carlyle group.
The real meaning of this video: Supreme is not hiding anymore
"FUCK THE FAKES" may seem a marginal fact in the legit fake saga against Supreme Italia, but instead it is a pivotal turning point in the strategy of the NY-based brand.
At a public level, Supreme NY has always ignored Supreme Italia avoiding to publicly release any statement against the brand or IBF (the holding that owns Supreme Italia and Supreme Spain).
Once again, this kind of attitude comes from the punk soul of Supreme NY that has always refused to have a traditional public and corporate communication. The contacts with Supreme Italia have always been limited to the courtrooms, in more than one country - including Spain and Italy - where all the lawsuits are still ongoing.
In December, Supreme NY did the first ever coming out on IG to deny a partnership with Samsung China that was indeed collaborating with Supreme Italia. Recently the tech giant has announced the end of the partnership.
After the Samsung gate, Supreme Italia announced the expansion of the brand and the opening of over 70 stores around the world including China, a boundless and potentially very rich market in which IBF has legally registered the Supreme brand. The ultimate goal of the video "FUCK THE FAKES" by Supreme is, therefore, a clear and direct declaration of war against Supreme Italia and it is to be expected that the battle for the use of box logo will not be limited only to courtrooms but it will become a struggle on social media and communication.
