Supreme Arrived in Korea With a Strange, Beautiful Box Logo
Say what you will (and I have) about the current state of Supreme in America, it's still top dog overseas. Soak in the impressive hype generated when Supreme opened its first Korean store in Seoul.
Supreme Korea opened on August 18 after much hype, fanfare, and rumors. But it also reflects an oddity: Korea is now the only nation with a Supreme store but without a dedicated web store (there are American, European, and Japanese Supreme sites).
That's presumably in the works but, in the meantime, would-be shoppers utilized a charmingly archaic digital queuing system to gain access to Supreme Seoul, the only place that one is able to buy the new Supreme Korea Box Logo T-shirt.
The Supreme Box Logo is one of the archetypal streetwear garments, beguiling in its simplicity and coveted for its scarcity.
Every time Supreme opens a new store, as it has now done several times over the past couple years, it issues a Box Logo (Bogo) T-shirt specific to that outpost. These are rarer than even Supreme's already-uncommon seasonal Bogos 'cuz they only released once (anniversary drops aside).
Supreme's store Bogos were historically plain save for the chest graphic but recent drops, like the shirts created for the openings of Supreme LA and Supreme Chicago, feature the store's addresses on the rear. The Chicago shirt also says "Second to none," a quintessential Supreme motif (how that relates to Chicago, though, is anyone's guess).
The Bogo T-shirt created for the opening of Supreme Korea is even more unusual, sporting an enormous photograph of a Hibiscus syriacus, the national flower, on its rear.
It's a slightly dated design — big back graphics with addresses or phone numbers (or both) feels very 2017 — but, again, you could consider it charmingly archaic.
Very odd that Supreme is deviating from routine this hard with all these graphic shirts but change is very welcome these days.
Either way, Supreme is still the biggest fish in the streetwear pond. Even in a hub city like Seoul, where locals can shop international imports or hometown heroes like Thisisneverthat, Supreme Korea's opening drew ample crowds.
Maybe it's onto something with that IRL-only shopping experience.
Supreme is well aware of its popularity across Asia.
Even with its recent American store openings, for instance, Supreme still has more stores in Japan than anywhere else in the world (six to America's five).
Surprising, then, that it took Supreme such a long time to finally expand to another location within Asia, Chinese legal hardships notwithstanding.
Especially with Supreme's Fall/Winter 2023 collection incoming, it's a good time for this old dog to be learning new tricks.
