The skate brand is trying to take our money and give it right back to us in the form of an unusable crisp note. What fools they must think we are! If you like your money where you can see it, then you might be keen on Supreme’s new Lucite paperweight that features a floating $100 bill. But, you’ll also be a mug, just saying.
In a world where business is conducted via email and shared drives, nothing is more ridiculous – or pointedly wasteful – than a paperweight. But, that hasn’t stopped the street wear label from selling this aptly named ‘Cash Paperweight’ as part of its autumn/winter 2017 collection, which drops on site today. With the company giving little away no one knows if it’s even real cash, or if this is some Monopoly hijinks.
This selling ice to an Eskimos behaviour is typical of Supreme. After all, while it may look and act like a skate brand, it’s ostensibly a streetwear label for non-skaters. Mentioned in the same breath as Palace and Stussy, Supreme sells limited edition clothes and accessories for non-skaters who are keen to buy into the ‘cool’ alt aesthetic of legitimate skate brands without actually having to learn how to ollie.
Supreme was founded in 1994 by a Brit called James Jebbia who (fun fact was an actor in Grange Hill in a previous life) was never a skater himself. As he told Interview Magazinea few years back, ‘ I’d never skated myself, but I loved the graphics—I really liked the rebelliousness of it.’ In fact, Jebbia was a retail magician who worked with Stussy before going it alone with his first brand Union NYC. Throughout Supreme’s history it’s lifted iconography and imagery from other successful brands to further itself. For instance, its logo references the art work of Diane Kruger, its accent is a nod to French space age designer André Courrèges, and it’s famed advertisements like it’s Kate Moss imprint, which was stolen from Calvin Klein. No wonder, the company has had numerous cease-and-desist orders, even its recent collaborator Louis Vuitton filed for one back in 2000 are a line of skateboards they produced used the LV logo without permission.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.