Supreme x Nike SS19 Collection

Nike and Supreme go retro on their newest collaboration

Supreme/Nike Sweater

Earlier this week, Supreme previewed an upcoming Nike collaboration for this Thursday’s drop by uploading a lookbook to their website and social media accounts. For this release, the two companies worked on matching sweatpants and sweatshirts, track pants and sport jackets, along with waist bags and sweaters. All the items share a retro look due to the materials, colors, styling, and fonts of the logos. The inspiration behind the designs actually comes from a knockoff, vintage Nike jacket, which looks extremely similar to what is releasing; however, various changes were made, including the addition of a button-on hood, a quilted interior, and the removal of logos on the sleeves. Some people dislike the design and consider this move to be lazy on Supreme and Nike’s end, as if they ran out of ideas and had to resort to copying a bootlegger’s idea, while others feel it is an interesting method of coming up with new pieces. 

Nike and Supreme collaborate on multiple items for almost every season, distorting the boundary between sportswear and streetwear. Sneakers, jerseys, sweatshirts, and sporting jackets are typical for a collaboration with an athletic brand like Nike, but earrings, denim overalls, and sweaters are not. It is strange to see these two worlds collide, bringing you items that are unusual for Nike. Currently, the sweater has nearly 33,000 likes on the Supreme Community app which is a very good indicator that it will sell out quickly and have a decent resale value. The app offers good insight on how consumers in the Supreme community feel about certain items, with the amount of likes and dislikes revealing the level of hype. Also, 33,000 likes is abnormally high because the Swarovski box logos that recently released were extremely popular, but only managed to gather around 26,000 likes on the app. I believe the sweaters will sell out quickly and be fairly valuable because nowhere will you find a knit sweater with the Nike swoosh on it, making it one-of-a-kind. 

There are also reasons to be skeptical of purchasing this sweater with the intent of reselling. Supreme x Nike clothing tends to be priced on the higher end of the spectrum, leaving less room for turning a profit. The retail of this sweater is estimated to be $148, and with the addition of shipping costs and tax, you will probably end up paying around $170. You then need to take into account how much people are willing to pay for a Nike branded sweater. At most, I could see some consumers putting up $300, but that would be a best case scenario. A more likely price point would be at around $250, offering a profit of around $50 after fees. My typical rule of thumb when buying to resell is determining whether or not I would want to keep the item if I am unable to turn a profit on it. In this situation, I am going to wait until Thursday to see the EU website’s sell-out times and check eBay and StockX to see what people are paying. If there is the potential to only make $40 on a $170 investment, or even worse, get stuck with a $170 sweater right before summer, I think I am going to sleep on this week’s drop.