Is The Streetwear Market Headed For The Mainstream?
On any given Thursday, thousands of people can be spotted swarming the corner of Rosewood and North Fairfax avenues in West Hollywood. It's not surprising, though, if you know that this Los Angeles location is one of six storefronts around the world of streetwear giant Supreme.
Supreme is known in the streetwear community for releasing new collections almost every Thursday. Hordes of excited shoppers, mostly young men, wait for hours in line to purchase Supreme gear at retail prices.
Here's why: Supreme merchandise, like that of many other contemporary streetwear brands, is worth significantly more in the resale market. For many customers, reselling this gear has become a business and a way of life.
One reseller, Joseph, who declined to give his full name for privacy reasons, says he got into the resale business because "my parents wouldn't buy the high-end stuff, [so] I started flipping in high school to cover my costs" for streetwear purchases. By the time
