This article was originally published by i-D Australia.
Yesterday, a Reddit user going by CokeSlurpees shared the story of history’s most fortuitous trip to Kmart — the stuff streetwear dreams are made of, really. Here’s how it goes: after learning that their local store was shutting down, CokeSlurpees stopped by and stumbled upon a pile of super-cheap American Apparel tees, which the L.A. brand likely sold on to Kmart after folding earlier this year.
Buried in the pile of $4 tees, CokeSlurpees discovered a ton of Supreme-labeled blanks in yellow, white, teal, and green. They had watermarks on the tags and all. Too good to be true? Maybe, but things like this happen all the time, though rarely with labels as coveted as Supreme. It’s common practice for retail giants to buy liquidation lots when companies go under: the cut-price bulk-buys can easily be resold for a profit.
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Now, Supreme is famously tight lipped about where it sources its blank tees from, but fans have long hypothesized American Apparel was a key supplier (brands like Gildan and Hanes get thrown around a lot too). When American Apparel folded, its remaining stock wouldn’t have been shipped to Supreme for screen-printing as intended, and instead made its way to Kmart.
In these instances the tags are usually slashed off garments, and CokeSlurpees said most of the tees in the pile had indeed had their labels cut off, but these few Supreme shirts managed to slip through the cracks. “From pics I could find, these shirts look like they’re FW16 and SS17,” CokeSlurpees wrote, matching the forest green blank up with this recent Supreme offering and the yellow with this tee. It’s a streetwear miracle!
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Credits
Text Isabelle Hellyer
Image via CokeSlurpees/Imgur