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There’s a monumental shift taking place in London’s Soho. Many of the affluent home county teens who once camped outside Peter Street, in the hopes of nabbing a Supreme box logo tee, can now be found around the corner instead, queuing for the latest drop at the London Chapter store of California skate brand Stüssy. This was the case last Friday morning, as the brand’s latest drop, a collaboration with Levi’s, had young customers queueing out the door.
“I m hoping to buy a hoodie for my girlfriend,” said 20-year-old Olivia, outside the Stüssy store. “The quality is really nice, and the environment in every store you go to is pretty unique. I love the designs. Everybody s so cool.”
Streetwear aficionados or anyone old enough will remember Stüssy’s first moment in the sun. Launched in 1984 in Orange County, it became a symbol of California cool, even in London, where jungle music icon Goldie sported various Stüssy-adorned baseball caps in the ’90s. “Stüssy started everything — [it’s] always [had] a real deep connection with the people, since day one,” says Luca Benini, founder of era-defining Italian streetwear emporium Slam Jam and a partner of Stüssy since 1992. Benini points to this beyond-the-brand association with the consumer as well as Stüssy’s international network of trendsetters and creatives, formally known as the International Stüssy Tribe, as crucial to the label’s success: “That has always been the key to me, and we still see this defining what Stüssy is and does.”
Lately, Stüssy’s buzzy collaborations with Scandi labels like Our Legacy and Tekla have been sell-outs, reaching both what former art director Ryan Willms says is typically an “older Stüssy person, and the brand’s new audience”. The Our Legacy collab in particular has become a long-term partnership, and is revered by US menswear podcast ‘Throwing Fits’, which upon its launch dubbed it “the only collab right now that makes sense”.
Benini was one of the original members of the International Stüssy Tribe, alongside cultural icons such as The Clash’s Mick Jones and then DJ, now godfather of streetwear Hiroshi Fujiwara — all connected through brand founder Shawn Stüssy. But when Shawn moved on in 1996, a run of various business decisions, from reissuing printables from Stüssy’s glory days to retail clothing stores, oversaturated the brand and diluted its appeal. By the time the early 2010s rolled around, Stüssy needed a re-think. Brands like Supreme and growing London-based streetwear label Palace were winning market share, underpinned by exclusivity. Stüssy was regularly found in thrift stores or among discount racks.
However, if the lines in Soho mean anything, it’s that Stüssy may have re-emerged — 44 years after its inception as the original streetwear innovator — as a must-have brand for Gen Z. Cycles turn. According to Google Trends data, searches for “Stüssy” have increased 360 per cent since April 2014. Stüssy declined to share revenues. But according to figures published by Ecommerce Database, the label’s revenue reached $66.3 million from its website alone in 2023. Data service insight business Growjo places their total revenue at an estimated $93.8 million a year. In the brand’s 1994 cultural heyday, revenues were $17 million.
Ushering in a refresh
Stüssy’s turnaround began after the brand’s 35th anniversary in 2019, says Willms, who worked at the company from 2014 to 2021. “That year ended up being the one where we put our stake in the ground,” he says. “It felt like we were retaking the brand back — not to the good stuff they had done, but to shed the stuff they didn’t really need to be doing.”
Willms helped usher in a complete refresh: from approaching seasonal lookbooks like fashion campaigns with photographers including Frank Lebon and creative directors such as Liam Macrae, to readjusting wholesale strategies with boutiques, and honing in on collaboration choices. “The idea was ‘edit everything’. Let’s do less, but do it better.” Overseen by global brand director Fraser Avey, the retail team worked on bringing as much back under the Stüssy umbrella as possible, reducing distribution to avoid previous mistakes that diluted the brand.
The strategy also included refocusing Stüssy on its links to skate and surf communities around the world. “One thing the Stüssy can really own is its Californian roots, and play with it in its global interpretations,” Willms says, citing the various cities that initially adopted Stüssy and added their own twist — from New York to London to Tokyo. “It’s not a surf brand, not a skate brand, but a lifestyle brand. [It’s] like [the] Ralph Lauren, but of California streetwear.”
Highsnobiety editor-in-chief Willa Bennett puts Stüssy’s current success with younger audiences down to its heritage. “Everyone’s looking for something that wears like vintage, moving away from loud logo-forward looks,” she says. “It’s all about style. It’s about investing in pieces that fit well, have interesting details, and will last a lifetime. It’s all about legacy.”
Did Stüssy benefit from Supreme’s slowdown?
Perhaps another factor in Stüssy’s rise is the slow decline of its rivals. As Stüssy’s star rises, Supreme, once the darling of the streetwear world, appears to be losing some cultural cachet. Supreme’s growth has slowed since mid-market apparel group VF Corp purchased the brand in 2020: in the fiscal year ending March 2023, Supreme reported revenues of $523.1 million, down $38.4 million on the year prior. To top this off, the brand’s first-ever creative director Tremaine Emory, hired as founder James Jebbia took a slight step back from day to day, resigned from the brand in August 2023, citing “systemic racism” at Supreme as his reason for leaving just 18 months into the role.
Fans of Supreme suggest that the exclusivity factor that once led to block-long queues has been lost, as VF Corp pursues new and larger Supreme stores, such as those opened in LA, Seoul and Shanghai over the last 14 months. Online critics suggest that the brand is flooding the market with too much product in an attempt to meet investor growth expectations — there’s now often a glut of Supreme wares in stock following drop day.
While Supreme’s profits continue to eclipse arguably smaller brands like Stüssy, public opinion has changed. “Seeing a Supreme logo is as cringe as a DC logo now,” reads one comment on a Hypebeast article about Supreme missing its target. Another: “What Supreme really needs is a hiatus for a couple of years… but the corporate world doesn’t work like that”.
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