American high street fashion brand Supreme just announced its fall/winter 2019 (FW19) catalogue. The collection comprises extremely exclusive merchandise ranging from jackets and hats all the way to a Honda-powered dirt bike. American singer Mary J Blige is also featured in this season’s photo tee. But perhaps the most peculiar addition to this year's FW collection is a Supreme-branded Blu 'Burner Phone'.
The phone is essentially a Blu Zoey 2.4 feature phone with a basic candy bar design. It has a whopping 128MB of (expandable) internal storage and 2.4-inch screen The most technologically advanced feature of the handset has to be its 3G capabilities. The brand is kind enough to ship a 16GB microSD card with the phone. For comparison, the JioPhone that was launched in 2017, comes with the same 2.4-inch display, but with way more smart features including 4G connectivity and support for WhatsApp and Facebook.
The price of the 'Burner Phone' wasn't mentioned in the catalogue, but a standard Blu Zoey 2.4 sells for about ₹2,000. But given Supreme's history of selling really mundane objects at ludicrous prices, the smartphone can be expected to be priced at least five times its base price. Last year, a Supreme-branded brick was listed with an original selling price of $30—roughly the same as a Blu Zoey. But given the exclusivity of the brand, the same brick was later put up on eBay at $1,000!
Before selling the usual eccentricities that it is now known for, Supreme was established in 1994 as a skateboarding and clothing brand in downtown Manhattan. Over the years, the brand gained some serious notoriety in hip hop culture. The brand releases a limited number of new products each week that are nowhere near the number needed to keep up with demand. It is because of this 'scarcity model' that we witness long lineups as well as the inflated secondary market (or resale) prices when it comes to anything with the iconic red logo.
The 'Burner Phone' might be a genius in hiding—hypebeasts wouldn't have to worry so much if they did lose that unmistakable red phone.
