Streetwear enthusiasts looking to profit, or just have a good laugh, need look no further than the Supreme brick road.
Last week the streetwear company released a $30 branded brick — yes, a simple brick with a Supreme logo — which sold out within minutes of hitting the market. As with any Supreme product, which is typically offered in limited numbers, it sparked a frenzy among fans trying to get their hands on the item before it hit the resale market. Now YouTuber Tyler Blake is satirizing the mania around the brick in his video “Supreme Brick Drop Test!” which has been viewed more than 37,000 views and has 1,600 comments.
In the three minute video, Tyler Blake, who goes by the handle TBlake, is shown taking one of the actual bricks out of its packaging and conducting a tongue-in-cheek review of it. After analyzing its structure, he takes the brick to his porch where he drops it from four feet above ground to test its durability. Then he throws the brick from 50 feet onto a pile of rocks below the balcony. Blake then shares his plans to give away the slightly tattered brick to a commenter, saying “Considering everyone was treating this so ridiculously, I don’t feel bad doing such a bombastic video.”
The bricks are currently selling for upwards of nearly $2,000 on eBay. A comment on the video from user BULL1TRC reads “Bro, I’ll PayPal you $1,000 for this field tested brick. Great review, really was wondering about the quality on this brick.”
Blake, who works in marketing by day and creates YouTube videos in his spare time, said despite his mockery, he is impressed the brand has been so successful selling branded gag items including, previously, a ramen bowl, meditation balls, boxing gloves and dog bowls, among others. “If you can think of it, they’ve most likely done it.”
“Supreme branding is so overwhelming and so consuming that they can slap that logo on anything and have it sell out and then potentially resell,” Blake said. “To me, that’s something that no other brand can do and that’s what’s so intriguing.”
He said that there is a minor movement among YouTubers to destroy exclusive streetwear items precisely because of their manufactured scarcity — including users lighting Yeezy shoes on fire or baking bread along with a pair of Air Jordans in an oven. But Blake felt comfortable taking a similar move with the brick because it was both more durable and less of an actual product.
“I have so much respect and love for sneaker and streetwear culture, and it’s something I participated in to share my passion with other people,” he said. “To me, when you’re destroying something that people are passionate about it’s kind of tasteless.”
Following the news of the brick, Supreme fans took to Reddit to estimate how much it would cost to build a home out of Supreme bricks. User tamaral36 calculated that it would take 117,600 bricks to build a 2,400 square foot home, totaling more than $4 million dollars. An average clay or cement brick retails for less than 50 cents, a fraction of the Supreme brick cost.
Twitter users were also quick to poke fun at the coveted piece of cement, making jokes about the item or expressing interest in acquiring one.
Your MCM skipped school to buy a $30 Supreme Brick.
— 23 Savage (@MoeAlayan) September 29, 2016
beat me with a supreme brick so i can die in style
— vivi (@vtrxn) October 2, 2016
“With this Supreme brick, I thought I could create something that asks if this is really what streetwear culture has come to and ask if this is what’s relevant and gets views,” Blake. “Unfortunately this video kind of proves that it’s true.”
