- James Bogart spent years collecting every Supreme box-logo T-shirt ever offered at retail, and now he's selling his collection for roughly $2 million through Christie's.
- The stash comprises 253 shirts that the streetwear brand sold from 1994 to 2020.
- Christie's is selling the collection alongside its first auction dedicated to Supreme gear, which kicked off Tuesday.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
A student's collection of well over 200 T-shirts from luxury streetwear brand Supreme hit the market Tuesday, and it's expected to sell for approximately $2 million.
Supreme releases clothing and other goods in limited quantities, making its products highly coveted and collectible. But that alone doesn't fully explain the collection's seven-figure asking price — it isn't just a random assortment of Supreme merchandise, it's the only complete collection of the brand's iconic "box-logo" T-shirts known to exist.
According to Christie's, which is brokering the sale of "The Box Logo Collection," it's the "first and only complete collection of every Supreme box logo T-shirt ever released at retail from the brand's inception in 1994, to 2020."
The 253-shirt collection was amassed by James Bogart, a 21-year-old Canadian fashion student, according to CNBC. Bogart purchased his first piece of Supreme gear in 2014 and started a concerted effort to build his stash the following year, according to the collection's website. In total, the collection being sold includes 241 shirts released at retail, along with 12 that were samples or special editions.
"It's been a non-stop 5-year hunt to accumulate this collection," Bogart said on his website. "A lot of people don't think about the non-stop weeks, months, and even years of research and work that it can take to find just one tee."
According to Bogart, the most significant piece in the collection is a 1994 red-on-white tee, which was one of only four shirts released during Supreme's first year in business. The most valuable tee, he reckons, is a collaboration with Japanese lifestyle brand WTaps from 1999, of which only 30 were made.
Christie's did not make the asking price public, but said it expects the collection to "realize in the region of $2 million," adding it is "poised to be the most valuable collection of Supreme material ever to be offered in a single sale."
Starting out as a skateboard shop in Lower Manhattan in 1994, Supreme has since grown into a streetwear empire with a thriving resale market and a fanatical customer base. VF Corporation, the parent company of brands including Vans, The North Face, and Timberland, announced plans to purchase Supreme in a $2.1 billion, all-cash deal in November.
The auction house is selling Bogart's collection alongside its first-ever auction dedicated solely to Supreme gear, called "Behind the Box: 1994-2020." The auction includes clothing but also loads of other Supreme products, including skateboard decks, stickers, and a pinball machine valued at up to $30,000.
Watch:
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o8HSoqWeq6Oeu7S1w56pZ5ufony0wc%2BrnKadXaG8qLuMrJ%2BiqqRisLC4y56araGfo3qiwcKtoKimXWd9c3yMamk%3D