Is this new Crewneck from Supreme a Box Logo or not?

Perhaps the most beautiful thing about fashion is its community: when a brand expands and gets to own an archive and a story, its followers begin a real work of excavation and classification that, in some cases, results in real philosophical debates. This is what happened with Supreme's latest SS20 collection featuring the Crewneck Cutout Logo – a sweatshirt in which Supreme's Box Logo is not embroidered or printed but embossed on the fabric. The brand's fan community has therefore found itself debating whether the Crewneck Cutout Logo could rightly be considered this season's Box Logo release or not, bringing to light interesting talking points about the nature of a logo-cult on a modern streetwear item.

The case in favour

Those who are experts in the community who claim that the crewneck constitutes a Box Logo release in all respects presents a simple argument: there is a logo, there is a "box" within which this is enclosed and therefore Box Logo must be treated. It doesn't matter that the logo is barely visible and the crewneck doesn't have the term "Box" in its name, the logo is there and it will stay there.

The case against

Opponents of this theory present an even more interesting argument: the tonal and embossed logo, virtually indistinguishable from the rest of the creweneck fabric, is different from the classic printed and clearly recognizable logo. In this sense, the recognition of the logo, with the hype it arouses, becomes the discriminating factor. It should be clarified that the discourse is not about the aesthetic value of crewneck, but its product status.

The Supreme Logo Box is perhaps one of the most legendary and versatile hallmarks of modern streetwear. Even in an era when the massive presence of streetwear is shrinking, Supreme's Box Logo Tee remains perhaps one of the most legendary, imitated and sought after products on the market. There were many remixes to which the logo was subject – precisely because the original one had been plagiarized by fake legal brands such as Supreme Italia and Supreme Spain. Its recognisability is therefore a double-edged sword: on the one hand it concentrates all the value and history of the brand in a single logo, on the other it is so formally simple to be easily recombined and, paradoxically, it is recoited so often precisely because it is very recognizable.

According to the purists, therefore, the iconic value of the Box Logo is given by its uniqueness – a quality that is reflected in the character of recognisability. Basically, a Box Logo can only be a Box Logo and that's it. Those who favour a less rigorous interpretation of Supreme iconography argue that the Cutout Logo can also and not exclusively be a Box Logo. One of the highest authorities in the field, however, the account @supreme_leaks_news, has simply cut the knot of the issue, putting the value of the logo back to the taste of individual consumers, also remembering how at the bottom of every legend always hides a marketing fund: