"How Supreme Grew a $1 Billion Business with a Secret Partner"

BoF:

The terms of the transaction were undisclosed. However, sources close to the company confirmed that Carlyle paid around $500 million for a roughly 50 percent stake in Supreme in a deal that valued the business at over $1 billion.

But Carlyle wasn’t the first external investor to pump money into Supreme. Indeed, while Jebbia was ultra-careful to maintain his label’s credibility with customers, he built what has become of one of the world’s coolest and most commercially successful fashion labels — often dubbed “the Chanel of streetwear” for the power of its brand — with the help of a secret partner.

In 2014, Goode Partners, a New York-based private equity firm, took a minority stake in Supreme via two investment vehicles

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To be sure, the streetwear scene values authenticity and can be suspicious of success. This is likely the reason why Jebbia kept the backing from Goode a secret and consistently avoided questions on investors. “As a small brand, we do it all. We don’t need an investor,” Jebbia told BoF back in 2016. “We would never go anywhere or do anything where we feel it would compromise what we do.”