Supply Store: The Originator of Australian Streetwear

As you are walking into an unassuming brick building at the corner of Burton & Riley Street in Darlinghurst for the first time, one is usually filled with feelings of excitement, trepidation, and a need to curate their image as best as possible to be homogenous with the environment which lays within. At least, that was my experience having followed their socials and picked at every bone their online store had to offer. Seeing their massive reach throughout the Australian community, I was expecting something grand, even gaudy. I was prepared to be silently ridiculed by those employees who were of an ilk I couldn’t even imagine myself being adjacent to. I grinned and bared it though because this was where my favourite brands lay. But as I entered, I was exposed to something a complete contrast to what I prepared myself for, in a good way.

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Supply Store Darlinghurst via Supply

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When entering the store for the first time, there are broadly two types of reactions: satisfaction and intrigue. Those who are passers-by and are unaware of the status that Supply holds in Australia will generally enjoy a pleasant experience, although think not much further. While those who have been around and are already part of the world they reside in, will be surprised and intrigued at how they have managed to gain such power while maintaining such a low profile in their home base. Admittedly, not many passers-by end up finding the store coincidentally as it is intentionally placed out of sight. It commands a tiny retail space, offers only a small percentage of their available stock, and is run by extremely personable employees.

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2008 Supply Store Webstore via Supply

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Although the Supply Store itself tells the story as beginning in 2002 when they opened on Brisbane St in Darlinghurst, the story actually started in the 90s. Shawn Yates, who was the founder of Supply Store, found himself landing by chance in the realm of streetwear. He needed a job, and his mum found an ad for a skate, street and lifestyle store in Sydney. This eventually allowed him to grow into a buying role. With the buying role came along many a trip to the US, which resulted in some really key relationships being formed between him, the Union guys (Eddie Cruz and Chris Gibbs), the Supreme folks (Luke Meier, and James Jebbia), among many others. While in 1999, Flipside Distribution was formed as a connection to the store he originally worked at, Shawn kept building his relationships, which would bode well for where he would ultimately end up.

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Shawn Yates via Hypebeast

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Under the Flipside umbrella, Shawn was then able to use some of those priceless connections to begin his own curated store, which is now known as Supply. They were first to bring brands like Supreme, GOODENOUGH, Visvim and Head Porter to Australia. At the time these brands were still relatively undergrown in their own respective markets, so bringing them to the country in 2002 showed some ingenious foresight. While their customer base consisted of a niche community at the time, it was only poised to blossom from there.

Around that time, his brother was also running a military surplus store, which was getting an increase in customer enquiry about Carhartt and was in with a possible distribution arrangement. While his brother’s company was too small scale to deal with such a big task, Yates had the backing of Flipside, who were already successfully distributing other major names throughout the country, and realised it was a massive opportunity. 2005 marked the beginning of Carhartt WIP through Australia, which blew the scale of the operation up, as a tonne of other international brands took note, and wanted be part of the Australian scene through Flipside.

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Supply x Carhartt WIP via Carhartt WIP

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With the beginning of Carhartt distro, a realisation was had that a flagship was needed to sell it, and consequently Supply was also due for an upgrade. This created the perfect storm, which allowed for Flipside to take over a whole building in Darlinghurst, which would eventually arguably become the hub for Sydney, and Australian street fashion for many years, with the Stüssy flagship, P.A.M, and Pass~Port eventually posting up right beside them, and a range of other stores coming into the Darlinghurst area.

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Carhartt WIP Darlinghurst via Carhartt WIP

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Over the coming years, Supply & Flipside would bring in a range of major players to the market, including Palace, OriginalFake (Kaws’ original line), UNDFTD, NBHD, and BAPE among others. While these labels may not have been massive at the time, many of them would develop into world-wide phenomena into the mid-2010s. This created a framework before the boom of streetwear globally which provided a really strong springboard to allow the Australian scene to bloom. Because of the rare connections formed by Shawn, they had created a chokepoint for the industry down-under, with most brands looking to Supply to dip their toes into the market before a wider spread was considered, often with Flipside managing distribution in the end.

In early 2014, Supply Store started to stock Stüssy. While to many this may seem insignificant, this it was a key moment for the business’s future. Australia was (and still is) locked in a Stüssy licencing deal, where Globe oversaw manufacturing and distribution of most of the Stüssy in the country. Unfortunately, the product was much less inspired, and was seen as a commercial money grab, with very little substance. Lucky for us, Supply sneakily managed to bypass this through importing the US based Stüssy product that was a much higher quality. This eventually formed a strong relationship with the brand, resulting in the opening of a Flipside run flagship in Darlinghurst (as mentioned before) opening in 2019. This cemented the company as the most powerful of its kind in the country, controlling distribution of Carhartt WIP and Stüssy, both stalwarts in their respective fields and unlikely to be going anywhere soon.

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Stüssy Darlinghurst via Stüssy

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Progressing into the current day, one of the most critical components of Supply’s Australian market control is their Nike selection. With wholesale accounts being delegated based on access to certain levels of desirable product, tier 0 is where you want to be. You have access to all the collaborative products and limited drops to retail at your store. Originally in Australia, there were a few places which had the tier 0 account, but during one of the Nike wholesale strip-backs during the 2010s, Supply was left last man standing in Australia. This was in no small part due to the respect, relationships, and rapport that they had built in the community over the years. Consequently, Nike decided on them being the key store to represent sneaker culture in the country, with all other offerings to pale in comparison.

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Supply Off-White "The Ten" Instalment via Sneaker Freaker

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Supply now boasts quite an impressive resume of brands, with the ability to go and stock pretty much whatever they like at this point. They were have been responsible for a plethora of instalments, most notably the Nike x Off-White “The Ten” iteration, along with many others (including Clot and Hello Kitty). Furthermore, A collaboration with Carhartt available world-wide helped to solidify their place as a key part of the international streetwear scene. They also continue to foster the local creative community through dispatches with Melbourne and Sydney creatives, the stocking of brands such as China Heights, and consistently supporting the skate scene who made them what they are today. With their continued attention to their community, understanding of where they originated, along with fostering connections, they are one of the few commercialised stores which have maintained a connection to self. This makes them one of a kind, and a store which should be cherished, at the very least, for their impact on the Australian scene.