The NYPD logo will officially end on shirts, sweatshirts and other products by Supreme. The streetwear brand born in Manhattan has reached an agreement with the city of New York that will allow it to use some of its registered trademarks, including the police and Made in NY.
It is not a logo sale or an exclusive agreement. In the contract published by the city of New York, the Department of Small Business Services grants Chapter 4 Corp., the company operating under the name Supreme, a “limited, revoked and non-exclusive” license. Any use of symbols must also be approved in advance by the city.
The agreement will remain in force until 2028, with the possibility of extending until 2030. According to the terms reported by the New York Post, Supreme will pay 22 thousand initial dollars and will pay the city 6 percent of the revenues provided by the contract on the products made using the licensed trademarks.
For Supreme is not an absolute novelty. The brand has already used symbols of municipal agencies in its collections: in recent years it has sold, among other things, hoodies with the brand of the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) and FDNY hats. The new agreement formally defines the conditions with which it can continue to use the visual identity of the city and expand it to other products.
For New York the logos of its agencies are not only institutional symbols, but real commercial goods. The city has registered trademarks such as NYPD, FDNY, Parks and Sanitation and has been licensing companies that want to use them on clothing, toys and other products for years. In official licensing documents, the city explicitly explains that one of the objectives is to generate royalties by exploiting the international recognition of its symbols. Among the companies with which he worked or created collaborations also appear Nike, Adidas and Mattel.
Supreme, for his part, owes much of his identity to New York. The brand was born in 1994 with the first store in Lafayette Street, downtown Manhattan, and progressively transformed the aesthetics of New York skateboarding into a global brand. The agreement with the city therefore brings within its collections symbols that are part of the same urban environment on which Supreme built his own image.
Not having signed an exclusive Supreme contract will of course not be the only company authorized to use the logo of the police of the Big Apple. The city licensing system includes several manufacturers and distributors and agreements are normally, as in this case, not exclusive. In February last, for example, New York renewed a New Jersey company a license to produce models and playsets with municipal brands, in exchange for 10 percent of net sales or a guaranteed minimum of $65,000 a year. The contract is published in the City Record.
In the case of Supreme, however, the value of the agreement is also in the overlap between the two brands: a company became famous selling in the world a very recognizable image of New York will now return to print on its clothes some of the official symbols of the city, paying New York to be able to do it.
L’articolo The NYPD will end on Supreme shirts proviene da IlNewyorkese.
