The brand was founded by James Jebbia in 1994. The first Supreme store opened in an old office space on Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan in April 1994. It was designed with skaters in mind with a unique design for the store layout: by arranging the clothes around the perimeter of the store, a large central space permitted skaters with backpacks to skate into the store and still feel comfortable. 

History of Supreme

This store had its core group of skaters who served as its team in 1994, which included late actors Justin Pierce and Harold Hunter, and the first employees were extras from the Larry Clark film Kids. Jebbia explained that he opened Supreme in lower Manhattan because at the time there was nowhere else to buy skate products in the area. He focused primarily on more obscure, harder-to-find items and credited the open-mindedness of skaters with the brand's ability to take risks.

In 2004, a second location was opened on North Fairfax Ave in Los Angeles, California, which is nearly double the size of the original New York City store and features an indoor skate bowl. Other locations include Paris, which opened in 2016, London, which opened in September 2011, Tokyo (Harajuku, Daikanyama and Shibuya), Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka. The additional locations emulate the original Lafayette Street store's design; stores feature rotating art displays, and use videos and music to attract attention.

Supreme stocks its own clothing label, as well as other skateboard brands such as Vans, Nike SB, Spitfire Wheels, and Thrasher, among others. James Jebbia was quoted in saying that anything that Supreme releases will never be classified as "limited," but notes that they make short runs of their products because they "don't want to get stuck with stuff nobody wants."

Supreme releases two collections each year. Instead of offering the entire line at once, the brand releases a few pieces online and in-store from the current season’s collection every Thursday.

In October 2017, Supreme opened their 11th store and second in New York City in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. On October 6, 2017, James Jebbia confirmed that the label had sold a significant stake in the company of roughly 50% (around $500 million) to private equity firm The Carlyle Group. On February 25, 2019, Supreme moved their original Manhattan location from 274 Lafayette Street to 190 Bowery.

Supreme opened its 12th store on Market Street in San Francisco in October 2019. In 2019, a collection of every Supreme deck ever produced sold for $800,000 at a Sotheby's auction.

In November 2020, VF Corporation announced that they agreed to buy Supreme in an all cash deal for US$2.1 billion. VF Corporation bought out the investors Carlyle Group and Goode Partners LLC, as well as founder James Jebbia. According to VF, Jebbia will continue to manage the business.

The 13th store of the company opened on May 6, 2021, in Milan.