Hundreds vie to buy Louis Vuitton x Supreme collection in Singapore
Hundreds of people were queueing up outside the Louis Vuitton boutique at ION Orchard on Friday morning (14 July), hoping to get their hands on the new Louis Vuitton x Supreme collaboration limited collection released this month.
The collection, the first collaboration between the high fashion brand and the popular streetwear, was launched previously in Sydney, Tokyo and Beijing. In Singapore, up to 350 queue numbers were released on Thursday, with people queuing as early as 7am.
Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore observed long queues outside the store, with many more people standing around to wait for their friends who were in the queues.
When the doors opened slightly before 11am, shoppers entered the store in small groups with each given around 20 minutes to shop. Even when it started to rain at around noon, those queueing were still waiting patiently for their turn to enter. By 12.30pm, there were only around 30 customers who had finished their shopping.
The event attracted mainly students in their twenties as well as many foreigners from neighbouring countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Buy to resell
Shoppers were allowed to buy up to five items, and no more than one item from each category. Some of the shoppers that Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore spoke to were intending to resell the items they buy.
Singapore Polytechnic student Huang Xiao Yue, 22, who is from China, plans to resell all the items she will be buying at four times the original price. Huang added that she will only keep the popular Box Tee for herself if she manages to get it.
Similarly, SIM student Andra, 21, who is an Indonesian, wants to buy the basketball shirt to resell it. He said, “I don’t want to wear it actually. I just want to make a business, you know. If I buy it at like around $1,000-something, then I can sell it for like $10,000-something. Add another zero.”
Mike Alex, 26, also an Indonesian, who was with his friends, said, “This is a limited collaboration and the stuff here is really limited. Supreme is a famous brand in the US, so the resale price should be very high”.
Out of stock items
Others, like Malaysian businessman Patrick, 23, would rather keep the items for themselves. Patrick spent a total of $6500 on 4 items including a pair of shoes, and an iPhone case. “This is a collaboration of a lifetime and it is very special,” Patrick said.
However, others felt that the sale process was unfair as there were different items up for grabs for different batches of shoppers based on their queue numbers. While this is commonly done in pop-up stores overseas like in London, some still felt that it was unfair.
Singaporean student Thomas, 23, felt that such a move was “not fair” to the shoppers. “Some of them queue for hours, and to not be able to get what they want. That’s quite sad and frustrating,” he said.
Galih, a 22-year-old Indonesian student, wanted to get the Christopher backpack but it was unavailable even though he had queue number 16. He later found out that the person with queue number 24 managed to get it, even though he went in before that person. “It’s pretty unfair. It’s for the VIPs I guess. I really don’t think it is fair for those who had queued earlier,” Galih complained.
Jeff, 19, a student in Singapore, spent a total of $5490 on a travel organiser, belt, sweatshirt and a pair of shoes. He was, however, unable to buy the Box Logo Hoodie that he was eyeing. “It was out of stock even though my queue number was 13,” Jeff recalled. “The staff were not even well-informed about the things going on inside the store or why the items were out of stock.”
Other items that were out of stock for certain batches of shoppers include the Box Logo Tee, a denim trucker and a denim jersey.
Here’s all you need to know about the Louis Vuitton x Supreme collection in Singapore:
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– additional reporting by Elizabeth Tong
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