Drop

A drop is a product release strategy where brands announce and sell new items on a specific date and time, typically in limited quantities. The format originated organically from small streetwear brands managing limited production runs—if you only made 200 pieces, you released them all at once rather than trickling them out. Supreme codified the weekly drop model, releasing new items every Thursday at 11am, creating a ritual that fans built their schedules around. Drops create artificial scarcity and urgency: you either secure the item on release day or pay resale prices. This model has since been adopted across fashion and even other industries. The drop replaced traditional fashion seasons with a constant stream of releases, fundamentally changing how brands interact with consumers. Critics argue that mainstream brands now manufacture artificial scarcity through drops even when they could produce more, exploiting the psychology that made the format work for genuinely small operations.