Is the Heart Project the New Supreme?
Supreme has been wildly successful for several decades in the art and fashion industry. While Supreme is still relevant, new developments in the industry such as NFT projects are creating areas of new growth. As the industry grows, the Heart Project is emerging as an inspirational artist community. In this article, we will discuss how the Heart Project is breaking into the industry much like Supreme did in it’s time.
The History of Supreme
Supreme was founded in 1994 by James Jebbia in SoHo as a way to provide cool products such as clothing and skateboards to the skateboarding community without the stamp of branding. The idea was to provide neutral products that any young person would be interested in and willing to spend money on. Jebbia described the store as “The cool, cool shop. The shop that carries the cool stuff that everybody was wearing—no big brands or anything.”
In the beginning, the products were designed, marketed, and sold by a group of young New York skaters and artists. The brand quickly gained popularity with the skater community and other young people interested in art, music, or the “grunge” aesthetic. Within a few years, Supreme became known for embodying downtown culture. Jebbia stated, “My thing has always been that the clothing we make is kind of like music. There are always critics that don’t understand that young people can be into Bob Dylan but also into the Wu-Tang Clan and Coltrane and Social Distortion. Young people—and skaters—are very, very open-minded . . . to music, to art, to many things, and that allowed us to make things with an open mind.”
Over time, the brand developed a reputation for its quality, style, and authenticity. In addition, Supreme created a routine for collection releases. They drop a new collection twice annually with one online look-book and a weekly product drop both online and offline. This model has led to the company growing from a small shop run by a few artists to a global brand with operations in Tokyo, London, and Paris with a community of artists, photographers, designers, musicians, filmmakers, and writers.
The History of The Heart Project
The Heart Project has a similar vision to that of Supreme with a slightly different market in mind: NFTs. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are a form of digital artworks that are completely traceable and authenticatable, just like real-world art. When a person buys an NFT, they are buying the actual line of code that applies to that artwork.
The Heart Project was created in 2021 by Stefan Meier and Aidan Cullen. The character that represents the Heart Project was chosen due to the heart shape being a universal message of love, healing, and compassion. The vision was to create a unique NFT collection that uses artist collaboration and a DIY aesthetic to set the project apart from other NFT projects. This idea reflects the vision of Supreme back in 1994 by trying to decentralize products that young people want access to without commercialization.
The project consists of 235 unique attributes and 10,000 NFT’s. The attributes are plugged into an AU with a built-in rarity system. Each NFT has unique characteristics and personalities. In addition to promoting a community of artists with unique offerings, the project donates a portion of proceeds to charities.
The Heart Project is following the example of Supreme and developing a release structure with their NFTs. In the current release, there will be 10,000 Hearts in this collection. They will sell 5k hearts during a presale and another 5k will be released on the drop date. In addition, 250 hearts will be held for giveaways for Heart Holders. The model and vision of the Heart Project appears to be taking off in the same ways as Supreme did in the beginning with a growing community of artists. In addition, the Heart Project is trending on Opensea and has gone up over 10x the initial mint/sale price. Pieces have been collected by celebs like Meek Mill, Benny Blanco, & Edison Chen.
Looking Ahead
The Heart Project Creative Studio is designed to produce media with thousands of contributors on every project and grants ownership of the shared creations. The goal is to give back to the creative community. Much like how Supreme views their brand as a creative space, we view the Heart Project as a place to foster both digital and physical spaces through love and support. The Heart Project wants to deconstruct the idea that creativity is an individual process. Moving forward, they aim to provide the vehicle for any creative person to find the feedback and support they need to succeed.
Currently, the Heart Project has created a roadmap that details what they are, what they are working towards, and how they are going to get there. In their Roadmap 2.0 they have outlined current and upcoming projects including the following:
New Your City Party for NFTNYC
Heart Project Event at Art Basel Miami Beach
The Heart Project YouTube channel
Community designed Clothing Capsule
Community made song with Benny Blanco, Lil Dicky, and Special Feature and music video
Implement the ability to steak Hearts for rewards
EP with D33J
Jean Dawson music video
Free merch drops for all Heart holders
Music video with undisclosed artist
Establish a Heart Project charity fund and philanthropic partnerships
Collaborative community Zine
Dev Never Music Video
Raffle to win a Heart Project jacket
Vote every 08 weeks to fund a community pitched art project
In addition to giving back to the creative community, we believe in giving back to the world. The Heart Project plans to do monthly charity Snapshot proposals, letting the community vote on which charities they want to see the money go to. They are excited to also launch collaborative projects with partners for charitable causes.
Next time you are considering joining an artist community or wondering where to buy NFTs, consider looking for the Heart Project on Opensea for a unique and rewarding experience that will change how you trade cryptocurrency forever.
