Roland+Supreme Mashup: The Boutique Boutiques
3,1 / 5,0 | 
The Boutique Call nobody asked for is happening as hip and trendy fashion house Supreme lend their design skills to a couple of mini Roland units.
When Street Fashion Meets Music Tech
In recent years, Roland attempted to popularise their oft-imitated trade dress of their 808 and 909 drum machines. There were authorised sneakers and jackets and the like. There was even a tram featuring 808 imagery.
Now it seems it’s the other way around. Supreme, who my kids tell me are some trendy sort of streetwear fashion house in New York, have styled out a couple of Roland Boutique units. Music tech history is lightly peppered with such things. Mostly, it’s custom jobs for major artists.
We’ve had units available in multiple colours. The Behringer TD-3 and RD-6 spring to mind. Nothing but a weak sales ploy, in this correspondent’s opinion. However, there must be a market for it, just one that doesn’t remotely appeal to this old man!
White Lines
As part of their Spring/Summer 2024 Accessories preview, Supreme have taken two Roland Boutique’s, namely the TR-08 and the JU-06A, painted them white and slapped their logo on them. The latter has been paired with the K25m, also painted white. The TR-08 doesn’t look too bad. They’ve inverted the main body colour and that of the area surrounding the step buttons.
This looks ok because it contrasts nicely with what we already know. However, the JU-06A fares less well. Also coloured white, they’ve slapped the Supreme logo right across the front panel. This makes looking at the already painfully small UI even more so.
Just A Paint Job
In terms of features, these units are the same as the originals. Just more brightly coloured. The only thing that may slightly be improved is your street cred. Or, in my case, greatly reduced.
More Information
Information on these units is as sparse as the colour palette that Supreme have used. Supreme say that the Spring/Summer 2024 collection goes on sale on Thursday 15th February, 17th in Japan & South Korea. No price, however. Just a few pretty pictures and ladles of ridicule and praise in equal measure, no doubt. The sound of wallets being drawn from pockets by hands still damp with beard oils and man-bun bands grows in the distance.
For those not fussed about a new paint job, the originals are still available and, no doubt, priced a bit more sensibly than these will be.
- TR-08 and JU-06A at Supreme
- Roland’s website
- More news from Roland
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5 responses to “Roland+Supreme Mashup: The Boutique Boutiques”
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So they made them white. That’s it?
One have their ugly logo in the middle.
Is this now considered to be good design or genius?
What a joke..
I would not enjoy using a synth with that stupid effing logo screaming at my eyes. That would be like trying to de-fuse a suitcase-bomb while someone named Rhonda, with a heavy New Jersey accent, loudly chews gum and tells you about her weekend.
While the TR does look pretty swish in white, the JU is an abomination.
With the myriad of people who would have been involved in the sign-off for the design, I’m actually shocked that something so poor has made it to production.
However, as it’s main purpose will be to fill out the background of Instagram posts, I suspect usability was low on the list.
Now get off my lawn!
I have a collection of Supreme gear ranging from a toothbrush to an Lexus with supreme decals all over. I love the brand and have some investments in their stock. I have already placed an order for both of these units and expect them to sit in a glass shelf with my other collectibles. All in all I’ve spent well over 50k on my Supreme collection and I will not stop! There isn’t a more fashionable and more recognizable brand imo.
It would have been hilarious if they’d taken this opportunity to re-issue the 909 boutique.