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BAPE has developed its own-brand fishing gear, transformers, dolls, condoms, and even toilet paper throughout the years, but once an object is camouflaged, it is no longer just an object. Seriously, how many people do you believe took that BAPE toilet paper home and used it? Though the BAPE Shark Hoodie is easier to find now than it was when it was originally released, it remains a sought-after piece of streetwear history for a variety of reasons. For starters, it's so distinct that everyone "in the know" who sees it quickly recognizes it. Continuing the trend of exclusivity, Nigo made it extremely difficult for buyers to access the store.
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Born in Beacon, New York, Adam Lister is a multi-disciplinary artist most well known for his geometric interpretations of iconic imagery and pop culture references. Though streetwear as a whole stems from the reappropriation of workwear labels and aesthetics by American brands and artists, it was the Japanese who helped breathe new life into it in the ‘90s via the Ura-Harajuku scene. A fresh crop of exciting brands including BAPE, UNDERCOVER, and WTAPS emerged from this burgeoning youth movement, which centered around the NOWHERE store and street publications such as Asayan, Relax, and Smart. Graphic T-shirts are the bread and butter of any streetwear label, including BAPE. For BAPE, the simplicity of the logo was ideal for two-color screen printing, which NIGO did by hand in his Tokyo studio in the early days. Fast forward to the present, and BAPE is still applying the same approach when it comes to designing its bold, recognizable graphics.
BAPE X GOD SELECTION XXX SHARK FULL ZIP HOODIE MENS
The brand has a massive following in Japan, the United States, and Europe, and has been worn by many celebrities, including Travis Scott, Drake, and ASAP Rocky. The capsule features three special tee shirt designs that lean into Nigo’s founding of the brand on April 1, 1994 in Harajuku, Japan. The first design features a large 31 design accentuated by BAPE’s signature camo – seeing green, blue and red/pink colorways across white tees. Next up is the core APE HEAD logo that says “31” alongside the brand’s full name underneath. For the ladies, BAPE’s SS23 collection features a range of expressive designs decked out in bold feminine graphics and playful prints.
BAPE® MERCHANDISE
In 2002, Nigo took the brand one step further as he created the Bapesta shoe, which resembled Nike Air Force 1's design. However, through his meeting with Pharrell, BAPE could take off in the United States. Pharrell, a member of the group, N.E.R.D. at the time, was one of the earliest artists to regularly sport the brand in the United States. Despite this, Nigo's introduction to the rapper came from a mutual acquaintance, Jacob the Jeweler. The bling icon mentioned to Nigo that his commissioned pieces were similar to those of Pharrell's, and eventually, the two met in Tokyo.
HBX Archives Week 142 LV fragment design BAPE - HYPEBEAST
HBX Archives Week 142 LV fragment design BAPE.
Posted: Fri, 13 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
BAPE's Beginnings and Its Famous Logo
Seriously; how many people do you think actually took that BAPE toilet roll home and used it? But thirdly, and perhaps most interestingly, it’s worth considering BAPE camo in the light of Nigo’s idol – Andy Warhol. Just as Andy Warhol wanted to make everyday, mass-manufactured culture into a work of art, there’s something very high-meets-low culture in the way Nigo has plastered BAPE camo in blue, pink, red and green onto any surface he can get his hands on. The thing with BAPE though, these days at least, is that none of that is really the case.
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Firstly, it’s so distinctive that anyone “in the know” who sees it immediately knows what it is. Secondly, averaging at around $300 retail, they’re expensive as hell which, coupled with the first point, makes it highly appealing to the streetwear community's love of letting other grown men in the street know how much money they spent on a piece of clothing from just a glance. By 1998 the brand was stocked in around 40 locations across Japan, but Nigo then made the bold move of canceling all wholesale operations, instead focusing all of his energy on a single flagship location in Tokyo. Sales quickly exceeded their previous levels and the fundamental streetwear formula of hype, scarcity and public spectacle was born — and arguably birthed streetwear's queuing culture that we know and love (or loathe) today. The BAPE SK8 STA sees the STA logo popping out in all 3 of the color ways, as the motifs are set against an opposite color and further enhanced with contrasting PVC or fine leather outlines. You can get this with a gorgeous gym Red set on Wheat, Forest Green combined with Dark Purple, or sharp Electric Yellow popping starkly in contrast to Black.
A BATHING APE® BRINGS BACK BAPE STA™
So here’s a guide to the history, hype, and hysteria of one of streetwear's first true “lifestyle brands” – A Bathing Ape. This year marks BAPE’s thirtieth anniversary, a testament to its position as a streetwear powerhouse. Since its inception three decades ago, the label has been able to transcend the norms of most clothing brands to become a global cultural phenomenon, pushing the boundaries of design and consumerism in the process. Scarcity of stockists and limited-quantity product drops in BAPE’s early years paved the way for its cult success. In the pre-internet era, BAPE relied on cryptic marketing and selective seeding in order to align itself with the hip underground demographic of the 1990s.
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Despite its humble beginnings, BAPE transcended fashion and became synonymous with culture, especially during the mid-2000s. BAPE is one of the greatest streetwear brands of all time, and its legacy continues to persist today. A colorful rendition of BAPE®’s iconic camo print presents SHARK SEIJIN’s unique outlook as a longtime icon of the brand. With psychedelic colors and abstract shapes, the artist brings focus to BAPE®’s legacy as a brand standing at the intersection of art and fashion.
History of the BAPE Shark Hoodie
The BABY MILO® is made of a raised cotton-lined fabric in the ABC CAMO pattern, one of BAPE®'s most popular camouflage patterns. The felt badge with eagle motif and the graphic around the eagle are rubber printed, adding READYMADE's unique style to this item. Slash pockets on both sides of the front and a patch pocket on the right side of the back.
The “College” range offers a nostalgic showing with throwback designs such as the 2000’s Gradiation series and OG graphic prints, while the “Outdoor” range takes on techwear and military styling with the ladies exclusive Pink Woodland Camo pattern. The “Hip Hop” range turns the clock back to the 2000s with the Cookie Camo 2 pattern on a jacquard jacket and handbag, and Y2K outlook designs such as the BAPE Logo Monogram Tracksuit and Low Waist Denim Jeans. The collection includes accenting accessories and layering options such as the Milo Basket Bag and Tie-Dye items. Nigo, the founder of BAPE, formed the brand in 1993 after opening the store NOWHERE in the famous Ura-Harajuku fashion district in Japan.
BAPE is a label synonymous with collaboration, with some of the joint-designed pieces more famous than those from its own line. The process was established early on in the BAPE timeline, working with fellow Uru-Hara labels such as WTAPS, before uniting streetwear kingpins Supreme and Stüssy in the late ‘90s. It wasn’t just clothing brands that got the BAPE treatment—BAPE branched out to work with era-defining artists such as Takashi Murakami, KAWS, Stash, and Futura to create limited-edition items, too. The most surprising collab might have to be the 2001 Pepsi can, with a price tag of less than a dollar—making it the cheapest BAPE item ever available at retail value. Today, the list of collaborators is long and ever-growing, with key partnerships between the likes of Marvel, adidas, Porter, and Comme des Garçons defining the brand in the modern era.
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