A Bathing Ape
About Bape
- Routes traced back to Ura-Harajuku scene of early 90s
- Nigo is a nutorious fan of 20th century pop culture
- Love for Planet of the Apes
- Japanese idiom 'A bathing Ape in lukewarm water' describes someone overindulgent, lying in a bath until water isn't hot
- Tongue in cheek reference to hyper-consumptive youth of Japan
- Ura-Harajuku - "underground Harajuku"
Bape - its a lifestyle
- Beyond clothes and sneakers, the brand has produced Kitchenware, furniture, toiletries, fishing hooks, skateboards and more
- True pioneers of the 'lifestyle brand' concept
- "How can we infiltrate your entire life and make it cooler"
- BAPE Considered as one of the original streetwear brands
- No stranger when it comes to the game of producing items in limited quantity
- Items quickly became the ultimate badge of street cred among the hipsters in the back alleys of Harajuku
- By carefully nurturing his label, Nigo turned A Bathing Ape into a cultural phenomenon by striking a fine balance between exclusivity and mass appeal
- With the ubiquitous (found everywhere) ape head appearing on everything from vinyl figures to Pepsi bottles
- It's not wonder eager fans are willing to line the blocks to get their hands on these coveted items and buy into the lifestyle that Nigo has put up for sale
- 2007 - Baby Milo could be found all over sheets of toilet paper
- Awarded to people who spent a certain amount of money in BAPE stores
- Can be found on Ebay for $40 per roll
- Keeping with toiletry theme, BAPE teamed up with Swedish brand Tepe to release a set of toothbrushes
- Partnered up with MAC during christmas of 2005 for its own set of cosmetics, which included a lip conditioner and blot film
- Collab with Japanese fishing gear label Daiwa on the aptly named 'A Fishing Ape' line
- Included lures designed with 1st edition camo
- Bape managed to rise to the level of mass consciousness
- Arguably the first brand to go "this hoodie us a premium product, lets charge $400 for it"
- Even after Nigo's departure, the impact of Bape could be felt across various streetwear cultures
Bape, though it might have overextended its lifestyle brand in Japan, avoided that sort of dilution in the US
- Also avoided fading away like some brands have done since the 2000s
- No one would say something like "I can't believe how much BAPE I wore in 2006" as it was the first of its kind
- Other brands that may have faded since then can sometimes be thought of in this way, with former consumers looking back and regretting or further still, cringing at their own fashion choices.
- "The BAPE full-zip hoodie is still a status symbol"
- "It still represents that high-end street kind of aesthetic that so many brands try to emulate"
- Even after the company was sold to another owner, the company didn't spread thin
- Instead keeping supply limited and prices at higher end of streetwear spectrum
- "BAPE represents where the origins of modern streetwear lay"
- Talk about the wearing of BAPE in music videos
- Soulja Boy & Pharrell
- People see the clothes in popular music videos, worn by idols and creates a lifestyle/image/brand story that people have bought into
- Keeping stock limited gives clothes exclusivity which makes people buy into it in order to be a part of this exclusive group
- The less people in a group, the more people want in as it makes them unique
- BAPE has never formally advertised themselves, only through word-of-mouth
- Nigo actively discouraged celebrities from being photographed in his label
- "I really do not want a lot of people wearing my clothes"
- Part of the mystique lies in how difficult it is to find a store and purchase the items
- Nigo did not advertise the store locations and shopfronts are intentionally unmarked with a very fine etching of the word 'nowhere' above the entrance
- Customers are made to wait in line to get into the store
- Then they are only allowed to buy one item and only in their own size
- Nigo's first US store attracted a crowd through only word of mouth publicity
- Exclusivity and unattainability
- Make it difficult for people who are not in the know to find them
- The idea is if you do not know what it is and where it is, you have no business being there
- Thrive from the buzz and chatter created by their regular customers
- Anti-marketing
- This is branding at the other end of the spectrum to other examples
- Nigo created something that people wanted to be a part of without actually advertising it
- There was no lifestyle or story created to entice customers
- Nigo forcefully kept advertising to a minimum
Graphique Couture
- Bape started out as a highly exclusive label
- In its first two years, Nigo produced between thirty and fifty T-shirts per week, giving half of them to friends and selling the rest
- Nigo ran his label from a small shop in the Harajuku district of Tokyo, in the days before it became annexed by the young and trendy
- Word soon spread about Bape, but despite long queues forming in front of the door, Nigo resisted the temptation to increase production
- His reasoning was that limiting the availability would lead to further surge in demand and ensure his Bape T-shirts retained their aura or exclusivity
- Collaborations have included Nintendo, DC Comics, MAC, Pepsi, Carhartt and Casio
- Nigo also combined Bape graphics with well-known cartoon characters such as Hello Kitty, Sponge Bob and KAWS
- It is their strong, graphic style that ensures that BAPE products are so recognisable
- The label makes heavy use of a number of logo, the first of which is Bape, based on the ape Cornelius in the film Planet Of The Apes
- Bape features in the camo print
- Second logo is Baby Milo, a simple cartoon drawing of a baby monkey, representing Cornelius's son
- Originated as a T-shirt brand
- Reflects Japanese youth culture in which comic books, games, streetwear and pret-a-porter influences appear to converge seamlessly
- Nigo took the liberty of intergrating other cartoon characters such as Hello Kitty into his graphic visual language, which led to a new narrative and visual culture
- Nigo was aware of the crucial role the T-shirt plays in his visual language: "Just as Ralph Lauren is known for its polo shirts, the T-shirt is both a staple and a symbol of A Bathing Ape"
- It's expressive and uncomplicated at the same time, making it a medium best suited to our needs"
- Nigo strived for a graphic presence that did not tie him down to a particular product - this allowed for the lifestyle murch
- With a Bape T-shirt, you will feel as if you have been transported into another universe
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