Welcome to the Bapes Review blog
A Bathing Ape (or BAPE) is a Japanese clothing company founded by Tomoaki ”Nigo” Nagao in 1993. The company specializes in street wear, operating stores in Japan, including BAPE, BAPE Store, Foot Soldier and the Bape Exclusive store (located in Aoyama, Tokyo). The company also operates Bape Cuts hair salon, Bape Café and gallery, Bape Sounds records. There are also stores located in Hong Kong, London, New York, Taipei and Los Angeles. Nigo also founded the women’s clothing lines “APEE”, and “BAPY”, the female “couture” clothing line.
The first Bape (Bathing Ape) store in New York was opened in January 2005. Since then, the clothing line has rocketed to fame, worn by the biggest US celebrities including T.I., Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Pharell Williams, Teriyaki Boyz, Omarion and many more.
The company has unfortunately suffered from a high amount of counterfeit copies mostly manufactured in China flooding the worldwide market.
The brand is considered extremely similar to Pharell William’s own brand ‘Billionaire Boys’ Club’ (BBC), due to the fact that Tomoaki ”Nigo” Nagao is head designer of BBC aswell as Bathing Ape (Bape) clothing.
Bape hoodies, T-shirts, and sneakers (trainers, shoes) are the most popular products by some distance due to their iconic popular media designs which have included Marvel characters, Batman, Superman, Spongebob Squarepants, Super Mario Brothers (Bros.) and Hello Kitty. The Bathing Ape brand has collaborated with other large global brands such as M*A*C cosmetics (MAC) and Pepsi Co.
Early influences of Nigo mostly include musical successes such as Elvis Presley, and 60s English guitar group ‘The Beatles’, aswell as old-school hip-hop acts such as Run DMC.
According to shop assistants in the New York store, the BAPE store is officially licensed on its records under the full name of “Bathing Ape in Lukewarm Water”, a Japanese saying with it’s origins rooting from the Japanese belief that to bathe in warm water is overindulgent and lazy, often words to describe adolescent/teen culture of the last two decades globally.
