Now that the news of the sale of A Bathing Ape has settled, we thought the moment right for discussing consequences of the shift from Nigo to Hong Kong’s I.T. group.
At first the news was certainly upsetting. The way we see it, some of the most impressive brands have a single individual leader building up a company over the years and keeping on pushing the limits of the company and/or brand. Nigo achieved with Bape, over the last two decades, something that we will most likely never see again. From a small shop in Harajuku the man has built a global brand, with people lining up for nearly every single release. Moving from a distribution based business to exclusively selling in his own stores was the first impressive move by Nigo. But what we have always found most impressive is the weekly drop idea. Rather than releasing an entire collection at the beginning of the season, Bape started dropping product every single week of the year – both in line releases and special collaborations. That resulted in a never ending hype around new product and people just continuously wanting to purchase into the latest A Bathing Ape gear. Years later with the rise of US streetwear, we have seen similar methods from brands such as The Hundreds and Johnny Cupcakes. Everybody tried it, but only very few succeeded. The idea of perceived exclusivity became a blueprint for success in global streetwear.
The wonderful idea of the brand collaboration has been perfected by Nigo. Collaborations on a level unseen before and only imitated afterwards – from Bape Pepsi cans to Goyard trunks, G-Shock watches to fishing gear, scooters to cosmetics and toys – Nigo and A Bathing Ape have done it all. To many the today extremely successful Japanese architecture firm Wonderwall, has become primarily known for working with Bape on their flagship stores. The brand collaboration became a key driver in youth marketing around the globe. Again, if done right, which was the case many times with A Bathing Ape, it resulted in a tremendous success. Today we witness many more unsuccessful collaborations, of course also due to the influx in the use of the so called “collaboration”. In this area we still see Bape leading in many ways. Which other brand would have the balls to do a fishing gear collection? Or a dog apparel collection in this market? Bape still seems to go in directions others do not.
Read on after the jump.
