In a surprising move, news came in today that Hong Kong’s I.T. Group has purchased 90% of A Bathing Ape mother company Nowhere Inc.

“Hong Kong-based I.T Ltd said Tuesday it has bought 90 percent of Nowhere Co., the corporate parent of Japanese street label A Bathing Ape, known as Bape, for 230 million Japanese yen, or $2.8 million at current exchange rates.

I.T said it plans to fully consolidate Nowhere into the company. It also said that Tomoaki Nagao, best known by the name Nigo, will serve as a creative director of Nowhere for an “initial period of two years”. The statement said he will oversee product design, brand direction and image development.” Via WWD.

Last we heard, Bape was making around 60 Million USD revenue a year, therefore the 2.8 million USD pricetag seems extremely low. For now we do not know why the turn-out of this deal is so low, but hopefully we can soon tell you more.

© 2011 Highsnobiety for Titel Media. Author: David Fischer | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us | %%sharethis_link%%
Post tags: bape, business, i.t.

Hong Kong’s I.T. fashion empire is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. For the occasion they will open tomorrow a pop-up store in Hong Kong, carrying tons of collaborative product with the brands that they exclusively carry in Hong Kong. The volume of collaborations is unbelievable. We will try to present you the most interesting ones.

I.T. basically collaborated with each one of their brands on t-shirts. T-Shirt collaborations include A Bathing Ape, WTAPS, Neighborhood, Sophnet, Fingercroxx (also comes with a Bearbrick), Martin Margiela, Helmut Lang and many many more. Furthermore they present other goods in collaboration with the brands. Camper made shoes, Fingercroxx made a cushion, Bearbrick and skateboard chair. Hello Kitty made a limited edition set of toys, Porter made a special bag collection and the list just goes on forever.

All this product will be exclusively available at the I.TXX Pop-Up Store, which will open its doors tomorrow, October 24th at Times Square in Hong Kong and will only be there until October 26th.

We have to admit, we are impressed. We do not know any other big fashion group, the size of I.T. that managed to pull something like this of.

Have a look at much more 20th anniversary collaborative product after the jump.

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Read the rest of I.TXX Pop-Up Store | 20th Anniversary Collaborations

© 2008 Highsnobiety for Titel Media. Author: David Fischer | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us | %%sharethis_link%%
Post tags: hong kong, i.t., t-shirts