A Bathing Ape

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

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, Los Angeles and coming soon to Singapore this December 2009. Nigo also founded the women's clothing lines "APEE", and "BAPY", the female "couture" clothing line.

 

Price and Rarity

BAPE products tend to be very expensive, ranging at the very least in the 80-200 dollar retail price range for a pair of legitimate BAPE shoes or a shirt. Some of the earlier products by BAPE from 2005 and earlier (especially the camo hoodies) can commonly be found running on eBay for 300-500 dollars or more depending on the item and its rarity.

 

Stores

Japan (18)

Taipei

Hong Kong

New York City

Los Angeles

London

Paris

 

Clothing Design

A Bathing Ape clothing is well recognized around the world due to its flashy design and original art, and expensive material. It often uses characters from popular media such as SpongeBob, Batman, Superman, kryptonite, Super Mario Brothers, Pokemon, Marvel characters, and Hello Kitty as well as original art such as Bape Monkeys, Baby Milo Monkey, Fast Food, The star Bapesta and Camo. It also cooperates with many other famous brands, such as Pepsi and M*A*C, and artists such as KAWS and Gary Panter. These patterns are used throughout the Bathing Ape range, on accessories, hoodies, jackets, t-shirts and Bapesta shoes.