a bathing ape, neighborhood, etc

surver

Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2005
Messages
271
Reaction score
0
i've always been wondering about BAPE's (as well as other japanese street brands) ability to orchestrate and achieve the 'cult' status they have... what is it that these labels attract everyone sooo much? it's definitedly NOT the quality as many of us can contest... nor the cutting for not much of BAPE wear is very 'original' in design but more 'lifted'/'borrowed'... so what is it? is it the overall 'lifestyle' perception they project? especially with BAPE, it's amazing and fascinating for me how it can 'borrow'/copy so unashamedly for instance the adidas super/ultra stars and not only it doesn't get sued but the original brand turns around and legitimizes it by collaborating!!! and does the methodology of issuing items bit by bit over the course of a season (instead of having the entire collection available at the start all at once) encourage 'rareity' and thus the sky-high prices on the net? anyone care to share your views/enlightenment/opinions on this please?
 
surver said:
i've always been wondering about BAPE's (as well as other japanese street brands) ability to orchestrate and achieve the 'cult' status they have... what is it that these labels attract everyone sooo much? it's definitedly NOT the quality as many of us can contest... nor the cutting for not much of BAPE wear is very 'original' in design but more 'lifted'/'borrowed'... so what is it? is it the overall 'lifestyle' perception they project? especially with BAPE, it's amazing and fascinating for me how it can 'borrow'/copy so unashamedly for instance the adidas super/ultra stars and not only it doesn't get sued but the original brand turns around and legitimizes it by collaborating!!! and does the methodology of issuing items bit by bit over the course of a season (instead of having the entire collection available at the start all at once) encourage 'rareity' and thus the sky-high prices on the net? anyone care to share your views/enlightenment/opinions on this please?

uh...yes and yes. and nigo, the designer himself, helped elevate the popularity by having tons of inside friends in the industry and for being pretty much a young, normal guy but that others see as a a 'god of cool'. hiroshi fujiwara is very much the same... ive never formally studied the phenomenon though:innocent:
 
since you're in tokyo can you look into it? the phenomenon of this? i'd be very interested. are you in the fashion business? if you are interested to look into this phenomenon i'd be interested in discussing a potential project with you offline.
 
nigo is just like any designer IE borrowed styles, cheap quality, high prices, etc. the underlying definition behind "a bathing ape" is simply put, kids are blind and will buy into the hype at whatever cost to be considered an "individual." it's basically a brand named after the culture itself. bape has slowed it's 10yr reign over the japan scene and has marketed itself into the US mainstream and has everyone beasting over their products. but you can't deny that he's basically a marketing genius. his whole line of clothing/shoes/accessories can only be purchased at busyworkshops and no other retailer can acquire an account, rather, be purchased and resold at higher costs. having everything as a limited run, everyone's gonna want a piece of BAPE.
 
domo,
the phenomenon of BAPE has become just a memory now. the western media have just recognized its success recently. i'd have to admit: it was 'fun' back in the days.
 
these brands are so popular in Hong Kong among the 10+ ~ 20+ too...:ninja:
 
you must agree he is the god of (deceiving his way into the market) marketing but definitely not a good or creative designer.

a good designer is not suppose to design for the mass and for the sake of making money, am i wrong?

how do you think of that?
 
butbeautiful said:
you must agree he is the god of (deceiving his way into the market) marketing but definitely not a good or creative designer.

a good designer is not suppose to design for the mass and for the sake of making money, am i wrong?

how do you think of that?

i don't think there is anything wrong with designer making money. nigo knows he is not a designer, i don't think he ever claimed to be one. he is not pathetic, the people who wear his clothes are, because his message is "all you are good for is giving your money to me because i tell you it's cool" ...and they do.
 
I remember chatting with a japanese fashion journalist and she said "Bape is not fashion":-)
 
basically there are two types of ppl here in hk,
1- japanese street fashion pilgrims. they actually know nothing about fashion industry inside. nor any ostensibly things. it's all about vanitism.

2- japanese street fashion, more accurate, japanese street brandplates foes. they are conscious enough to know a BAPE tee or any BAPE products are overpriced and badly designed.

Nigo not only once said BAPE is a lifestyle but not fashion.
it's always his starting point.
but ppl just like playing around with BAPE comdoms.
 
www.fuk.co.uk is a fourum full of people who love BAPE. The idea I get is that people see it as a club that you can pay to get into. I first saw this clothing on Pharrell Williams (rapper/producer) and he has now made his own urban label called Billionaire Boys Club which is similar to BAPE in its background, customers e.t.c.
 
bape is super old news...snore.

nigo went to design school with jun takahashi (undercover) and financially supported undercover in its early years, even devoting the second floor (now a footsoldier shop) of the aoyama store to his collections. they still remain friends and co-owners of nowhere ltd. (with hiroshi fujiwara), but jun let nigo in the dust long ago.

now that nigo has opened up a shop in new york (even though the only customers are dudes with two-ways and gold fronts) every store is climbing over each other to carry similar lines: union sells neighborhood, vis-vim, and bounty hunter; atmos opened up a harlem location; alife sells grey-market bape sneakers (at stupid prices to stupid kids); clientelle sells madfoot and tas; stussy sells headporter...the list goes on and on...

jun is the only alum from that culture that is not stuck in 1992.
 
and apparently so is the very short-lived 'billionaire boys club'; didn't it 'die' after the first few releases of products?
 
surver said:
and apparently so is the very short-lived 'billionaire boys club'; didn't it 'die' after the first few releases of products?

BBC barely released it's shirt designs like last month and sold out quickly to all the hypebeast kids at around $100/shirt. i've seen stores like workmens here in LA sell fake BBC shirts and watch them go in hours.

now ice cream shoes, those are just straight garbage. some designs made it to outlets. funny thing is, there's only about 3000 made per style :lol:
 
but i heard from numerous sources that BBC is dead?... hmmm...
 
surver said:
but i heard from numerous sources that BBC is dead?... hmmm...
Probably Pharrell was the only one that wore it and I think they only ever had t-shirts.

I never desired BAPE, its so pointless. So far all they do is rebrand, via changing the color scheme.
 
any comments on NEIGHBORHOOD? it's more focused and 'defined'. but what's the story with the different 'branding' ie WTAPS, SVG ARCHIVES, PHILOSOPHY...?
 
BBC is far from dead, just not readily available to the public. http://www.zugara.com/bbc/ is their makeshift site.

as for NBHD, im not a fan of their clothing. most of the tees i've seen are just as good as hanes but overpriced. from my understanding, it's just a brand for the "underground" scene, even though it's pretty mainstream. the more collabos these type of brands do, IE futura laboratories x kaws x bape x unkle x whoever, the more exclusive and hyped up they become.
 
If you create a strong enough image and market it corectly, the succeptible people will easily buy into it when they are told what they want to hear.

The people who buy into it are people who buy easily into other things, thats exactly what the marketing and corporations want.

and in all reality, the teenagers and young 20's people who buy his things really dont give a cra*p about the quality, they only buy what they think looks good and dont examine into any other detail.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Users who are viewing this thread

New Posts

Forum Statistics

Threads
212,880
Messages
15,202,211
Members
86,920
Latest member
Clora
Back
Top