The History of Bape

tamaki naoga was born in maibashi japan on december 23 of 1970. now if that name doesn't sound familiar it's because naga would later become known as nigo but we'll talk about how he got that name in just a bit nego grew up in a working-class family with both of his parents working an exorbitant amount of hours leaving him at home to entertain himself with toys and movies and while this might make him sound a bit lonesome i can assure you that this period of time was crucial to his development keep in mind that this was around the time that american movies like star wars were taking over the globe and as a child nego fell head over heels for american entertainment in fact at the age of six he started collecting toys and figurines from his favorite movies with his first piece being a donald duck plush toy little did he know it at the time but this was the start of what would eventually become one of the biggest collections of pop culture items in the world we're gonna talk more about this collection later in the video but for now just know that this interest started at a very early age as nico grew into his teen years his interest expanded beyond toys and figurines into the often interceding worlds of music and fashion at around the age of 16 he saved up his money to purchase a set of turntables with the intention of becoming a dj nigo was particularly fascinated with hip-hop and even began modeling his own style after ll cool j who was of course well known for his big chains baggy clothes and bucket hats now even though hip-hop music is what got niko initially interested in fashion it wasn't until his discovery of hiroshi fujiwara that nico realized it was his passion now if you don't know who hiroshi fujiwara is he's the founder of fragment design and is widely considered to be one of the founding fathers of modern streetwear back in the day fujiwara had a column in the popular japanese magazine takarajima and when niko discovered the column he became obsessed with fujiwara's ability to blend pop culture and fashion nico was still young but thanks to fujiwara he had now discovered his love for fashion and after graduating from high school it was this love for fashion that made him decide to move to tokyo which was a decision that would change his life forever upon arriving in tokyo nigo enrolled in the bunker fashion college which is widely regarded as one of the top fashion schools in the world moving to tokyo was undoubtedly a change of pace from the mountainside city he had grown up in but it turns out nego felt right at home in this new environment tokyo's bustling nightlife was the perfect venue for him to explore music and fashion and you could even say he got a little bit too involved in tokyo's nightlife like a lot of college kids he spent more time partying than studying and he would later go on to say that he learned absolutely nothing from his time at college now even though he wasn't learning much from his studies one very important thing did happen during this time at bunker and that was meeting june takahashi jun takahashi is the japanese designer that would go on to create the legendary label undercover and he was enrolled in the bunker fashion college at the same time as nigo the two of them met and quickly bonded over their shared love for streetwear but as much as they loved streetwear nigo was starting to make a name for himself in the music scene by djing at local nightclubs not only did nigo become known for his skills as a dj but he also became known for his distinct style which as we mentioned drew heavily from the aesthetic of american hip-hop and in a twist of fate his style caught the attention of none other than his idol hiroshi fujiwara it comes as no surprise that fujiwara has a keen eye for emerging streetwear trends so when word got out that nigo was setting trends in tokyo's local streetwear scene he knew it was the beginning of something special fujiwara then reached out to nigo and offered him a position as his personal assistant and from that point forward the two began working together in fact this is how niko got his nickname as the story goes he was at a club one night when someone came up to him and said he looked exactly like hiroshi fujiwara and called him hiroshi fujiwara nigo which translates to hiroshi fujiwara number two having no problem being compared to his mentor he adopted the nickname and that is how tamaki naogao became known as nigo in his role as personal assistant nigo helped fujiwara with a number of projects and this included working on the aforementioned column in the takarajima magazine remember that niko read this magazine religiously as a teenager and that's actually where he first learned about fujiwara so for him to help fujiwara create a column for the magazine just a few years later was a major milestone in his career you can see here one of the first issues that nego worked on and you'll notice that he makes a reference to planet of the apes which as you may know is a film that would go on to be one of his major sources of inspiration then in 1990 nego helped fujiwara launch his streetwear label good enough which would eventually become a staple in japanese streetwear culture this was an incredibly valuable experience for nigo because it allowed him to see firsthand everything that goes into starting a label from the ground up and while he may not have learned much at fashion school hoping fujiwara launched good enough with all the education he needed just three years later in 1993 nico was finally ready to start his own adventure into the world of fashion on april 1st of 1993 nigo and jun takahashi opened a fashion boutique called nowhere named after the song nowhere man by the beatles by this point hiroshi fujiwara is good enough was a resounding success and niko and takahashi were both looking for something new to work on so fujiwara encouraged them to open their own boutique where they could sell good enough as well as a curation of other popular streetwear brands they settled on opening the store in yura harajuku at the time the yara harajuku area was a collection of small boutiques in the back streets of tokyo's harajuku district nowadays this district is flooded with well-known streetwear and luxury labels but back then it was basically if you know you know status for local fans of punkin streetwear and it didn't take long for nowhere to become a popular spot there was however just one problem the store was basically divided into two different sections on one side you could find junta kahashi's selection of grungy punk style clothing and on the other side you could find nico's selection of streetwear and vintage sportswear like nike and adidas the problem was that takahashi's side of the store was much more popular and a large part of this had to do with the launch of undercover like i mentioned previously undercover is jun takahashi's label and he released his first ever collection at nowhere it quickly became a best seller and while this was great for the store it left niko thinking of ways that he could get the customers interested in streetwear he knew he needed to find an idea but it turns out that that idea was about to find him in addition to nego and jun takahashi hiroshi fujiwara had a third prodigy under his wing and that third prodigy's name was shinichiro nakamura better known as skate thing skate thing was arguably the most in-demand graphic designer from this era of japanese streetwear and nowadays he's the co-founder and owner of streetwear brand kavempt but none of this would have happened if it weren't for hiroshi fujiwara much like what happened with nigo fujiwara met skate thing through the local streetwear scene and instantly saw something special in his style fujiwara then introduced him to his first apple computer escaping found the graphic design software and the rest is history from that point forward skating started working on projects with fujiwara and this meant he was now also spending more time with niko in june that being said skate thing was well aware of the problem that nigo was dealing with at the store and one night by complete chance he found the answer to that problem skate thing shared niko's love for american entertainment and on this night he decided to sit down and have a five-hour marathon of the planet of the apes movies as soon as he was done he rushed to nigo to let him know that he had found the idea he was looking for a streetwear brand based off of planet of the apes now if you didn't have the benefit of hindsight here you might think that basing your whole brand around a single movie franchise isn't the best idea but that's not the way nego saw it remember that niko had grown up obsessed with american entertainment including movie franchises like this one so for him this was an opportunity to combine his love for fashion with his love for pop culture so nigo decided to go forward with the idea and settled on the name of bathing ape the name is an obvious reference to the film but it's also a reference to the japanese expression a bathing ape in lukewarm water which is basically used to refer to young people who live relaxed lavish lifestyles even though the full name of the brand is technically a bathing ape this was then abbreviated to just bait which is what it is most commonly referred to as today so once they got the name down skate thing put his graphic design skills to work and made some of the brand's first designs including the now iconic ape head logo nico printed the logo on some shirts put them up in the store and for the first time ever vape was made available to the world even though this was nico's first real venture into the world of fashion he knew exactly what he was doing from the very start between helping hiroshi fujiwara launch good enough seeing his friend jun takahashi build undercover from the ground up and opening his own streetwear boutique he knew what it took to make a brand popular and that's exactly what he did from the very beginning nigo knew that he had to make vape exclusive he only sold it at his store he only produced a limited amount and he charged fairly high prices that way even though the brand was still new it gave people the impression that vape was a higher end brand before long people started seeing the ape logo around the city and just like nico had planned they all started coming to the store to try to get their hands on his t-shirts around this time skate thing also added babe's signature camouflage pattern into the mix and this quickly became a fan favorite now nego wanted to keep vape exclusive but as you can probably imagine he still wanted it to expand so he didn't start mass producing t-shirts or anything like that but he did start letting vape be sold at a few other local boutiques this helped build vape's cult following in japan but how exactly did the brand make its way overseas well interestingly enough this probably wouldn't have happened if it weren't for nico's music career through djing nico met the english electronic musician james lavelle and lavelle introduced him to american graffiti artist stash stash happened to own a streetwear boutique in new york called recon and after connecting with nigo he became one of the first stores in america to carry bait so just like that vape had made its way to new york city and it wasn't long before people started to take notice as i'm sure most of you probably know new york rapper biggie smalls was one of the hottest names in hip hop during the mid 90s not only was he known for his music but he was also pretty well known for his style big chains designer shades kuji versace and then in 1994 he added vape into the mix you can see here biggie wearing a camo vape jacket in this 1994 photograph taken by the legendary photographer sean mortensen now according to some accounts this jacket didn't actually belong to biggie and mortensen just brought it to the photo shoot for him to wear but whatever the case may be this was the first time that vape was introduced to the american rap scene meanwhile back in japan the brand was gaining momentum faster than nigo could have ever expected and while you might be thinking that's a good thing he saw things differently remember that when nico started vape he wanted it to be exclusive but by 1998 things had gotten a little bit out of control and the brand was being sold at more than 40 different retailers in japan so in 1999 making what was undoubtedly a very risky decision nego pulled vape off the shelves at every single one of these retailers and opened to the first ever flagship vape store in hong kong this easily could have backfired and halted the brand's momentum but instead it did just the opposite from that point forward if you wanted bait there was only one place to get it and that's where everyone went i also want to quickly mention that around this time nego had also started hosting the worldwide aped shows which were later renamed worldwide vapehead shows these were basically just music festivals that nigo hosted for some of his favorite musicians and dj friends but they really helped develop babe's cult following by combining his passions for fashion and music to create the vapehead shows nico was communicating that he had more to offer than just a cool t-shirt he really wanted to push bait's association with the world of music and i guess you could even say he wanted it to become a sort of lifestyle brand so all of that being said vape was obviously on a hot streak but looking back now this was really just the beginning heading into the early 2000s it really felt like everything nico touched to turn to gold this is when babe introduced the iconic zip up shark hoodie and of course the vape stuff now the inspiration for the bapesto is obvious nico basically wanted his own nike model and so he reimagined the air force one using patent leather and an array of flashy colorways air force ones were already extremely popular in japan and america so when the vapes just released they were an instant hit but the question here is how did nigo get away with copying nike's design well i've heard everything from the shoe being just different enough to not be a legal copy i've heard the pattern on the air force one had expired i've even heard that nike owned a stake in vape which of course is not true but whatever the truth is all we really know is that nike never brought a lawsuit against bait and this opened the door for the babestot to become one of bape's staple offerings so nico started opening new stores releasing more collections even collaborating with major brands like pepsi but perhaps the single most important thing that happened in the early 2000s was meeting pharrell according to pharrell it all started when he went to see jacob the jeweler who if you don't know is an iconic jeweler in the world of rap music while he was there jacob explained that some guy in japan was bringing him photos of pharrell's chains and having him remake them in different colors he didn't know it at the time but this guy was of course nigo as we've discussed nigo really bases his personal style off of american hip-hop and he was such an avid fan of pharrell that he wanted to wear the same chains he was wearing after this pharrell didn't really give it too much thought but fast forward a year and he's on a trip to tokyo while on the trip pharrell wanted to book some time at a studio but he didn't have any local contacts and had trouble finding one that was until nigo found out through the grapevine that pharrell was in the city and instantly reached out to offer him time at his personal studio pharrell accepted but he had no idea what he was in for nico's studio was actually just one part of a seven-story building that he used to house his cars collectibles and of course racks and racks of bait it was upon seeing the building that pharrell knew nico was special and this was the beginning of their friendship after pharaoh was done in the studio the two of them went to dinner and it was over the course of this dinner that pharrell told ningo he was actually thinking of starting his own streetwear brand billionaire boys club right away nico offered to help him launch the brand and before the night was even over skate thing who also designed the logo for bait had designed the now iconic billionaire boys club logo i'll also quickly mention that this partnership would expand to include bbc's spin-off label ice cream as well so once the trip was over pharrell was ready to head back home and before he left nigo let him take as much vape as he could carry in poetic symbolism of the style revolution that was about to take place pharrell left all of his old clothes in tokyo and flew back to america with a suitcase full of babe when pharrell got back to america he started pushing vape bbc and ice cream as much as possible in the early 2000s these were basically the only brands you could find him wearing and after they made appearances in his music videos the demand for these pieces skyrocketed it skyrocketed so much in fact that in 2005 nico opened bait's first ever international location in new york city and of course the store's opening day party was hosted by none other than pharrell himself after this it wasn't long before bait took america by storm just like he had always dreamed of doing nico had finally made his way into the american rap scene pharrell even brought him to the 2006 mtv video music awards which was one of the first times the american public got to see who was behind this hot new brand so even though pharrell is the one who really brought vape to america he wasn't the only person in hip-hop wearing it for instance lil wayne was one of the early adopters of vape and many people credited him with helping to launch the brain further into mainstream popularity and another major influence was kanye west kanye is just as well known for his style as he is for his music and during the graduation slash 80s and heartbreak era he was wearing a lot of bait in fact nego and kanye became close friends and collaborators during this period kanye appeared in several campaigns for vape nego produced the samples for kanye's unreleased label pastel and in 2007 they released the kanye west vapes does which featured kanye's signature bear on a pair of brown and red babestos this was just one of several collabs that nigo put together during the 2000s with some major ones including the supreme vape collab the cause collab the undercover collab and the star wars collab just to name a few above all of these though i would have to guess that the vape disney collab stands out as one of the most important to nego remember that as a kid niko's first ever collectible was a donald duck plush toy and here he was years later with his own official vape branded donald duck plush toy all things considered the early 2000s were pivotal for nigo and it was starting to feel like there was nothing he couldn't do vape was more popular than ever he started his own hip-hop group called the teriyaki boys back in japan and he befriended major celebrities in music and fashion you could even say he became a celebrity himself everything was looking up for nego but trouble was right around the corner in 2009 nico stepped down as the president and ceo of bape for the second time in the brand's history it had expanded too quickly on the surface everything was fine but in reality vape was losing money at a staggering rate and had accrued nearly 50 million dollars in debt yes vape was more popular than ever but nego had started opening new stores around the world and he even opened babe cafes vape hair salons a vape record label to put it simply nico's ambitions had led him to stray too far from babe's core business model and the brand as a whole was now in jeopardy having run out of options nico sold a 90 stake in the company to the hong kong-based it group for less than 3 million dollars as part of the buyout nego was contracted to remain the creative director of vape for four years and in 2013 when that contract expired it wasn't renewed and nigo officially left bait for good this was in many ways a bittersweet ending even though nego was forced to leave bait there's no denying that he built what will go down as one of the most iconic streetwear brands in history that being said however the general public noticed a pretty steep decline in the quality of designs after nigo stepped away and even when he was still on his four-year contract it was fairly evident that his heart just wasn't in it and that might be because he was focusing all of his attention on his next great project in 2010 while still technically contracted as creative director of bait nego teamed up with skating to launch a new label called human made human made shares many aesthetic similarities to vape with its bright colors and bold graphics but this new label is nego's attempt at something a bit more refined even though it hasn't lived up to the same level of hype as bait i have to think that's by design this time around i think niko's going to want to take things a bit slowly and not make the same mistakes he made with bait with human made we aren't seeing stores pop up everywhere and we're only seeing carefully selected collabs like this subtle adidas collab it goes without saying that nigo is an amazing designer and creative visionary but i think right now this is the best thing for him he's already had it all and risen to the top of the fashion world so for now he's just laying low and really focusing in on his work of course he is still keeping himself busy outside of fashion as i mentioned earlier he is one of the largest fashion and pop culture archivists in the world in the same seven story building that nigo invited pharrell to he has more than 10 000 articles of clothing much of which includes vintage and unreleased samples of vape he has collectible items and original pieces from classic movies like star wars collectible toys original apple computers a collection of vintage designer trunks rare pieces of designer furniture basically a small museum of anything he's ever been interested in and i think that this massive collection is a reflection of nico's obsessive nature and i'm not saying that as a bad thing i mean just think about it he didn't want to just watch movies he wanted to own parts of it he didn't want to just listen to hip hop he wanted to dress like ll cool j own the same chains as pharrell and start his own hip hop group the same with streetwear he didn't want to just sell other people's brands he wanted to start his own brand and when he did he didn't stop until it was the biggest streetwear brand in the world this drive is what makes nigo so successful and it's what makes me think that in the next few years human made could become way bigger than it is right now yes he's laying low for a little bit but knowing nego it's only a matter of time before he finds this drive again anyways that is all i wanted to touch on for the history of bape vape is a brand that just about everyone knows but hopefully you learned something new and now you know just a bit more about how it got to where it is today as always if you enjoyed the video please remember to like comment and subscribe thank you for watching through education and i'll see you next time many of us were profoundly affected by the planet of the apes movies but only one that i'm aware of man is to convert those feelings into a hugely successful line of clothing a popular hip-hop band and a cool luxurious lifestyle i like to think of as cool luck styling nikon

Channel: Threaducation

Views: 575,080

Keywords: bape, nigo, Bape Nigo, a bathing ape, bape pharrell, bape hoodie, bape shoes, bape collab, Nigo human made

Id: 4xZ6XbXgb9Q

Length: 22min 5sec (1325 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 18 2021