A Bathing Ape began as a shop counter and a handful of T-shirts. It became one of the best-known labels of Japan’s 1990s street scene and then, after a sale in 2011, one of its best-documented corporate stories. This reference follows the dated record only.
This page belongs to the Reference Shelf of The Fashionista Bible. Dates are checked against published accounts, and where accounts disagree the page says so.
Nigo before the ape
Tomoaki Nagao, known as Nigo, studied fashion editing at Bunka Fashion College and worked as an editor and stylist for Popeye magazine before he made clothes. The magazine matters: it taught a generation to read American youth culture as a set of references, and Nigo’s later work is that habit applied to his own label. See the magazines bible.
1993: the shop and the brand
On 1 April 1993 Nigo opened a small shop, Nowhere, in Ura-Harajuku with Jun Takahashi of Undercover. He borrowed four million yen to start. A Bathing Ape was founded the same year. Early promotion was modest: Nigo gave T-shirts to musicians, including Cornelius and Scha Dara Parr, and produced 30 to 50 shirts a week for two years.
The name comes from the 1968 film Planet of the Apes. Nigo has said that “BAPE” refers to “a bathing ape in lukewarm water”, an ironic remark about complacent young Japanese consumers. Shops, lines and a café followed, among them the secondary lines AAPE and BAPY and the BAPE Kids stores. The full list of branches is in the Encyclopedia.
2011 and after
On 1 February 2011 the sale of A Bathing Ape to the Hong Kong group I.T was announced; I.T bought a 90.27 per cent stake. Published price figures differ and we do not set one down. Nigo stayed on as creative director for about two years and left the brand in 2013. He continued as a designer and as co-owner of Pharrell Williams’s Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream, and his own label is Human Made.
In 2026 the story turned again. Wikipedia’s account of Jun Takahashi reports that Human Made, Nigo’s company, and Undercover announced a non-binding agreement in June 2026, and that in September 2026 Human Made signed a definitive share-transfer agreement for all of Undercover’s voting shares, with Takahashi remaining head designer and completion planned for February 2027. The price is given as about 538.8 million yen, while a cited headline says 554 million; we cite the deal as reported and not as completed. See Who Is Jun Takahashi?.
Thesis Discussion
BAPE is the thesis’s four verbs in order. Nigo collected: references to a film, to American casual wear and to the youth culture he had edited as a magazine stylist. He edited, turning them into a graphic vocabulary of his own. He joined, through the shop he shared with Takahashi and the musicians who wore the shirts. And what he kept, or failed to, is the lesson of 2011, when the brand left his hands and some of the district’s own members judged the movement over.
The 2026 agreement between Nigo’s and Takahashi’s companies, if completed, would close a circle that began over one counter in 1993. It is an example worth watching of a movement keeping itself. See The Japonista Thesis and Play as Power.
Related Articles
In the Archive
BAPE (A Bathing Ape) · NIGO · HUMAN MADE · UNDERCOVER · Goodenough · Fragment Design
Read on: Encyclopedia: A Bathing Ape · Ura-Harajuku · Takahashi · Magazines · Fashionista Bible · collector guides
The Hunting Salon™
If you are looking for early A Bathing Ape, including first-era camouflage, shark pieces or Nowhere-period items, label era and tag detail are part of the search. The Hunting Salon™ can assist discreetly with search, verification and shipping.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was A Bathing Ape founded?
1993, in Ura-Harajuku.
What does the name mean?
It refers to the 1968 film Planet of the Apes and, in Nigo’s words, to “a bathing ape in lukewarm water”.
Who owns it now?
In 2011 Hong Kong’s I.T Group bought 90.27 per cent. For present ownership, check a current corporate source.
Is Nigo still involved?
He left the brand in 2013 and now leads Human Made.
Notes on Dates
A Bathing Ape is dated 1993 throughout; the day, 1 April, belongs to Nowhere. The sale was announced on 1 February 2011 and Nigo’s departure is dated 2013 in the account we follow; some retellings give other years. The 2026 Human Made and Undercover agreement is a reported deal, with different price figures quoted.
This volume belongs to the Japonista Universe, Volume VII. The argument behind it is set out in The Japonista Thesis.
Index terms: origins of bape · a bathing ape history · nigo · nowhere 1993 · bape camo · bape shark · human made · i.t group bape · ura-harajuku · aape · bapy
