A Bathing Ape

The Sole Supplier says A Bathing Ape was founded by Nigo in 1993 in the streets of Ura-Harajuku. It also says Nigo and Jun Takahashi opened the NOWHERE store on the back streets of Harajuku, under a section headed 1993, without giving an exact opening date.

The Sole Supplier says Nigo sold approximately 90% of the brand to I.T Group in 2011. Wikipedia describes I.T Group as a Hong Kong fashion conglomerate and says it acquired a 90.27% stake, in an announcement dated 1 February 2011, at a reported HK$21,850,000 (about US$2.8 million, per Wikipedia) for 668 shares. The Sole Supplier says Nigo announced his departure from the brand in 2013 to focus on Human Made and other projects.

We did not find a source that confirms who holds the brand today. The footer of the Japan online store reads © 2026 NOWHERE Co., Ltd.. Wikipedia lists the brand's headquarters as Hong Kong; Wikipedia is used here as a lead and is not independently confirmed.

NSS Magazine says BAPE's first camo pattern was proposed in 1996, in shades of yellow and green, on windbreakers and sweatshirts. It dates later variants as Tiger Camo in 1997, Tribal Camo in 2000, Color Camo in 2004, Puzzle Camo in 2010, Lizard Camo in 2013, Space Camo in 2015, Splinter Camo in 2018 and Forest Camo in 2019.

The Sole Supplier says BAPE opened its flagship stores in the US sometime in 2004, starting in SoHo, New York. Wikipedia says BAPE operates 19 stores in Japan, plus stores in Hong Kong, Taipei and Beijing, and gives no date for that count.

The Japan online store's brand menu lists A BATHING APE, MR. BATHING APE, AAPE BY A BATHING APE, BAPE BLACK, APEE, BABY MILO STORE and A BATHING APE PIRATE STORE. The Sole Supplier says Nigo and Pharrell Williams decided in 2003 to team up to launch Billionaire Boys Club, and that Nigo teamed up with Kanye West on a BAPESTA 'College Dropout' sneaker in 2007. Wikipedia says Chris Brown was announced as the face of the BAPE Black Label range on 11 December 2015, and describes the late-2018 Disney partnership around Ralph Breaks the Internet as the first time BAPE partnered directly with Disney.

The online store at jp.bape.com (bape.com redirects there) sells men's, women's and kids' categories, shoes and accessories, in Japanese, English, Traditional Chinese and Korean. We did not check shipping or any store outside Japan.

Its New Arrivals page listed the BAPE Ghost Tee at ¥12,100, the BAPE Logo Relaxed Fit LS Tee at ¥17,600, the BAPE Sport Relaxed Fit Pullover Hoodie at ¥39,600, a College Coach Jacket at ¥36,300, a Croc Pattern Leather Jacket at ¥132,000, a snapback cap at ¥12,100 and the Shark Long Wallet at ¥25,300. The page does not say whether tax is included and showed no date, so these are listings checked in October 2026. StockX lists a retail price of $356 for the BAPE ABC Camo Shark Pullover Hoodie (SS25, gray), released 1 March 2025; that is in US dollars and a different piece, so it is not a like-for-like comparison with the yen prices.