Nigo is here. Well, heâs always been here. The legendary designer has been a cornerstone of modern sneaker and streetwear culture for decades, studying under fellow icon Hiroshi Fujiwara before launching A Bathing ApeâBape, for short. Maybe youâve heard of it.
Maybe you saw early streetwear adopters in middle school pulling up to class in those dope Bape hoodies and always wanted to ask where they found them. Maybe youâre familiar with the Bapesta, perhaps the most popular sneaker in the culture not produced by a major athleticwear brandâand the shoe that took the idea of a bootlegged sneaker design mainstream. Maybe you came around on Nigo later after his work with Pharrell Williams, which saw the launch of Billionaire Boys Club, a name now as recognizable as Bape itself, or Human Made, which (alongside Williams) launched some of the defining shoes of the 2010s sneaker boom in collaboration with adidas. Maybe youâre familiar with him for one of these reasons or all of them. Point is, if you care about sneakers or streetwear, you know Nigo.
So when we say Nigo is here, make no mistake, the guy properly arrived before StockX and the SNKRS app were so much as a twinkle in the industryâs eye. Heâs as OG as OG gets. Still, thereâs something about a streetwear icon making their debut alongside Nike that feels like stepping out onto a new stage, one worth recognizing and commemorating. And for Nigo to be joining up with the Swoosh is no small thing, especially given some of the friction between the brand and his beloved Bape over the yearsâthe Bapesta is, after all, a bootleg of Nikeâs Air Force 1 and has never played coy over that fact. Nike actually went so far as to sue Bape over the design recently, with the brands settling out of court in April of this year (you can still buy Bapestas these days, albeit with a slightly tweaked design).
