A Bathing Ape (BAPE)

A Bathing Ape, or BAPE, is an ultra-hot premium lifestyle brand based out of Tokyo, Japan founded by a designer, DJ, and music producer known as "Nigo". BAPE is popular with many hip hop artists like Kanye West, Pharrell, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and Kid Cudi.

Exclusivity is the word with BAPE, as their products are notoriously difficult to find. They only operate five stores outside of Japan, located in Hong Kong, London, Taipei, Los Angeles, and New York. Other than their company-run shops, your best bet to getting BAPE apparel is from their website. BAPE shoes are, thankfully, more universally available at a variety of boutique sneaker shops.

The exclusivity doesn't come cheap; their popular Bapesta shoes typically run from $180 to $225, shirts range from $73 to $175, jackets and hoodies from $275 to $500. In certain cases, some extremely limited apparel items are rumored to run well over $1000.

The BAPE store was one of the very finest merchandised shops I saw in NYC--feels more like an art gallery than a store. Apparel and accessories are downstairs, sneakers upstairs. The place is incredibly well designed; it's straight up hot shit, y'all.

I had my eye on a Baby Milo t-shirt that I'd seen online some time ago, and I got lucky that they had one left--and in my size, too. Of course, that's if you think paying $73 for a t-shirt is "lucky". I keep telling myself that it cost so much because it's imported from Japan. Ha-ha!

Highly recommended, even if you just wanna windowshop.