Nigo Opens Up About Bape

A bit of follow-up from the recent posts and discussions around Bape being sold to I.T....

"WWD sat down with Nigo from A Bathing Ape to finally shine some light on the situation of the brand and why he decided to sell the brand, as reported by us last week, to Hong Kong fashion conglomerate I.T.

““Basically, I can’t do business. I’m not suited for it. I wish I had had a partner on the business side from the beginning,” said a surprisingly upbeat Nigo, whose real name is Tomoaki Nagao. The music and fashion impresario said he always thought he would sell the company he incorporated in 1995.
“I turned 40 [last December], there was the turning point of the brand reaching nearly 20 years since its establishment, and I think I made a forward-looking choice,” he said, acknowledging the brand’s popularity in Japan has faded in recent years. “About two or three years ago the brand and the company got too big for me to handle, plus there was the problem with the economy, and the number of things I wasn’t able to control on my own increased, so I started looking for a partner.” “

Make sure to read the article here." - High Snobiety

via High Snobiety