Planet of the BAPE

I never realised how serious I had become about fashion until the minute I was standing outside of the BAPE store in London. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t going to be some hokey ‘felt like I was in Mecca’ bullshit tale, but I realised the lengths I would go to in order to bolster my ever increasing wardrobe, I realised that I was in a world of limited edition sneakers, Japanese labels and over-priced garments, I realised that I was a 'hypebeast in training'.

Now for those who are uninitiated BAPE stands for 'A Bathing Ape' and is slowly becoming an urban fashion dynasty. Started in 1993 by Nigo (or Tomoaki Nagao to his mother), BAPE started life specialising in hand made tees depicting characters from the Planet of the Apes films. Eventually the brand moved into sneakers and have since become one of the industry leaders for highly sought after footwear. In order to keep the brand exclusive, and to further instill its ideas of exclusivity and somewhat urgency, getting hold of genuine BAPE merchandise is sometimes harder than performing a full frontal lobotomy with a desert fork and one eye closed. Hence why I was in London, and at one of only two official BAPE stores in the whole of Europe.

By choice I am what Nas once referred to as a 'Nike Head' and 9 times out of 10 you'll find me sporting a pair of hi-top Dunks on my feet, but the part of me that likes to hoarde and collect needed some other brands to fill out my collection. Put simply; I needed some BAPE in my life.

My first encounter with BAPE came with the purchase of these bad-boys from the online Pondonstore;

BAPESta 'Flash' - DC Comics Exclusives

However due to their rarity they mainly spend life adorning my shoe rack, only coming out on special occasions or when it's kids visit I know no harm will befall them.

What I wanted though was to venture into an actual BAPE shop and leisurely peruse what they had on offer instead of having to rashly panic buy a pair online and question their authenticity. So it had to be done; I had to venture to the capital to 'merely' buy shoes. Such was the apparent strageness of the trip's prupose that my own mother questioned my sexuality...


...I wish I was kidding.


Eventually the time came and I (accompanied by my boys Josh and Smeg and a soon to be crippled bank balance) sauntered down to London in the vague hope of finding some nice shoes...


...and find nice shoes I did;

BAPESta white x 1st Camo (Yellow) 

As well as a tee for good measure.

Ursus BAPE - 'Club Ursus' tee

So now my thirst for some BAPE has been well and truly quenched as I now have some quality garments to add to my collection, but the question is am I buying these because of what they are as opposed to whether I like them or not? I'll admit that I was determined to come home with some new BAPE sneakers, but I took my time and made a conscientious decision - and thats what really matters, surely? I'm never usually one to follow hype but with BAPE I seem to make an exception (even if some of their stuff is fucking rank).

Next stop; Supreme......