In an interview with British GQ, Nigo delivered a stunning assessment of arguably the defining chapter of his life in Bape.
Nigo tells British GQ style writer Adam Cheung that the streetwear brand he founded was “actually a big mistake,” before seemingly coming to his senses.
“Looking back at my life, Bape was actually a big mistake,” he said. “But in a good way. Because if I hadn’t had that, then I wouldn’t have had Human Made. I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy my life as I do.”
Nigo sold 90 percent of his share in A Bathing Ape to the Hong Kong fashion retailer I.T Limited for roughly $2.8 million in 2011, but stuck around as creative director until the conclusion of his contract two years later. While his departure marked the end of a 20-year chapter, it also opened a new one with Human Made.
In a 2013 interview with WWD, Nigo recalled, six months before leaving Bape for good, he “started to think about what I wanted to do next.” Established in 2010, Human Made represented an opportunity for Nigo to scale back from the behemoth that Bape became in the streetwear space.
After giving his statement about Bape some thought, Nigo offered up a correction.
“Maybe not so much a mistake,” he said. “Maybe more as a battle that I lost. Because I ended up having to sell the company. Otherwise, I could have still been running it.”
Even though Nigo seemingly intended on doing things differently with Human Made, the brand has unsurprisingly grown to the point that expansion to the United States was announced last month.
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