Go Nigo Go Nigo Go! Go, go, go, go! Nigo, Nigo, rappala, Nigo, Nigo, hook fashion addict. Go! Go! Go! Go! — A Bathing Ape brand has the fishy smarts behind it. Those people know exactly what they’re doing when they bait this hook. What you see above (and below) is their new collaboration with Daiwa (fishing gear brand) – fishing lures with Bape camouflage graphics. Not just to further your total Bape lifestyle, but for the irony of the lure culture!

I must first mention that Bape, being the design conscious folks that they are, hooked up with a pretty magical brand here. Look no further than the official Daiwa mark (logo) and see how serious they are about their brand intelligence.

Now Bape, aka A Bathing Ape, grew then exploded all over the world using several extremely simple business concepts:

1. Limited Editions (Ignore cost of only producing a few hundred, push that bill on to the consumer, who will not only pay it, but will gladly pay it in order to be a special part of this subculture brand.)

2. Pretend to be Hidden (The original store, and still a bunch of stores today that sell Bape, were called “Nowhere” and had no marks on the outside of the building. You had to be “in the know,” making this brand not just a subculture brand, but a subculture in and of itself.)

3. Once the brand is “discovered”, strike the iron with celebrities and music personalities and music, brand collaborations, expansion to other products (like this lure.)

Nigo is the face of Bape. He is a personality, one of the original folks to conceive of the brand, and now the head promoter. In this lure is the brand-culture culture encapsulated.

It’s a lure to catch the fish who would gladly live in Nigo’s special brand fishtank.

Do want.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies sports category.