BAPE Notorious B.I.G Tee

BAPE 2002 Notorious B.I.G Shawn Mortensen Tee

In 1996 Shawn Mortensen held a shoot with the Notorious B.I.G. Very fond of the famous photographers BAPE Camo Jacket - he posed with the jacket for the shoot but since it was too small for him, he put the jacket on his shoulder. A Bathing Ape founder Nigo quickly took note of this and made a handful of custom XXL pieces since BAPE did not make big sizes exclusively made for the Brooklyn Rapper. Unfortunately on March 9th 1997 Biggie was shot and killed and the custom made BAPE pieces never got to Biggie in time. 5 years later in 2002 BAPE released this Bape Biggie ‘Photo Tee’. Very limited with a scarce quantity of only 50 tees in total exclusively released in the BAPE Japan Gallery. This 20 year old tee is one of the most rare, special and collectible BAPE pieces ever. A Bathing Ape or BAPE is a Japanese brand founded by NIGO in 1993. The name is derived from the Japanese idiom "A bathing ape in lukewarm water" and one of NIGO's favorite movies "Planet of the apes" from 1968. In the early 2000's BAPE emerged as a true cult brand. The Japanese brand reached global popularity among the biggest Artists in the world such as Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z and Pharrell Williams, who later on created an entire new brand with NIGO. A Bathing Ape formed a cultural bridge between Japanese fashion and modern day American Pop Culture. Until this day, the influence of BAPE is undeniably present in streetwear fashion. It was the obsessive, perfectionistic, futuristic and sometimes misunderstood way of working that made NIGO the legendary designer that he is. However, some of those qualities may have caused financial issues within the company. In 2011 BAPE was sold for just $2.8 million dollars. An extremely low amount considering Supreme was sold for $2.1 billion.