Nigo talks about his sale of BAPE.
In an article from WWD, NOWHERE CO., LTD. and A Bathing Ape founder NIGO goes under the microscope for the first time since the sale of his company to Hong Kong’s I.T. Some of the topics include NIGO’s self admission regarding his inability to manage the business side of NOWHERE CO., LTD. as well as where he sees the future of A Bathing Ape and its associated parties.
“TOKYO — Nigo, the fashion and music impresario who founded Japanese street label A Bathing Ape, openly admits he’s never really had a head for business. That partially explains why Hong Kong-based retailer I.T Ltd. managed to snap up 90 percent of his company Nowhere Co. for just 230 million Japanese yen, or $2.8 million at average exchange rates. The company, which owns the brand known as Bape, has posted losses for the past two fiscal years and has racked up its share of debt.”
More from hypebeast.
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$2.8 million USD only, for a brand that has survived twenty years and continue to tell tees and hoodies at seventy five dollars and three hundred dollars respectively. It’s strange to believe that Japanese companies are being consumed by ones from China, and this isn’t the first take. Its just the one that’s caught our eye because 2.8 million seems so little for such a large brand. Perhaps people will start realizing the power of the Chinese. Not just with Western superpowers, but with all around the world - once China starts to worry about fashion, it most likely shows that the rest of their economy is progressing just as steadily.
On a personal note, I think many of us are actually thinking about how much money Nigo could have made, if not he had not spent as much on himself and his own life. If he was just that passionate about his brand, he would have seen it through. Instead, his passion was toys, or just, spending in general. Everyone has a motivation, and clearly his brand wasn’t enough of that for him.
Google’s recommendation
Trailblazing in Portland is the title of the latest Hotpot blog post announcing Google’s roll-out of a local marketing campaign. Deciding to try a new approach, the company chose the test city because of its history of innovation and thriving business community.
Google will educate key local businesses on the benefits of Google Places, by equipping them with a special Google Places Business Kits to help spread the word. Included in the kits is a bright red “Recommended on Google” interactive window sticker with built in Near Field Communications (NFC) technology. All passersby with “cutting edge phones like the Nexus S” must do is touch the sticker and the mobile browser will prompt Google Places for information about the business.
[via Hotpot Blog]
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Ahhh… The brand of Google… Reliable source of information. Just hope that if I had a business… I’ll be considered worth the education and not passed up, or consumers might deem me… old.
Statistics: 4square
Although only 4% of adults in the United States have ever used a location-based service such as Foursquare, data from the research group Forrester reveals that it is young, adult males with college degrees who appear to be the primary users of these services.
In addition to being the main user group, the group may also be heavy online influencers as 38% of them claim that their networks ask them for their opinion before making a purchase decision…..
…..the data shows that the group may also be heavy mobile researchers, meaning that they are more likely to search for information on products or services as well as look up ratings and reviews.
The graph below spotlights more of the specifics in the comparison between location-based service users and regular internet users in the United States, and leads to some interesting insights about who is driving this specialized, online universe.
[via Venturebeat] and PSFK.
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Everytime I see statistics or MRI I get upset. Particularly because these prove the hypothesizes that we’ve been conceptualizing about for months, but yet data isn’t easily available to us (the mere mortal/ student/ masses.) Sigh. Anyway, just some statistics to keep up with what we’ve known for a long time.
Interactivity on the go in San Francisco.
MUNI-riders of San Francisco don’t have to fear notoriously long waits for the bus any longer. Yahoo has installed digital video screens, on which commuters can play video games against each other, at 20 bus shelters across the downtown core (we snapped this photo when the PSFK was in town earlier this week).
Passengers identify which of the 20 specified neighborhoods they would like to represent when playing, and the one that wins the two-month long contest — presumable the area with the highest score — will win a block party featuring the band OK GO.
In any case, it’ll make the daily back and forth that much more fun.
SF Examiner: Stranded Muni riders can now battle each other at bus stops
Info via PSFK.
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Interactivity and relevancy is the future of advertising (or somewhat, for that matter. Since more than just a couple of factors will contribute to this assessment of the future.) This interactivity on the go is also leading up to the next stage of web3.0’s sharing- and that would be gaining compensation and more reasons why to stay on top of creating consumer related content.
Now I wished I was back in SF, who wouldn’t want to win a block party with OK GO? They are the innovators of the coolest videos ever made. Perhaps they were the ones who gave GAGA the inspiration to realize how important music videos really are….
School of Innovation
A recent piece at TechCrunch introduced us to Singularity University, located on NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. Founded by futurist Ray Kurzweil and X Prize founder Peter Diamandis in 2009, the university is based on the notion that technology may push humanity toward the next great evolutionary leap (earning its name from the title of a book by Kurzweil). Its aspiration is to help solve the grand challenges of humanity – issues like poverty & hunger, disease and a diminishing energy supply – by educating its students about advances in ‘exponential technologies‘.
With increasing conversation in our industry these days on how design thinking can help encourage innovation for social good, we found Singularity to offer an interesting concept and additional perspective to the innovation dialogue. Singularity seems to ultimately aim to help these new, little-known technological advances reach a scale where they can be applied to massive human challenges - by exposing them to the business and government leaders that may be in the right position to employ them, if they only know about them. We’re curious and will keep an eye out for what Singularity and the technologies it focuses on bring to the world.
Information via psfk.
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It’s only been around for two years, but it looks like it’s heading toward discovering a more stable future. It’s about time someone created a solid creation thats now tangible to the public, instead of hearing designers/agencies/companies and every form of media speculate about the effects of innovation.
Offline Navigation Coming Your Way
At the recently held D Mobile Conference in San Francisco, Google’s head for mobile platforms Andy Rubin announced the release of the new Google Maps App that will work in Subways and other places with low and even no network signals.
Rubin said that Google Maps 5 features an offline-caching mode that stores mapping data into the browser storage which allows users to pull up directions even if there’s no network on the device. The app also introduces 3D models of buildings and a new vector map display that replaces the current tiled data version. Google Maps 5 will be available for Android-based smartphones (from version 1.6 and later) in the coming days.
via Observer & PSFK.
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Um. Holy Crap! Who was the idiot who thought of this life changing decision? No Okay, Kudos to the person who thought it up. But I bow to myself in shame for not being the one that came up with it. It seems highly obvious, no? Google or no google, this idea will work and $_$ will roll in after.
Just think, going overseas in a place far away, but you hate having to carry a map because you’re
a) not a dad.
b) it does not match your style
c) you don’t want to look like a tourist
d) don’t want to look for one
I mean, in this case its more like-I don’t want to carry a map, neither do I want to pay another 500 bucks to at&t or Singtel. Instead, before I leave on my trip, or the hotel, I’ll download the map of where I’m going to be and work it from there, ALL IN AIRPLANE MODE.
I mean, COME ON.
I feel so passionately about this because I was in Hong Kong a couple weeks back- creating the perfect bang to spend Christmas. But lo and behold, we got lost thanks to my expertise of forgetting where everything is… Despite having more than thirty chops on my passport for this little Island. In the end I had to turn on google maps and pay a hundred bucks for using merely 2 minutes of data roaming..
But I found the place we were searching forrrrrr…
Well… if they had a map already build in…
It might require more space (which is what we, as humans are capable and utterly awesome at doing) but it’ll fulfill our needs of “I wish I had a map, when you get lost half a hour later thinking you could just free flow and find whatever and do it freestyle.”
Now, how to tell them to have it as AN APPLICATION FOR 99 CENTS, well or more. You know they would. I mean, this will be the map of the entire world, right? Or perhaps pay subsequent additions by areas you want to discover.
If I were to describe this….
MONEY MAKING MACHINE.
Haitus
Sorry about the (secret) hiatus. Forgot to mention that I’m on holiday, and all posts have been on queue, which should be starting soon. Personally I’m not fond of working during holidays, but we still do it.
Tweetwrap
This holiday season, instead of wrapping paper adorned with Santas and mistletoe, you can package your gifts with paper covered in tweets. Samsung is offering this “boosted” wrapping paper that allows you to choose your own pattern and then your favorite hashtag to create the design. This decoration is sure to illicit at least a laugh before the wrapping is decimated by eager hands.
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I LOVE THIS IDEA.
Hemp House
The first U.S. house made mainly out of a remarkable hemp-based material (called Hempcrete) has recently been completed by Push Design in North Carolina. The concrete-like substance is a mix of industrial hemp, lime and water – all natural and eco-friendly materials. Environmentally, the benefits are astounding.
More here.
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MORE MORE MORE. Not just in terms of environmentally friendly geeks, but in general- the concept of social innovation in order to change or better our world is erupting.
The Button.
Maybe we don’t often think about it, but Facebook functions not only as a constant source of stimuli throughout the day, but as one of positive sentiment as well. The ubiquitous “like” button, that little thumbs-up click that symbolizes support and shared feeling, is delivered to us by our friends in mini-doses throughout the day.
In her column for Salon.com, Mary Elizabeth Williams, author of Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream, details the interesting way the we’ve become addicted to this instant reassurance.
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The like button has been a funny little creature over the past few months that it’s been launched. It seems to regardless and irrelevant. But in fact, it’s actually done wonders for our soul. I’ll talk about it more after my finals. Since this is part of a project I am working on. But it’s wild how a small little button affects our perception.
WWF Format - Virtually Unprintable
The World Wildlife Federation has launched a new file format similar to the popular Portable Document Format (PDF), except for one interesting catch: the file cannot be printed.
The WWF file format was created as a gesture of defiance against unnecessary usage of paper in a variety of settings, most notably the office workplace and the university. It is currently available only for the Mac, but a Windows version is coming soon.
Read more here.
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Who knew it’ll be possible to create such a program? Or even force people to utilize it. To be perfectly honest, I’d understand the pov of the person who sent me a document in WWF format, but I might start hating the person for it because there are times when things just need to be printed. It’s always cooler to show something to a client via a sheet of paper, or a report in the format of a hard copy book, not on a usb. It’ll probably take years to get me on board, but if there weren’t a choice, then I’ll salute that person for forcing me to take an all digital stance on that particular piece of work.
Personal Branding
An influx of data occurs when everyone realizes the importance of branding themselves. With all these forms of notes and advice as to how to specialize your personal brand, all this access merely means this is just the basis to create something passable. In order to specialize yourself to gain attention- something must be done that is different from everyone else. Merely because bettering yourself is not sufficient with such digital accessibility.
China’s recycled hotel
The URBN hotel in Shanghai is just like any other boutique hotel, but with a difference; it is made entirely from recycled materials. From old bricks for construction to suitcases and recycled floor boards as walls, the hotel, which was developed from a renovated factory warehouse, has been tastefully designed and is truly a remarkable example of a sustainable project that also scores well in the luxury aspect.
From PSFK.
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China has been famed to be such a polluted city, and perhaps it’ll take more than just one hotel to change our minds, but this is a start. Definitely Shanghai’s beginning to think about social innovation.
Mobile Social Shopping
Social shopping has been heating up over the past few years and got a big boost from Facebook’s Open Graph API and Like button this year. The most exciting services in the space are taking the trend offline, letting you “like” products you see in retails stores as well as online. A new company called Nuji, launching today at Le Web in Paris, takes this approach. By combining Svpply-like curation with the social barcode-scanning aspect of Stickybits, they are hoping to build a “shopping mall curated by people whose taste you admire.”
Read more here.
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The development of the mobile space is occurring faster than we’ve anticipated. I’ve always been a fan of social shopping- because it makes sense. I want to see what my friends buy in real time, I want to see people whom I consider having great fashion sense buying at every moment. When it goes mobile, it’ll become more than just viral- infiltrating every moment that we’re on the bus, waiting for the traffic light to turn green (hopefully only as pedestrians.) But will this cause more connectivity between humans to consider over, or cut down real time where we hang out with our friends?
[Review] Emerging Trends: Social Innovation (for the future)
The shift from how companies and organizations used to put themselves before the consumer to recognizing the need to meet social needs of people (e.g. working conditions, education, community development, health) for the future.
In the profit or non-profit sector, organizations are starting to realize that by having a positive impact on society, environment or culture, it speaks for itself as a product/service that hopes to have a positive impact on society.
It may evolve into ‘sharing of idea’s, and more information will be available to anyone.
