Collab Review: Kid Super x BAPE (Spring 2025)

This is a review of BAPE’s Spring 2025 collaboration with KidSuper, covering the story, product, rollout, and cultural impact.

Total Score: 23/25

January 25, 2025. KidSuper’s Colm Dillane pulled BAPE onto the Paris runway for its first time in nearly 30 years. This was a bold, full-circle moment for the kid who once hustled fake BAPE tees outside the New York store. It's the kind of story brands dream of.

The collaboration, "From the Line to the Line," kicked off at KidSuper’s Fall/Winter 2025 show, From a Place I Have Never Been. Forget your typical fashion show. This was raw performance art mixed with personal story. Dillane took BAPE’s famous Shark Hoodie and camo and flipped them. Camo turned cartoon. What were once bootlegs themselves transformed into the foundational design.

BAPE desperately needed this. Years of boring licensing deals had killed their cultural cool. "A Super Ape" wasn't some gentle nudge. It was a Hail Mary pass for relevance. They brought their classic designs back, but only because a new artist, one who actually loved the brand, was willing to pull them back from the brink.

When a big brand hands over its playbook to an outsider, you get magic, or you get a public trainwreck. This collaboration is how you get it right. A lesson every brand leader should be forced to study.

Storytelling

Score: 5/5

Deeply connected, personal, and brand-aligned.

A personal manifesto in disguise, this collection bypassed the usual co-branded cash grab. Colm Dillane, not just collaborating with BAPE, but closing a loop years in the making. He started by screenprinting bootlegs for people waiting in line at the NYC store. That whole "From the Line to the Line" narrative? It ran deep, not just marketing fluff. You saw it everywhere: campaign visuals starring Kai Cenat and Ray, even a screenprinting workshop echoing Dillane’s teenage hustle.

BAPE handed Dillane the archives. He flipped legacy pieces, injecting humor, respect, and just enough rebellion. Even the name "A Super Ape" signals the intent: familiar motifs, now filtered through KidSuper’s playful lens.

The story was genuine. It connected with an audience that values authenticity.

Product Execution

Score: 5/5

This is truly a fusion of both brands. KidSuper’s humor and hand-drawn style hit everywhere. You see it in the SUPER CAMO pattern, a mashup of BAPE’s ABC camo and KidSuper’s face motifs. It’s in the smiling Shark Hoodie, literally flipping BAPE’s original snarl upside down.

The range is deep and diverse: six reworked BAPE STAs, including the handcrafted "SUPER SASHIKO" pair made with antique Japanese boro fabrics. There's formalwear embroidered with climbing Baby Milos. A full run of tees, accessories, and outerwear. Nothing here feels like filler. Even a purple camo puffer references Lil Wayne’s early-2000s BAPE look, bridging nostalgia and modernity in a single silhouette.

Then the packaging. Comic strip inserts, blister-style sneaker boxes, playful touches like upside-down shark faces on the box lids. Every detail, from graphics to garments, feels considered, not convenient.

Instead of some lazy logo mashup, this was a story, told through product. You could feel the care in the art direction, the details. For once, the vision actually made it all the way to the shelf.

Rollout

Score: 4/5

At Paris Fashion Week, BAPE skipped the usual runway formula. Colm turned it into a performance, moving installations, layered storytelling, no interest in playing it safe or commercial. It felt more like an art piece than a fashion drop.

That tone carried into the rollout. They brought back BAPE’s print magazine with Colm on the cover. Ran a screenprinting workshop in New York that nodded to his bootlegging days. Pulled in Kai Cenat and Ray to anchor the campaign. Smart casting. It skewed young and viral.

The packaging did its job. Sneakers came in blister packs like action figures. Comic strips inside. Box lids with shark faces flipped upside down. It all felt playful, specific, and true to KidSuper’s style. Not overdesigned. Just considered.

But for all the attention to detail, they missed a layup. If you’re referencing early-2000s BAPE with a purple camo puffer, you call Wayne. That’s the whole era. A cameo, a clip, even a subtle nod—anything to make the moment land. Without him, it feels like an homage without the blessing.

They got most of it right. But the story doesn’t hit the same when the final chapter’s missing.

Cultural Relevance

Score: 4/5

By building the campaign around Colm Dillane’s own story, they gave it roots. “From the Line to the Line” wasn’t just a tagline, it mapped a real arc, from bootlegging tees outside BAPE’s SoHo store to showing a full collection on a Paris runway. That kind of full-circle moment cuts through, especially in a space obsessed with authenticity and self-made credibility.

The casting was smart. Kai Cenat and his boy Ray fronted the campaign, pulling it straight into Gen Z’s world. That move alone took the conversation beyond fashion media and into real youth culture.

The U.S. caught it. Fast. Forbes, Highsnobiety, Complex, all over it. Not just covered, celebrated. And the purple camo puffer? That was a direct nod to Lil Wayne’s mid-2000s BAPE run. Not subtle, but intentional. That’s how you speak to a generation raised on mixtapes and streetwear moments that mattered.

So why not a 5? The moment was strong but stayed in its lane. It lit up U.S. circles, especially online, but didn’t break through into the wider cultural conversation. Still, for who it was built for, it hit.

Uniqueness

Score: 4/5

Only this collab could’ve pulled this off. You can’t copy-paste this. Not the concept. Not the execution. Not the feeling.

This was a rare opportunity. Nobody’s ever turned the Shark Hoodie into a smile. Nobody’s ever mashed up ABC camo with hand-drawn face graphics and made it look like it was always meant to be. And nobody’s ever brought BAPE to the Paris runway in a way that felt this personal.

Co-branded hoodies. Maybe a few sneakers. Most collabs play it safe. Call it a day. This wasn’t that. From the SUPER CAMO to the comic packaging to the weird little travel kit, everything was weird in the right way. Thoughtful. Surprising. Totally on-brand for both sides.

What makes it special is that it could only come from these two. BAPE gave up control. KidSuper brought the chaos. And together, they made something that was one of one.

Steal This Action Plan

1. Give the right outsider full creative control

• Stop micromanaging collaborators. Colm flipped the Shark Hoodie, rewrote the camo, and made the archive feel alive again. That only works when the brand steps back and lets it happen.

2. Build your launch around a real story, not just a product drop

• This campaign worked because it was built around Colm’s real journey from selling bootlegs outside the store to leading the collection. That gave the drop context, weight, and heart. If there’s no personal connection, don’t expect people to care.

3. Cast culture, not just models

• Kai Cenat and Ray weren’t background talent. They were the bridge to Gen Z. Their presence took this from fashion news to group chat conversation. Don’t cast for style, cast for cultural pull

4. Close the loop on your references

• The purple camo puffer screamed Lil Wayne, but he never showed up. That’s a miss. If you’re pulling from culture, include the people who made it matter.

5. Create a world, not a line sheet

• This collab worked because it felt like a universe, playful, personal, fully imagined. Most collabs feel like a checklist. This one felt like a vision.

Total Score: 23/25 (4.6 average)

• Storytelling: 5/5

• Product Execution: 5/5

• Packaging & Rollout: 4/5

• Cultural Relevance: 4/5

• Uniqueness: 5/5

Cousins, what’s one thing you’d steal from this collab?