Streetwear’s First IPO, Explained

Japanese streetwear brand Human Made just released its biggest drop yet: an initial public offering on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The clothing label by BAPE-founder and current Kenzo creative director Nigo, which also boasts Pharrell Williams as its second-largest shareholder and creative advisor, is anticipated to raise 17.8 billion yen ($115 million). It marks the first time a streetwear clothing brand has gone public and is the first major fashion IPO since Montreal’s Groupe Dynamite in November 2024.

Human Made shares will begin trading in the middle of a historic bull run for Japanese stocks. The Nikkei index has been on a tear this year, hitting a series of record highs. But though investors have been eager to participate in the IPO, its future as a public company will be a test of whether streetwear can bounce back after its initial moment in the fashion mainstream came and went.

Streetwear hit a crest when Louis Vuitton collaborated with Supreme in 2017 and then hired Virgil Abloh a year later. Luxury’s adoption of streetwear propelled it from being a peripheral fashion category embraced by underground urban subcultures to becoming a part of a larger and traditional fashion ecosystem. But its popularity began to wane post-pandemic, and with the death of Abloh in 2021. “Quiet luxury” trends pushed logo-heavy hoodies off European runways, and streetwear consumers began to move on and embrace everything from preppy menswear to gorpcore. Even at the category’s lowest, however, young streetwear brands, including upstarts Denim Tears and Corteiz, have continued to thrive.

Yet what makes the 15-year-old Human Made label different from younger streetwear brands that have grown throughout streetwear’s boom and bust is a founder with decades of experience within the fashion industry. While its revenue shot up from 1.8 billion yen ($12.1 million) in the fiscal year ending January 2021 to 11.2 billion yen ($73.3 million) in the year ending in January 2025, Human Made also hired high-level executives from companies like Uniqlo to manage its growing business.

Another reason why the brand has seemingly been immune to the wider streetwear world’s ups and downs is that it has direct ties to the larger luxury industry. Nigo currently serves as the creative director for LVMH-owned Kenzo while Pharrell is currently Louis Vuitton’s creative director of menswear.

And that global star power has attracted significant Japanese investment firms, such as Asset Management One. Minoru Fukuda, partner and the APAC co-Leader for consumer goods and retail practice at the global consultancy Kearney, notes that investment from a traditional Japanese financial player signals that investors anticipate Human Made to be a company with long-term growth potential, regardless of whether or not streetwear is in vogue.

“This business that Nigo and Pharrell created is a very robust, strong, and profitable business,” said Fukuda, noting the brand’s growth and its operating profit margin, which was 28 percent in the first quarter of its 2025 fiscal year, puts it in the same class as successful luxury brands.

Human Made says it plans to use the proceeds from its IPO to open more stores beyond the 12 it currently operates, and acquire other brands. Some analysts see the makings of the next great global fashion brand to come out of Japan.

“I’ve watched Japanese consumer brands for 30 years, and I haven’t seen any brands that have the building blocks of stability that Human Made has,” said Michael Causton of JapanConsuming, a retail research agency that focuses on Japanese consumer markets.

How Human Made Evolved BAPE’s Approach to the Streetwear Business

Human Made’s IPO arrives nearly 30 years after Nigo launched BAPE inside a trendy Harajuku boutique. The brand pioneered scarcity and collaboration marketing tactics that continue to define streetwear’s hype today.

Nigo launched Human Made in 2010 shortly before he sold BAPE to I.T. Limited. Human Made gained momentum within the streetwear space not through solely releasing graphic T-shirts worn by Pharrell or hyped collaborations with brands ranging from Adidas to Shake Shack.

It’s also attracted a robust customer base beyond hypebeasts by releasing Americana-inspired products designed with Japanese craftsmanship — such as selvedge denim jackets informed by vintage workwear silhouettes crafted with looms in Japan. While almost all streetwear brands today offer a breadth of styles beyond T-shirts and hoodies to meet an evolving consumer, Nigo’s legacy as a streetwear pioneer dating back to the 1990s creates a broader customer base that stretches from young teenagers to middle-aged adults.

“BAPE was more focused on a young and underground audience, whereas Human Made’s is much wider, ” said Loic Bizel, a Japan-based retail consultant. “It’s more so making something that is easy-to-wear for teens but also easy-to-wear for someone that is 30 to 40-years-old.”

The brand’s product range, which includes everything from coffee mugs to suede outerwear that retails for over $1,000, has resonated with Asian consumers and tourists coming to Japan. According to its IPO filing, tax-free sales accounted for 37 percent of sales during the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year. Nearly two thirds of sales came from outside Japan, with key markets including South Korea and China. Fukuda said that global appeal makes the brand attractive to investors in Tokyo because Japan’s domestic fashion market has been shrinking for the past decade.

While Human Made operates on the same luxury scarcity model that propelled BAPE and Supreme, it’s also maintained its growth streak by operating less like an underground streetwear brand and more like a traditional fashion company.

“Unlike A Bathing Ape, where there was a lot of trial and error despite its success, it feels like Nigo learned from those mistakes by building a business that’s very sustainable,” Causton said.

Causton points out that Nigo has addressed his strengths, and more importantly his weaknesses, while running Human Made these past 15-years. As Nigo mentioned in a 2011 interview about BAPE’s sale, the designer acknowledged that business wasn’t his strong suit. But within Human Made, the label’s executives include former brass from companies such as Fast Retailing, Mitsubishi, and Sanrio, which Causton believes gives investors even more confidence in the label’s stable growth.

Human Made isn’t shy about its ambitions. Within its application for the IPO, Human Made shared that it plans “to acquire brands with untapped potential, integrate them into our business model, and expand them globally.”

What The IPO Means For Human Made (and Fashion’s) Future

Of course, the drawbacks of going public puts Human Made’s business under regulatory measures and investor scrutiny that previously impacted the image of Supreme after it was sold to publicly traded VF Corp in 2020. What also comes with scaling up streetwear brands is not losing sight of what created a passionate and loyal community of customers in the first place.

Fukuda said Human Made has set itself up for post-IPO success with a strong direct-to-consumer business, and its scarcity model minimises inventory risks or the need for discounting. Its many celebrity endorsements and Nigo’s reputation mean marketing costs are near zero. If and when streetwear rebounds, Human Made will be at the front of the pack, he said.

Causton also believes that the excitement investors have for Human Made may also influence other Japanese fashion brands to build-up their companies and apply for IPOs in the near future. Especially during a moment when Japan’s soft power this year is rising with designers such as Soshi Otsuki winning the LVMH Prize and niche menswear labels such as Kapital being acquired by the LVMH-backed private equity firm L Catterton.

“This momentum is really energising,” said Causton. “It’s a bit like how Uniqlo was the first big [Japanese] retailer to find success internationally, it encouraged others to do the same.”