“I was like, ‘I'm not going to have five or six, bro. 2.1m Followers, 8 Following, 7,989 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Kith (@kith) Today, Chanel’s Bearbrick is worth up to $30,000 at auction.

How to Turn Your Sneakers Into Tabi Shoes With Jonathan Lee, How to Vote With Tremaine Emory and Cam Hicks, How to Make Chicken and Napa Cabbage Dumplings, Behind the HYPE: How Paris Saint-Germain Became Fashion's Favorite Football Club. Guess what? Founder Ronnie Fieg shared news of the release and his personal ties to the collaboration as he’s been a loyal collector of BE@ARBRICKS “for almost two decades.”, Been collecting Bearbricks for almost two decades. Understanding this process helps explain why the item became a streetwear icon: the in-group passed the Bearbrick around among peers and newcomers who were eager to follow in the successful path of designers who came before them. In 2007, Medicom’s growing reputation manifested in a company-changing way.

It’s one of the toys he eagerly bought again after selling his first at auction. A half-dozen roughly two-foot-high boxes would come in the mail. (The figures range in size from keychain-sized 50% toys to the toddler-height 1000%.) It was also an introduction to streetwear’s unique economics: through a potion of hype, exclusivity, and scarcity, a plastic toy can reach vaunted leather-bag prices. “This sounds rough, but it almost doesn't contribute anything to street culture other than this blank canvas. “I loved how each Bearbrick can be a free platform, a white canvas for creativity: same shape, but always different depending on the art on it." Privacy Policy. So he puts on this fur suit in order to represent being an animal. Yang eventually accumulated so many Bearbricks—ones designed by famous artists like Kaws or made in collaboration with labels like Chanel and Fendi—that he had to convert a wall into a display area for his toys.

Yang was one of the first people to start seriously collecting Bearbricks, and he’ll tell you he’s the reason everyone else is interested in them, too. “Like, we're going to create something that's unique on its own, but it allows everybody to play with it. I just thought they were cool.” The Kaws Bearbrick was his first, but soon Yang was in the vice grip of an obsession. “I've had three of [the Chanel Bearbricks] pass through my hands,” Yang says reverentially. Akashi also found a way to build hype and mystery by selling “blind box” toys, packaged such that customers couldn’t see what they were buying until they paid and opened up their purchases.

Eddie Cruz, the former owner of Union Los Angeles and another early importer of the toys, first introduced Yang to the Kaws 1000% Bearbrick in 2002, and it was love at first sight. Kith definition is - familiar friends, neighbors, or relatives. Things moved quickly—an adult grizzly bear can reach speeds of 35 miles per hour—after the World Character Convention in May. “A Bearbrick is a toy, but he really always wants to be as famous as, like, a grizzly bear, which is the original bear, right? The result: an event called “LOVE IS BIG, LOVE IS BEARBRICK,” featuring versions of the toy redesigned by a different class of designers: Chanel, Cartier, Hermes, Coach, Missoni, Moschino, Paul Smith, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Tod's, some of which sold for $10,000.

After moving to a downtown Los Angeles loft, where he says he “had nothing but space,” Yang relapsed and started completely rebuilding his Bearbricks collection.

GQ may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. “‘Man,’” Jebbia jumped in, according to Staple, “‘those things are just fucking bullshit to me.’ He's like, ‘Me, Supreme, we'll never do a Bearbrick...Those things that just sit on your desk?

Somehow, it is now de rigueur for brands new and established to create their own Bearbricks design and streetwear mainstays like Bape, Stussy, Fragment Design, and Staple flock to the toy. “It's not a kid's toy. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Brian Donnelly (Kaws) introduced Alife, Hiroshi Fujiwara of Fragment Design put Staple in touch, and Lee of the now-shuttered Mobius went through a friend who created some of the blind box designs. Penny’s sneaker heat continues during his coaching career. Then, in May 2002, like a line of code that corrupts the whole system, Stussy created a navy Bearbrick, its cursive logo written out across the toy’s chest, and gave it as a gift to customers who spent a certain amount in its stores. There’s no way we would have put this out.” But the simplicity the toymaker sought with the Bearbrick design is its key to success. Sign up for free to view all recent sales data. Every few weeks in the mid-aughts, a “crazy, crazy” car—a 2006 Bentley Flying Spur, to be precise—would pull up to Mobius, Wonhee Lee’s half-gallery half-streetwear store in Los Angeles. and Billionaire Boys Club is now making collectible pieces in the form of an astronaut.

When Lee first reached out, “[They were] just like, ‘Okay, we can send you some!’ and that's it. By continuing to use our website or by closing this notice you acknowledge that you agree to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. “I loved how each Bearbrick can be a free platform, a white canvas for creativity: same shape, but always different depending on the art on it,” she tells me over email. The story of the Bearbrick is not complete without mention of designer Hiroshi Fujiwara. Then Ben Yang would drive off with all the merriment of a car clacking with Just-Married cans.

Staple would sell the smaller 100% versions in his New York shop Reed Space, but was only able to get his supply because he would fill a suitcase with them during trips to Tokyo. Suru’s Hahn was motivated to import the toys because, well, he wanted access to them himself. Utilitarian staples from the stalwart brand. and realizing that a life without toys was no life at all. It's not heavy enough to be a paperweight, it's not luxurious—it's cheap plastic.’” Staple assures me Jebbia said this with good British humor.

Some eager collectors would come from other countries to shop at Suru for Bearbricks—they were that desirable, that difficult to find. Produced by Medicom Toy, the Bearbrick has been around for decades. Today, Yang is likely the best-known Bearbrick collector on the planet. Luber chalks the demand for collectibles up to the fact that it makes the work of gallery artists available to a customer without auction-house money.

Years before Louis Vuitton collaborated with Supreme, high-fashion designers were reaching down to into streetwear’s sandbox. It doesn't do anything. Meanwhile, toy company Unbox has started to work with streetwear brands like Brain Dead. The Bonhams auction house in Hong Kong was holding a gala benefiting the Hong Kong Blood Cancer Foundation and needed an item to auction off.

It's an adult collectible toy.” —Joe Hahn.

On anniversaries and for major drops, Staple would put one out; Colette designed one to celebrate its 10th year in business; and during the 2000s, Nike would release a corresponding Bearbrick alongside every big sneaker release. Most notably, after helping build up Medicom’s reputation in the early 2000s, Kaws launched his own line of “Companion” and “BFF” toys. “I have thousands of people say, ‘I know it because of you.’ Or [I hear], ‘I saw this person [with Bearbricks].’ Oh, you saw it from that person? “That’s part of their success.”. Kith x BEARBRICK 100% & 400% 100% & 400% Set Multi. I'm the one who put Jeff on it.”.

From award-winning writing and photography to binge-ready videos to electric live events, GQ meets millions of modern men where they live, creating the moments that create conversations. It’s literally a toy.

“Yo,” Yang recalls saying at the time, “I gotta have this thing.”, “I just collected them,” Yang says now. I’m so excited to have our own Kith Bearbrick in time for the holidays. StockX.

Alright, well, cool.

Fujiwara explained the meaning behind that design to Staple, who passed along the grandiose thought process behind the piece. We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. “I don't know what possessed me. Karimoku, a Japan-based furniture company known for its wooden designs, builds Bearbricks out of—what else?—gorgeous wood; the most expensive Bearbrick to sell on StockX so far is a $13,000 “Horizon 1000% Wood” edition made in collaboration with the company.

“Fast forward to now and it feels like the cookie-cutter recipe for most of these younger brands: make a Bearbrick, make a G-Shock, etcetera. The Kith x BEARBRICK 100% & 400% Set was released on December 17th, 2018 and features a set of multicolored bearbricks with a felt covering.

The Bearbrick has been passed along like a baton from one generation of designers to the next, connecting the beginning of streetwear history to its future, one plastic toy at a time. The Evolution of kith The Kubricks became so popular that organizers from the World Character Convention in Tokyo asked Akashi if he could make toys to give to attendees of its 2001 festival. “We want to take what [collaborators] want to accomplish or express and amplify it,” Akashi told Japan Times.

Over the years, he has produced Bearbricks out of red crystal that resemble precious diamond statues, another that is wearing a fuzzy bunny costume that unzips to reveal the face of a snarling wolf, and a recent release is made out of porcelain as a tribute to 18th-century Japanese art. It has no history. (After months of back and forth, Medicom declined to comment.) But Bearbricks remain the gold standard, doing what Companions and BFFs did for Kaws for hundreds of disparate artists. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 1/1/20) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated 1/1/20) and Your California Privacy Rights.

The set was sold via the Kith … But Hahn is careful to clarify: “It's not a kid's toy.



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