Human Made moves to acquire Undercover, joining two of Tokyo streetwear's founding houses under one listed company
HUMAN MADE, the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market-listed label founded by Nigo, said it has resolved to acquire all of UNDERCOVER, the house built by designer Jun Takahashi, for roughly ¥550 million, bringing two of the founding names of Japanese streetwear under one listed parent for the first time, with Takahashi stepping back from management to focus on design.
HUMAN MADE Inc., which trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Growth Market under code 456A, said in a timely disclosure filing on 11 September that its board has resolved to acquire all outstanding shares of UNDERCOVER Co., Ltd., the label designer Jun Takahashi built, for a price of roughly ¥550 million.
As part of the deal, Takahashi will step back from management responsibilities at Undercover to focus on design, according to the filing. Nigo, who built the earlier label A Bathing Ape before founding HUMAN MADE in 2010, remains the acquiring company's creative director.
For two houses that built their standing in Japan as much through boutique wholesale and department-store shop-in-shops as through their own stores, folding one under a listed parent changes who now signs off on where a shop opens and how much floor space a department store hands over next season — decisions that used to sit with a single founder-designer. It also puts a rare number on the table: a ¥550m price for a label with Undercover's profile is not a figure Japanese streetwear houses usually disclose, and it surfaces here only because the buyer answers to public shareholders. Worth watching over the next year is whether Undercover's shelf space in Japan looks any different now that Takahashi has handed the commercial decisions to someone else.