BAPE dates the Shark hoodie’s debut to 2004. Twenty years later, the brand revisited its 1st and 2nd editions in an anniversary release. The photographs shown here belong to that 2024 campaign, not to a newly discovered photo shoot from 2004.
The design is easiest to understand with the hood zipped shut. Eyes sit on either side and the toothed mouth spans the front. The closure helps assemble the face, making the hood part of the graphic instead of merely a surface behind it. In the campaign’s group photograph, different body colors share that immediately recognizable structure.
BAPE’s anniversary page announced the returning 1st and 2nd edition hoodies for November 23, 2024, alongside a wider program of pop-ups and other releases. That gives us two separate dates to retain: 2004 for the design’s origin, and 2024 for the pieces photographed in this retrospective.
For an archive record, photograph the front, the hood configuration and the rear separately. Keep the edition and the date attached to the specific garment. Our focus here is the relationship between construction and image; the pictured BAPE campaign pieces are references, not Hats & Hangers inventory.