Human Made Corporation, the company founded by Japanese streetwear pioneer Nigo, has signed an agreement to acquire Undercover, the cult fashion label founded and independently owned by Jun Takahashi.

The agreement — which is non-binding at this stage, with a share purchase agreement targeted for September 2026 and the full transfer planned for February 2027 — connects two of Japanese fashion’s most visionary figures.

The deal comes less than a year since Human Made launched a historic IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, becoming the first streetwear brand to go public there. The company generated annual revenues of JPY 14.27 billion ($89.14 million) in fiscal year 2026, representing a 26.8% increase from JPY 11.26 billion ($70.33 million) the previous year.

In a statement, Human Made said that the acquisition of Undercover was part of a wider overhaul of its business model. With the aim to “nurture culture sparked by human inspiration and craft”, the plan is to enhance the value of the group and form “Japan’s next iconic creative industry, following manga, anime and games”.

Because it is a private company, Undercover does not publicly disclose its annual revenue or profit figures. But like many high-fashion ventures, it has faced the challenge of balancing its immense avant-garde creativity with steady commercial success. Human Made said its policy targeted “companies whose brand equity has not sufficiently translated into profits”.

In Human Made’s view, Undercover has “established a unique position” that blends street culture with high fashion, ultimately creating a “designer brand with high global recognition”.

Nigo and Takahashi are often credited as two of the foundational architects of modern streetwear. They have a deep friendship that spans decades, after coming up together and inspiring one another as they launched their respective brands, A Bathing Ape (Bape) and Undercover, and transforming Japanese youth culture into an international phenomenon. Their mutual respect and approach to collaborations blurred the lines between high fashion, art, and street culture, proving that creativity thrives in community.

Together, they launched the seminal Tokyo-based fashion boutique Nowhere in 1993. As the first place to sell both Bape (launched by Nigo the same year) and Undercover (founded three years prior by Takahashi, while a student at Bunka Fashion College), it anchored the country’s legendary Ura-Harajuku streetwear movement, which came to life as Japan’s economic bubble began to burst.

As part of the groundbreaking subculture, Nigo, Takahashi, and other creatives like the legendary Japanese designer and DJ Hiroshi Fujiwara started importing and remixing American hip-hop, punk, and skate aesthetics. They also championed exclusive, limited-edition drops and celebrity collaborations that appealed to in-the-know fans, long before hype culture went global.

During this period, Undercover — whose raw and rebellious collections of graphic-laden, hand-painted pieces, subversive slogans, and distressed or reconstructed garments were inspired by Western punk bands like The Sex Pistols and The Clash — blurred the lines between fashion and art, capturing the attention of Japan’s youth. The brand later opened its first standalone flagship store in the upscale Aoyama district of Tokyo in 2009. Today, Undercover, which has shown at Paris Fashion Week since 2002, continues to act as an extension of Takahashi’s deep obsession with subculture, music, film, and art.

When Nigo and Takahashi first took streetwear to the Paris runways, they each did so “in a completely distinct way”, says Tiffany Godoy, a Tokyo-based consultant and editor-at-large of W Magazine China. “From the beginning, they stayed true to their own worlds while expanding the idea of what a brand could be. And their influence goes far beyond clothes: as culture heads, collectors and connoisseurs, their fashion was connected with media, music, art, retail, and community. So many ideas that are now standard in fashion marketing were rooted in their language and the wider Ura-Harajuku scene.”

Notably, both designers have continued their love for collaboration. In 2003, Nigo partnered with Pharrell Williams to launch New York-based streetwear brand Billionaire Boys Club, and has since collaborated with big brands like Louis Vuitton and Uniqlo. Takahashi, too, has undertaken his fair share of blockbuster collaborations, with companies like Nike and The North Face. There have also been multiple collaborations between Human Made and Undercover.

Their ongoing work with external collaborators, as well as each other, “show an important side of their influence: accessibility, price sensitivity, and the ability to speak to both fashion insiders and a wider public,” observes Godoy.

Their close alignment may also be why Human Made has taken interest in Undercover. Nigo is notorious for being a collector, and neither founders would want to see Undercover become something it’s not — as witnessed with some Western fashion brands that have gone astray after founders die or sell the business, due to a clash between artistic vision and corporate profit. Without the original visionary steering the DNA, there have been too many incidents where conglomerates have diluted a brand by aggressively licensing the name, expanding into low-quality mass markets, or mismanaging the creative succession.

The longstanding relationship between Nigo and Takahashi indicates this would be unlikely. And if the deal goes through, their united front may suggest new momentum for the Japanese fashion market, at a time when the country’s cultural influence continues to expand globally.

Godoy muses whether Human Made could become “something like a streetwear LVMH from Asia”. She reasons: “There is a real community mindset around Nigo. With him and Pharrell as major shareholders of Human Made, and their shared respect for Japan, this could become much bigger than fashion. This could be the beginning of a wider ‘brand Japan’ universe, spanning craft, retail, music, art, architecture, and more.”