“Verge culture,” as in young, digital, influencers and brand-savvy hip youths, is poised for a social media guerilla takeover — if Karmaloop TV has anything to do with it.

An offshoot of the Karmaloop.com retail site, KarmaloopTV.com is an online video-based network that's vying for broadband and video-on-demand distribution in the US. It aims to be a full-blown 24-hour cable TV network, and is now pitching cable and telco TV operators that it can help them “reclaim” the 18-to-34 year old audience that lives online, on digital, on mobile and on social.

In a similar vein to Vice TV, it aims to offer an in-depth look (and insights) into global street culture. The website also features exclusive interviews with designers, brands, artists and musicians — musician/producer Pharrell Williams signed on as KarmaloopTV's creative director in May.Continue reading...

The New England Patriots’ Chad Ochocinco, David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox, retired Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, professional golfer Greg Norman, and … deceased neo-Expressionist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat?

Well, OK, Basquiat may not have endorsed Reeboks like all the others, but his name is going to be all over the company’s shoes this fall as a new Basquiat-inspired line of clothing and footwear ("I am Basquiat!") hit store shelves as part of the ongoing "I Am Reebok" campaign. It's all thanks to the artist’s renaissance among hip-hop artists and Reebok’s visiting creative director, musician/producer Swizz Beatz.Continue reading...

A Bathing Ape, the Japanese cult brand that, in its heyday, was beloved by hip-hop artists, DJs, skateboarders and others seeking street cred through streetwear, has just been sold.

Created by Tomoaki Nagao, a Tokyo-based designer and musician better known as Nigo, the clothing and kicks line arrived in America when it opened a store in New York in 2005. Its 2008 store launch in Los Angeles brought out celeb fans of the Harajuku-born brand including superfan Pharrell Williams, Jermaine Dupri, Pete Wentz, Joel Madden, Mike Tyson, Jonah Hill, Serena Williams. Pepsi has also collaborated with BAPE on a series of limited edition bottles.

It has cooled off considerably since then — its LA store closed last year, and its New York store no longer attracts the lineups it once did. No matter: it was just snapped up by Hong Kong's I.T. apparel group, which wants to further the brand's expansion in China. A Bathing Ape last month opened its first store in Beijing, and already boasts retail outlets in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan.

Nigo will stay on with the brand for two years, and has been working on a side project — the Ice Cream / Billionaire Boys Club luxury streetwear lines — with Pharrell Williams since 2005.