The ALIFE team has set the precedent for chic, urban clothing boutiques the world over. Situated next to Alife Rivington Club, the shop is exactly what shoppers wanted from the brand/store. ALIFE deftly combines its urban influences with high-end design concepts, offering buyers a seamless shopping experience. With this location, ALIFE achieved that which is the essence of the store, the brand, and the lifestyle as a whole: effortless cool.

This cool is of course derived distinctly from the type of effort which passionately created a brand from a lifestyle and not about a lifestyle. The Alife shop provides its own sneakers, jeans, shirts, hats, and jewelry. Its closeness to Alife Rivington Club (they share a supporting wall) is a blessing to the walkers, humping their bags along the city blocks while trekking from shop to shop.

Japanese super-brand, A Bathing Ape or BAPE, has taken the world by storm since its creation in 1993 by then unknown stylist, Tomoaki Nagao. Nagao, who is now commonly referred to as Nigo, brought BAPE to NYC in 2005 with a stylishly bare boutique on Greene St. Carrying a large selection of the brand’s signature BapeSta sneaker line and some of its apparel as well, the BAPE store also provides music producer Pharrell Williams’ line, Billionaire Boys Club.

The BAPE label has become known just as much for its outlandishly colored camo patterns and patent leather sneakers as its owner’s proclivity for collecting exorbitantly expensive pop-art and exotic cars. Nigo has graced the covers of many a magazine with more jewelry than ten of our most shiny rappers combined and unashamedly claims to have the most expansive Louis Vuitton vintage luggage collection in the world. However, despite Nigo’s somewhat gaudy tastes he has created a brand that is internationally recognized and produces quality, if not quirky, goods.