HUMAN MADE and Blue Bottle Coffee Japan Brew up Collaborative Merch and Beans
Kicking off Blue Bottle’s new Shibuya outpost in style.
First teased by the HUMAN MADE founder himself, NIGO is teaming up with Blue Bottle Coffee‘s Japanese arm for a special collaboration. The duo have put their heads together to celebrate the opening of Blue Bottle’s new Shibuya store, coming up with some special merch and even a custom coffee blend, suited for NIGO’s preferred palate.
According to Blue Bottle Coffee itself, NIGO is a longtime fan of the Californian company. The JINS & SUN director regularly patronizes its Nakameguro location, as it neighbors his office, and even joins Blue Bottle teams for brewing lessons on occasion.
Appropriately, his Blue Bottle collaboration includes its very own beans, dubbed the “Future Blend.” Inspired by the floral, berry-tinged taste of Ethopian beans. Specially roasted Guatemalan beans are added in, inviting notes of caramel and cocoa and ensuring a smooth, sweet finish.
NIGO is also dishing out two special wearables for the collection, printing a classic HUMAN MADE slub cotton tee and dark navy cap with “BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE SHIBUYA” verbiage, a Blue Bottle logo and subtle HUMAN MADE branding. Finally, the creative also oversaw the co-branded uniform to be worn by the Shibuya-based staff, which includes a similar tee, hat and apron.
This is NIGO’s first major third-party coffee company collaboration but it’s hardly his first dip into the realm: the HUMAN MADE founder opened the 2-5 Café in Shibuya back in 2014. NIGO is also no stranger to fast-casual collaborations, given his KFC joint effort in 2018.
Meanwhile, NIGO’s mentor, Hiroshi Fujiwara, has his own long-standing partnership with Starbucks, though it may not be exactly analogous to NIGO’s Blue Bottle collection as there’s no guarantee that this joint effort will give way to future (no pun intended) drops.
The debut Blue Bottle Coffee outpost in Shibuya opens April 28. Japanese customers can visit the café and Blue Bottle Coffee Japan’s website to shop the merch, while international fans are able to pre-order the HUMAN MADE exclusives on Blue Bottle Coffee’s English website as of April 20. A 12 oz. bag of Future Blend retails for $21 USD, while the shirt is $85 USD and the hat $57 USD.
NIGO keeps the collaborations coming, having recently dropped HUMAN MADE’s latest adidas Originals lineup.
