A BATHING APE® × VANS KNU SKOOL “COLOR CAMO” Collection Set for July 15 Rel

A Bathing Ape® (BAPE®) and Vans are reuniting for a new 2026 capsule built around the Knu Skool, following a 2024 collection that put the Sk8 Mid and Old Skool through the same treatment, wrapping colored APE camo panels across all four sides of each shoe. This time the two brands look further back, landing on the Knu Skool, a shape that hit its own commercial peak earlier in the decade and has spent the past year climbing back into rotation as one of skate footwear’s defining silhouettes.

It’s a lineage Vans has leaned on heavily in recent seasons, with names like Travis Barker, Satoshi Nakamoto, JJJJound, and Parra all returning for multiple rounds. Few of those relationships carry the weight of BAPE®’s, though, which is what makes this new chapter such a notable one for sneaker audiences in both the US and Japan.

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The capsule spans two colorways, both built on BAPE®’s familiar mismatched, left-right asymmetrical construction. The “Color Camo Black” pairs a darkened take on BAPE®’s signature camouflage on the lateral sides with monochrome checkerboard paneling on the medial side, keeping the palette restrained and tonal.

The latest BAPE x Vans collaboration pairs ABC Camo with oversized STA branding, sculpted serrated midsoles, and premium suede detailing across two distinctive camouflage colorways.

The “Color Camo” flips that formula, opening with olive camouflage on the outer panels before shifting into pink and purple on the reverse for a far louder, more saturated finish. Across both pairs, toothed midsole molding and a Star logo swap on the Side Stripe keep BAPE®’s design fingerprints consistent regardless of which colorway is chosen.

Together, the shark-tooth toe detailing and camo placement carry over the visual grammar BAPE® and Vans built across their Old Skool and Sk8-Mid collisions, now applied to the Knu Skool’s bulkier, more elevated shape.

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The BAPE® × Vans Knu Skool releases July 15 through Vans.com and select retail doors, with limited pairs available via raffle at the Fifth Avenue store in New York and The Grove in Los Angeles. Both colorways carry a $150 retail price.

BAPE and Vans reinterpret the Old Skool with camouflage and checkerboard paneling, oversized STA branding, sculpted serrated midsoles, and premium suede construction.

Either the collection reaches BAPE® Japan or Vans Japan retail, and at what JPY price point, has not been officially confirmed as of this writing. For context, the 2024 BAPE® × Vans Old Skool/Sk8-Mid collaboration retailed domestically at ¥17,050 for the Old Skool and ¥18,150 for the Sk8-Mid, tax included — a reasonable price benchmark if a Japan release for the Knu Skool is eventually confirmed.

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This isn’t a one-off pairing — BAPE® and Vans have built one of the more durable collaborative relationships in either brand’s history. Their 2024 collection remastered the Old Skool and Sk8-Mid, with BAPE®’s camouflage running across the Old Skool’s quarter panels alongside a vulcanized rubber Shark symbol on the forefoot, while the Sk8-Mid carried a full green camo canvas and both models reworked Vans’ Side Stripe with BAPE®’s STA logo.

Before that, the two brands linked in 2022 on a Sk8-Hi 38 DX and Old Skool 36 DX capsule built around a custom ABC Camo pattern exclusive to that release. BAPE® has been exporting Japanese streetwear globally since 1993, when it launched out of Shibuya, Tokyo, with limited-run tees rooted in street and counterculture — a foundation that still runs through every collaboration the brand takes on, this Knu Skool release included.