LeSportsac got its start as a small fashion bag company in 1974. It was popular throughout the 70's and part of the 80's but mellowed out for a while until its comeback in the early 2000's. In 2001, the co-owner of LeSportsac, Timothy Schifter, announced that the company would be making some changes. Instead of concentrating on the 35+ age group, the company began designing fashion bags for the younger crowd. This decision has led LeSportsac into the heart of pop culture territory. The company now has a line labeled by Gwen Stefani and LeSportsac bags have even been seen adorning fashionable Carrie (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) on the popular HBO series Sex in the City.
This comeback may have been right on-time. In 2003 an Italian artist named Simone Legno was discovered and entered into a collaboration with the co-founder of the Hard Candy cosmetics company, Pooneh Mohajer, and her husband, Ivan Arnold. Several other collaborations followed but despite the variety of Tokidoki items, until recently many fans only knew Simone Legno's art through fashion bags made by LeSportSac.
The fashion bag company began producing Tokidoki merchandise in 2006 and since then Tokidoki art is quickly moving into the center of pop culture.
The Tokidoki-LeSportsac collaboration has proven to be so successful that the fashion bags have been known to sell for up to four times their retail value on E-bay. There are even issues with faux Tokidoki fashion bags being passed off as the real thing. This problem is so bad that in 2007 a blog was created by Tokidoki to help consumers avoid purchasing a reproduction.
The cute Tokidoki art is not the only thing that has made this particular LeSportsac line so popular. Each bag comes with a Tokidoki character keychain called a Qee. These keychains have become a favorite collector's item among Tokidoki fans.
Fans are now awaiting the new Tokidoki bags for 2008. LeSportsac is going to remove their label from the bags and they will be branded as Tokidoki only. These new bags will be available in 8 styles. There will be 4 new prints for 2008: a fun print featuring carnival foods called Carnival, Eco-Mondo - a print for lovers of the environment, a punk motif called Concerto Punk, and the last will be a plain black design featuring Adios, Fantasmino, and Nana on the lining.
It is amazing what the right collaboration can do for the fashion world and for those involved. Now, the Cactus Friends, a group of very prickly anime-style cartoons wearing cactus costumes in order to protect themselves from the cruelty of the world, the Moofia, a cute but fierce variety of cartoons representing the different types of milk that are consumed throughout the world, and Adios, the Grim-reaper, along with his girlfriend, Ciao Ciao, are becoming household names. The heart and cross-bones and other Tokidoki depictions have become everyday sights. Due to a series of collaborations, Tokidoki items now range from apparel to footwear and from toys to sporting goods.
Browse all the Tokidoki styles and prints at Tokidodi Auctions
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