AXEL ARIGATO AND VISIONARY REGGIEKNOW INTRODUCE AKAIA, A NEW BRAND EMBLEM
New York, USA - [March], 2026 - AXEL ARIGATO introduces Akaia, a new brand emblem created in collaboration with cultural pioneer Reggieknow. Akaia stems from the brand’s original Bee-Bird logo - a long-standing symbol of AXEL ARIGATO’s identity – reimagined for a new era. Conceived to live across product, storytelling, and brand expression, Akaia is both a symbol and a character: a recurring mark that captures creative evolution within the AXEL ARIGATO universe.
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Rooted in the Bee-Bird’s significance, Akaia expands the brand’s original idea of fusion - bringing together multiple references, including the meeting of Japanese and Swedish bird cues, and layering them with new cultural and visual inputs. The result is an emblem built from overlap: heritage and progression, craft and intuition, past and future.
About Reggieknow
Reggieknow is a behind-the-scenes cultural pioneer whose work helped shape Chicago’s hip-hop scene in the 1990s, influencing an array of musical artists. A trusted creative collaborator, he has worked closely with leading cultural figures including Virgil Abloh, Lady Gaga and Chris Gibbs, contributing to campaigns, design direction, and visual storytelling across music, fashion, and culture.
An advertising trailblazer, he helped bring authentic hip-hop representation into mainstream campaigns at scale, and has also contributed illustration work to major luxury fashion houses. Often described as a “secret weapon,” he is reclusive by nature, but his creative fingerprints are widely felt.
Developing Akaia
Akaia was developed through a year-long creative dialogue between Reggieknow and AXEL ARIGATO Creative Director Jens Werner. The process centred on revisiting the foundations of the brand’s iconography and reinterpreting it through Reggieknow’s symbolic world - instinctive, character-driven, and rooted in cultural memory.
To communicate the inception of Akaia, AXEL ARIGATO is creating an accompanying animation that visualises the birth of the bird, offering a deeper emotional and narrative layer to the emblem.
“What drew me to this project was AXEL ARIGATO’s comfort with the edge - the willingness to build something authentic, not polished-for-safety. Jens and I found each other through the same early-language of skate culture and hip-hop: b-boy and graf energy, and that shared DNA made the creative trust immediate. Akaia is the result of this deep creative dialogue and a real respect for iconography, reinterpreted through cultural memory for a new era. It’s bigger than a capsule or a moment - it’s a new chapter in the AXEL ARIGATO world.” - Reggieknow
Product
Akaia is introduced through a capsule collection released across two drops:
Drop 1 presents a layered mix of ready-to-wear, accessories, and footwear. The collection blends tailored and casual silhouettes - including graphic T-shirts, illustrated sweatpants, denim, and a textured herringbone bomber jacket - with bold accessories such as a knitted balaclava and scarf featuring Akaia artwork and Reggieknow’s signature visual language. Footwear is anchored by a Dice Lo sneaker, reworked with Akaia detailing and custom graphic elements. The drop also includes a collectible limited-edition finger-skateboard featuring Reggieknow tagging and Akaia artwork.
Drop 2 expands the story with additional apparel and denim, plus new colourways of the Dice Lo sneaker, further embedding Akaia across product and material expression.
“When I stepped into the Creative Director role, I knew I wanted to give our Bee-bird symbol more intent and cultural relevance; sharpen its edge, lean into street, skate and graf art culture. Reggieknow felt like the perfect collaborator for that - as I'd been a fan of his work for years. We met at our NYC store opening and we clicked immediately over the city’s culture and our shared skate backgrounds. This set the tone for what followed. An idea grew over 18 months into a co-created character and capsule collection celebrating the youthful spirit of Akaia.” – Jens Werner, Creative Director – AXEL ARIGATO
The Akaia collection launches from March 11th and will be available in AXEL ARIGATO stores in London, NYC and Paris - and online at axelarigato.com.
