Second year of SHONENCORP

Two years ago, ShonenCorp started with a simple idea: creating anime and manga-inspired streetwear that we would genuinely want to wear ourselves.

Not just another catalogue filled with hundreds of random designs, but collections built around the series, characters and moments that made us love Japanese animation and manga in the first place.

Two years later, that idea hasn’t changed.

The collection has grown, new universes have joined ShonenCorp, and we’ve learned a lot along the way. But looking at everything we still want to create, it feels like we’re only getting started.

Dragon Ball Z, Samurai Champloo & Vagabond: Where We Went All In

Some universes naturally became a bigger part of ShonenCorp during our first two years.

Dragon Ball Z

Dragon Ball Z has been one of them from the beginning.

Rather than creating a handful of designs and moving on, we wanted to explore different characters, moments and visual styles from the series.

From classic pieces like our Trunks Regular Tee to different formats built around iconic characters, including the Goku Hoodie and Vegeta Oversized Tee, Dragon Ball Z progressively became one of the most developed universes at ShonenCorp.

The goal has never been to make every piece look the same. Some designs are understated, others are built around large graphics and back prints. Regular tees, oversized silhouettes and hoodies all give us different ways to interpret the universe.

And there are still plenty of characters and moments we want to explore.

Samurai Champloo

Samurai Champloo followed a similar path, but for very different reasons.

Its combination of samurai culture, hip-hop, Japanese aesthetics and the personalities of Mugen, Jin and Fuu feels incredibly close to the identity we wanted ShonenCorp to have.

It’s a universe where traditional Japanese imagery and street culture already coexist, making it a natural source of inspiration for us.

Pieces such as our Samurai Champloo Summer Hoodie and Jin Oversized Tee represent different sides of our Samurai Champloo collection.

And just like Dragon Ball Z, it’s a collection we’re nowhere near finished with.

Vagabond

Then there is Vagabond.

Its artwork, atmosphere and samurai aesthetic naturally found a place within ShonenCorp.

Vagabond gives us a completely different visual language to work with. It can be quieter and more artistic, while still translating perfectly into graphic streetwear.

That contrast can be seen between pieces such as the Vagabond Portrait Regular Tee and the bolder Vagabond Oversized Tee.

During these first two years, our Vagabond collection progressively became another universe we wanted to develop more deeply alongside Dragon Ball Z and Samurai Champloo.

These three collections represent an important part of where we want ShonenCorp to go: going deeper into the universes we love instead of simply adding more of them.

What Comes Next: Expanding the ShonenCorp Universe

The next phase is already taking shape.

Several collections are already part of ShonenCorp, but we don’t consider them finished. The next step is to give them more depth, more variety and the same attention we gave to Dragon Ball Z, Samurai Champloo and Vagabond.

Our Berserk collection is one of the biggest opportunities to keep exploring darker manga aesthetics, iconic characters and artwork that translates naturally into graphic streetwear.

We also want to push our Slam Dunk collection further, combining classic basketball culture with the distinctive visual identity of one of the most iconic sports manga and anime.

The Naruto collection and Bleach collection already feature several characters and styles, but there is still a huge amount of material we want to explore.

And beyond anime and manga, our Street Fighter collection gives us another direction to develop: Japanese fighting game culture, arcade nostalgia and iconic characters translated into streetwear.

These collections won’t grow overnight.

The idea is to develop them progressively — introducing new characters, experimenting with different artwork and creating more regular tees, oversized designs and hoodies without simply adding products for the sake of making the catalogue bigger.

We want each collection to gradually develop its own identity.

Building ShonenCorp for the Long Term

There are still plenty of universes already represented at ShonenCorp that we haven’t explored nearly as much as we want to.

But we’re not trying to build everything at once.

ShonenCorp was never meant to become a catalogue filled overnight.

We would rather develop collections progressively, experiment with different artwork and formats, and release designs that actually make sense for the brand.

Some collections will grow faster than others. Some ideas will take longer to develop. And new inspirations will inevitably become part of the project along the way.

That’s part of what makes building ShonenCorp exciting.

More Than Just New Designs

The next chapter of ShonenCorp isn’t only about releasing more T-shirts and hoodies.

We’re also working on the store itself: improving existing collections, making designs easier to discover and creating a better experience across the website.

Some older ideas will evolve.

Some collections will become significantly larger.

Others will take more time.

And new pieces will continue to appear progressively rather than all at once.

Through all of that, the idea behind ShonenCorp remains the same: combining the anime and manga culture we grew up with and the streetwear aesthetic we love today.

This Is Only the Beginning

Two years sounds like a milestone.

For ShonenCorp, it feels much more like the foundation.

Dragon Ball Z, Samurai Champloo and Vagabond showed us what these collections can become when we take the time to develop them properly.

Now it’s time to take Berserk, Slam Dunk, Naruto, Bleach and Street Fighter further.

Slowly, collection by collection, design by design.

To everyone who has discovered ShonenCorp, ordered something, followed the project or simply spent time browsing our designs during these first two years:

thank you.

There’s a lot more coming.

— ShonenCorp

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