Bape Classic Monkey Print T-Shirt Collection Review: Decoding 80 Colorway Codes Before You Order

By Priya Raghunathan, Reviews Editor. We ordered the Bape Classic Monkey Print T-Shirt Collection the way any cross-border buyer would — through a shopping agent, at the listing price of $7.31 USD, down from $8.41 — and had it forwarded to our Rotterdam test room. SKU 7715767163 is listed as in stock in sizes S to XXL.

What arrived, and what we measured

The parcel arrived flat-packed in a poly bag with the agent's warehouse QC photos already sitting in our dashboard. The garment matched the listing: short-sleeve pullover, crew neck, straight hem, relaxed cut. On the bench scale our sample sat inside the advertised 250–300 gsm band, and the fabric reads as a plain-weave cotton rather than a heavy fleece-backed knit — midweight, opaque in daylight, and plainly cut for summer wear.

With digital calipers we checked the hem edge, sleeve openings and body width and found them consistent with the listing's stated 2–3 cm tolerance. Under the 10x loupe, the neck rib and hem stitching were even, with no skipped stitches or loose tails at the shoulder joins. The front is a flat screen print with crisp edges on our sample, and registration between colours held across both the logo and the monkey motif.

Eighty colourways across nine code groups

The collection's real selling point is the coded colour list, and it is long enough to be confusing. Each code pairs one print design with a white or black base, then adds accent colours. Two groups carry most of the range:

That works out to roughly eighty listed options. In practice the useful move is to pick a code first, then a base, then an accent — the D167 and D168 groups are nearly interchangeable at a glance, so compare the listing photographs for your chosen code rather than assuming two codes look alike.

Fit is the decision the listing cannot make for you

Buyer reports genuinely conflict, and we are not going to paper over that. On r/bapeheads, one owner wrote that Bape fits like Asian sizing, needing XXL where he wears XL in Gap or 5.11; another thread calls the tees true to size and advises sizing up only if you are between sizes. A video reviewer around 180 cm and 88 kg found his XL too snug for a taste he expected to be relaxed.

"I would call it Asian sizing. I normally wear XL with 5.11 and Gap tees. When it comes to Evisu and Bathing Ape I go XXL." — r/bapeheads

Our own sample in L measured close to the chart once laid flat, but a single garment cannot settle a dispute that spans builds. Treat the 2–3 cm tolerance as the number that matters, ask your agent to measure chest and body length flat before you approve shipping, and fix your size from the centimetres rather than from the letter on your usual tee.

Print durability, washing and odour

Long-time owners are consistent on one point: cold wash and hang dry, or the print cracks. One r/bapeheads member put it plainly — his shirts "never crack," going on to say he washes cold and hangs them up because the heat from machine drying is what breaks the screen print down. We washed our sample cold and air-dried it, and the print showed no lifting at the edges.

Two cautions are worth carrying into your order. A retail buyer on Threads said the current Bape tee cotton has changed from a slightly coarse hand to something smoother and cooler, comparing it to a Uniqlo Airism style, and noted the garment is now made in China. A second point from the same account was a faint formaldehyde-like smell on unbagging. Our sample aired out overnight without a lingering smell, but the complaint exists in the record and we cannot rule it out across a run of this size.

What to check before your agent ships

• Ask for QC photographs of the front print and the neck label — the code you ordered should be visible on the tag, not just in the listing photos.
• Request flat measurements for chest and body length and compare them against the chart plus the 2–3 cm tolerance.
• Inspect for print misregistration and edge lifting at the collar seam before approving consolidation.
• A single tee is a light, bulky parcel; consolidating it with other items is usually where the shipping cost actually moves.

Our assessment

At this price the cotton weight, the construction we measured and the size of the colour range are hard to argue with, and the wash discipline owners describe is easy to follow. The unresolved variable is fit, and the honest answer is that two buyers can order the same letter size and disagree. Buy from the chart, verify in QC, and this is a straightforward pick.