While in the artist alley at Anime Expo, there was something that stood out; a single pop-up boutique right in front of one of the entrances. The brightly colored space was complete with several anime photo ops, cosplayers, and most importantly, stylish anime gear! This wasn’t your average expo tee shirt shop, the designs were all unique and spoke to even -if not especially!- to the most hardcore anime fans there. It was the Anime Pls booth. We were very pleasantly surprised to find this gem in the artist alley and are very excited about where it’s going, so we just had to share with you!
What is Anime Pls?
Website: https://animepls.com/
Anime Pls is a new division of Bioworld, the world’s pop-culture product leader. Bioworld partnered up with Anime Expo to launch its new fully-immersed anime lifestyle brand, Anime Pls, in Los Angeles. While Bioworld produces items inspired by pop-culture in general, Anime Pls will focus solely on the latest anime trends and coming up with original and limited edition designs.
Anime Pls makes all sorts of apparel, not just tee-shirts. From lanyards and hats to socks and backpacks, Anime Pls cleverly stamps your favorite anime on almost anything you could possibly want.
Why We’re Excited.
They get it. After speaking with their Marketing Coordinator, Price Ogilvie and other members of the team, it was clear that the Anime Pls mission is to make good-quality apparel that is unique, immersed in anime culture, and affordable for all fans. And they are doing a great job at it! The tee-shirt designs are unique, unlike what you can find in stores -or at so many booths in the dealer’s room!, and it’s no surprise, considering the designers are anime fans themselves! The two girls working the booth in cosplay were also designers for Anime Pls! This is what we want, people who know all the inside anime jokes and can plaster them on some shirts, socks, and even backpacks!
They’re super legit! Have you ever seen the perfect anime tee to quickly realize that there’s something off about it? Or have you ever found out the place you bought your shirts doesn’t exist anymore because they were using unlicensed designs and characters? Well, that won’t happen with Anime Pls. By collaborating with licensors like Funimation, Crunchyroll, and Netflix to attain licensing straight from the source in Japan if need be, Anime Pls has the ability to tackle any new anime trend, no matter how quickly it pops up.
Special Events and Exclusive Designs. Another thing that is special about Anime Pls is that they are able to make small runs of things in order to offer limited edition event-specific tee-shirt designs! For example, the shirts below are some of the 16 exclusive tee-shirt designs for Anime Expo. You can still get these on the website for a limited time.
At the timeof writing, the website only has the AX special design tees, but Anime Pls is bringing way more than that in the future. In their pop-up boutique they were showcasing all kinds of amazing gear, like an All Might backpack that you could pre-order and which they had to increase the order number several times because so many people were ordering it!
All the images they use are exclusive to Anime Pls and are a part of what makes them stand out among the other anime apparel companies. They strive to be a niche anime apparel company. Not mainstream or cookie-cutter.
Final Thoughts
With so many pre-orders for so many of their items, Anime Pls clearly succeeds in its quest to be original and appeal to anime fans. And the fact that they had photo ops all over the booth, turned their space into a stylish otaku-chic hangout! We’re definitely excited about where Anime Pls seems to be heading!
Make sure to visit their website and follow them on social media so you can keep up to date on what they’re up to. And if you want in on the special designs, get on it because they won’t be around forever! What’s an item of anime apparel you have always wanted but haven’t found? Share your stories in the comments!
Author: Lizzy Nyanko