As early as two months before KAWS x Uniqlo UT's final drop together, news that the collaboration was happening seemed to leak. From there, KAWS took to Instagram to announce the collaboration officially via several animated posts of BFFs and Companions holding up different KAWS x Uniqlo shirts. Shortly after the official announcement of the collaboration, KAWS took to Instagram again to announce that this would also be the final collaboration between the artist and Uniqlo. The result was an unprecedented level of hype which resulted in the site crashing and riots in some malls in China.