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The lucrative partnership between Ye aka Kanye West and The Gap is now over after his declaration of intent to terminate the deal. He explained why in a recent interview.
According to reports, West’s lawyer, Nicholas Gravante Jr. sent a letter to the retailer on Thursday. (September 14) informing them of the decision. The letter expresses the claim that the retailer has not lived up to the contractual obligations of the deal.
“Ye had diligently tried to work through these issues with Gap both directly and through counsel (but) he has gotten nowhere,” Gravante Jr. said in an interview with CBS MoneyWatch. “Gap left him no choice but to terminate their agreement.” He added that the artist would “promptly move forward to make up for lost time by opening Yeezy retail stores.”
Ye got the chance to shed more light on his decision in an interview on CNBC’s Closing Bell. “It was always a dream of mine to be at the Gap and to bring the best product possible to the masses,” he began. He would then speak about being understanding of initial difficulties with such a partnership before detailing his frustrations.
The original deal, which was signed in 2020 and to last 10 years, had West design exclusive Yeezy-branded items for the clothing company for which he would receive royalties and stock in the company based on the item sales.
“It was very frustrating, it was very disheartening because I just put everything I had. I put all of my top relationships…And sometimes I would talk to the guys, the heads, the leaders, and it would just be like I was on mute or something. Our agenda, it wasn’t aligned,” he said, before adding: “A king can’t live in someone else’s castle. A king has to make his own castle.”
West’s gripes about the situation included him being left out of crucial meetings, having no input on the prices set for each piece (a hoodie from the collaboration sold for $240, for example), and claims that Gap didn’t fulfill their promises of opening YEEZY GAP flagship locations as originally stipulated. He voiced some of those concerns in now-deleted Instagram posts. The Balenciaga YEEZY line is not affected by the move as it falls under a separate contract.
