Kanye West Slams GAP, Plans to Open YEEZY Retail Stores
“The monster‘s about to come alive again.”
After learning that GAP held a meeting without him, Kanye West took to Instagram to voice his qualms, starting with a post accusing GAP of stealing designs from the YEEZY GAP ENGINEERED BY BALENCIAGA collection and canceling a photo shoot with his kids in Japan.
Ye later followed up with a post in the morning captioned: “The Vision will be realized. Let’s start with stores in Atlanta.” The post documents snippets of his passionate monologue in front of GAP executives in which he voices his dissatisfaction with the current direction and offers GAP an ultimatum on their future partnership. “This is Spartan, this is not celebrity marketing, this is not a collaboration, this is a life mission,” West says at the beginning of his speech.
“This is bigger than us. We shouldn’t argue amongst ourselves. But I’m saying I have to go pull that sword out the stone,” Ye adds. “You either believe me or I’m going to show you. I can either show you facing this way [away from the GAP executives] or facing this way [towards them]. But you’re going to see it.”
West later criticizes GAP’s past strategic moves including its decision to cancel pre-orders for the blue jackets and never doing a fashion show. When the executives began to clap or cheer, Ye quickly shuts down the support, reminding them that he’s been pushed to the edge, and threatens to quit. Throughout the meeting, Ye also mentions doing right by Virgil Abloh and his mother Donda.
“You really have to give me the position to Ye and do what I’m thinking or I’m going to have to do what I’m thinking somewhere else because one thing I’ve learned from Virgil is that if something’s killing me, it’s actually killing me,” he says.
After posting about the GAP meeting, West then expands on his plans to open YEEZY stores worldwide, sharing an Apple Notes screenshot calling for anyone “who has over 10 years of retail experience and is ready to change the world” to contact his team via the comments.
“I signed with both adidas and GAP because it contractually stated they would build permanent stores which neither company has done even though I saved both of those companies at the same time. Ima show you how to use social media,” writes Ye.
The comment section quickly explodes, and Ye’s confidants including 2 Chainz, Pusha T, Fivio Foreign, and Justin LaBoy respond with their support. LaBoy in particular shares a conversation with the Chairman of FanzzLids, Lawrence Berger who says they’re ready for a serious conversation. To round out the series of posts, Ye offers a clear picture of where his head is at, posting a clip of Christopher Walken’s “The Lion Speech” from Poolhall Junkies (2002) with the caption: “The monster(‘s) about to come alive again.”
Take a look at Ye’s posts below.
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In other news, KENZO Launches Drop 4 of FW22 Collection.
