Kanye West has formally notified Gap that he is terminating their partnership.
The artist’s lawyers sent a letter to the company on Thursday to notify them of the termination, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The letter alleged that Gap breached their agreement by not releasing apparel as planned, or opening stores.
The latest: Kanye West has formally notified Gap that he is terminating their partnership
The Wall Street Journal viewed the letter.
The Yeezy Gap merchandise already available in stores will remain there and still be available for purchase, per the letter.
It also said that the company was required to sell 40% of the Yeezy Gap merch in stores during the latter part of 2021.
Only one item from the collection went on sale last fall, and it was only available online and not in a store.
The drama: The letter alleged that Gap breached their agreement by not releasing apparel as planned, or opening stores; a piece from the Yeezy Gap collection pictured
No Yeezy Gap store has opened yet; the company was required to open five retail shops by July 31, 2023.
The Yeezy Gap by Balenciaga merch debuted in stores in July with more coming this fall.
Merchandise made in collaboration with Balenciaga for Gap will not be affected.
On Monday, the rapper had revealed he was done with corporate sponsorships and will not renew his current contracts with Gap and Adidas when they expire – a move that would jeopardize billions of dollars in revenue.
‘It’s time for me to go it alone,’ the musician, who now goes by the name Ye, told Bloomberg News.
It’s fine. I made the companies money. The companies made me money. We created ideas that will change apparel forever. Like the round jacket, the foam runner, the slides that have changed the shoe industry,’ he continued. ‘Now it’s time for Ye to make the new industry. No more companies standing in between me and the audience.’
The multi-Grammy Award-winning recording artist still has until 2026 before his deal with Adidas runs out and this contract with Gap, signed in June 2020, is good for for another eight years.
Not the first time: The singer and aspiring politician had previously complained but his lack of board seats. Seen here in a September 10 tweet
Rant: ‘I’M WEARING JORDANS TILL I’M ON THE BOARD OF ADIDAS,’ the Black Skinhead hitmaker tweeted, along with a skiing emoji, among other tweets
But in his mind, Ye, whose Yeezy Boost 350s are manufactured by the international sneaker company, they are already divorced.
‘They my new baby mamas,’ he told the financial news outlet. ‘I guess we’re just going to have to co-parent those 350s.’
Earlier this month, Ye has been on a social media blitz against the two clothing companies, accusing Adidas of seizing creative control over the Yeezy brand and stealing his design ideas to produce shoes similar to his Boost trainers. He also claimed that the shoe company ripped off his design for slides.
‘No one should be held in that position where people can steal from them and say we’re just paying you to shut up,’ he told Bloomberg. ‘That destroys innovation. That destroys creativity. That’s what destroyed Nikola Tesla.’
He’s hammered Adidas executives with a series of mocking Instagram posts until, he claims, his lawyers stepped in and asked him to stop.
In some of the posts, he superimposed Adidas executive Daniel Cherry’s head on another person’s body and created mocking videos of the corporate leader.
Ye also went after JPMorgan Chase, where he holds much of his money after switching from a small Wyoming bank, for not backing him in his war against the popular clothing brands.
Kanye West signed his deal with GAP in 2020, which has resulted in some bizarre designs
Taunting: The 45-year-old rapper-turned-designer has publicly declared a feud with Adidas, whom he’s partnered with via his Yeezy empire
‘I’ve went to JP Morgan but of course they won’t give me no deal flow cause Jin(g) Ulrich is on the board of both Adidas and JP Morgan. What shoe company will give me control. I need to be the head of the board and chief decision maker,’ he posted.
Jing Ulrich is the Chase vice chare of investment banking.
Ye also tried to get banking titan Jamie Dimon on the phone, but was ghosted by the financier.
‘I feel like there’s a lot of controlling and handling to suppress my ability to affect the American economy and industry,’ the rapper said of Chase.
Bloomberg reported that Ye holds $122 million cash and stock, but that his corporate deals make him a billionaire.
His financial dealings have been as eclectic as his music choices.
Ye hired Michael Cohen, the convicted ex-lawyer for former President Donald Trump, to give him some financial advice, according to Bloomberg News.
It was Cohen who recommended that he move his money from Wyoming, which he said ‘was not equipped to handle his business or him personally, to the major investment bank.
The Yeezy brand earned $191 billion in royalties in 2020 from the Adidas deal, according to USB Group AG.
The recording artist has groused almost from the beginning of his corporate collaborations that he was being frozen out of decision-making.
Kanye West, pictured here, signaled that he’s done with Adidas. He inked his deal with the shoe brand in 2015 and it will continue until 2026
Happier times: Kanye had previously tweeted enthusiastically about the collaboration
In July 2020, Gap stock dipped 7.4 percent after he threatened to pull out of deals with the clothing company a month after he signed the partnership with his Yeezy brand.
He threatened to do the same to the international sneaker maker, but their stock ended up for the day.
The musician’s public disagreements with the brands have created a corporate headache after other public figures like Sean Combs and Swizz Beatz declared a public boycott on Adidas.
Ye’s public disagreements with the brands have created a corporate headache after other public figures like Sean Combs and Swizz Beatz declared a public boycott on Adidas
Ye’s focus appears to be shifting from the Yeezy clothing company to Donda Academy, a school named after his late mother.
He plans to set up campuses across the country that will contain schools, farms, retail space, and dormitories, Bloomberg reported.
It’s unclear where Gap and Adidas fit in.
‘Every step of my career there was something in the way,’ Ye told the financial news service. ‘They did the dream, but just without Ye.’
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