Gap, Kanye West Slammed for Displaying Clothing in Giant Garbage Bags Inside Stores The rapper and fashion mogul is making headlines for his unorthodox way of making customers shop (dive?) for his new clothing collaboration.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Gap has announced that it will officially begin pulling Yeezy Gap items from shelves, effective immediately, following Kanye West's antisemitic commentary this past week.
"Our former partner's recent remarks and behavior further underscore why. We are taking immediate steps to remove Yeezy Gap product from our stores and we have shut down YeezyGap.com," the company said in a statement. "Antisemitism, racism and hate in any form are inexcusable and not tolerated in accordance with our values. On behalf of our customers, employees and shareholders, we are partnering with organizations that combat hate and discrimination."
The official business contract between the two was terminated in September on behalf of Ye after he and his team sent a letter to Gap stating that the company failed to comply by terms initially stated in the agreement, including Yeezy Gap product being stocked in-store.
Original story below.
Kanye West and his apparel brand, YEEZY, have had several collaborations with high-profile fashion brands that have been anything but drama-free — including his most recent squabble with Adidas in which he claimed they made up a retail holiday using his namesake without his permission.
Now, West's latest partnership, Yeezy Gap, is being roasted online for the unorthodox way he is reportedly requesting the items be sold in-store.
Photos and videos of the merchandise in retail Gap stores appear to be selling in what can only be described as gigantic trash bags, thrown in the middle of the retail store with the clothing items inside not even folded or organized by size or style.
"This is how they are selling Yeezy GAP," one Twitter user explained above one of the photos. "The sales associate said Ye got mad when he saw they had it on hangers and this is how he wanted it. They won't help you find ur size too, you just have to just dig through everything."
This is how they are selling Yeezy GAP. The sales associate said Ye got mad when he saw they had it on hangers and this is how he wanted it. They won't help you find ur size too, you just have to just dig through everything pic.twitter.com/GNd08Zv1zC
— little miss (@owen__lang) August 15, 2022
YEEZY GAP x BALENCIAGA Blue Dove Pieces In Store pic.twitter.com/Bc8opWfy8I
— HypeNeverDies (@HypeNeverDies) August 13, 2022
YEEZY GAP AVAILABLE IN STORES pic.twitter.com/aOouwRPmzn
— YEEZY GAP (@YEEZYXGAPGLOBAL) August 16, 2022
Kanye's way of selling Yeezy at GAP. Going to be worse than the Next sale. pic.twitter.com/Uvh0ldlazn
— Siobhan Louise (@lennistyle) August 17, 2022
Twitter users had mixed responses to the visuals, some calling West a "genius" while others lamented the issues this would cause for Gap employees and customers.
"Yay. Underpaid GAP employees get to clean up the customer mess every 15 minutes and shove all the stuff back into the bag because a billionaire thought it would look cooler," one wrote.
"Balenciaga & Kanye's fetish with the homeless as 'fashion muses' it's everything that is wrong with billionaires," another said. "They no longer see the plight of people, they don't see humans that are suffering, they see opportunities to be 'edgy' and profit from it…it's disgusting."
The collection was created in collaboration with designer Balenciaga, which also had its own take on trash-forward fashion after making headlines for selling a $1,790 "Trash Pouch" earlier this month — essentially a glorified drawstring bag that was meant to look precisely like a trash bag.
Balenciaga also famously made a lookalike Ikea tote bag that retailed for $2,145.
The Yeezy Gap collaboration was first announced in 2020 and consists of a mix of basics and accessories that are far beyond Gap's usual price point but well below Balenciaga's, with products ranging from $60 (baseball caps, seamless tanks) to $340 (coats, parkas).
The collaboration kicked off in-store last month in Times Square where Gap's flagship storefront was transformed to Ye's liking and to represent the essence of the collection.
"Gap's Times Square flagship store has been re-engineered and distilled to its most essential form in Yeezy Gap Engineered By Balenciaga's vision of utilitarian design," Gap said in a statement at the time.
Entrepreneur has reached out to Gap for clarification on the retail plan to sell the merchandise from the collection.
Gap was down nearly 59% year over year as of Wednesday afternoon.
