Gap and Foot Locker remove all Yeezy merchandise
New York CNN Business —
As corporate reaction to Kanye West mounts, Gap has announced that it is removing the rapper’s Yeezy Gap line of merchandise from its stores and has shut down YeezyGap.com. Also, Foot Locker is pulling Yeezy products from its shelves.
“Our former partner’s recent comments and behavior further underscore why we are taking immediate steps to remove the Yeezy Gap product from our stores,” the retailer said in a statement Tuesday.
In recent weeks, retailers, social media platforms, celebrities, and fashion and entertainment companies have parted ways with business alliances with West over anti-Semitic remarks on a podcast and on Twitter, as well as other controversial behavior.
“Anti-Semitism, racism and hatred in any form are inexcusable and, in line with our values, will not be tolerated. On behalf of our customers, employees and shareholders, we partner with organizations fighting hate and discrimination,” Gap announced.
Gap follows Adidas’ statement on Tuesday that the company had ended its partnership with West, which has legally changed its name to Ye, “effective immediately”.
Also on Tuesday, a spokesman for retailer Foot Locker (FL) said that while it “remains a partner with adidas and stocks a wide range of their collections – we will not be supporting any future Yeezy product outages and we have instructed our retailers on every product in existence.” off our shelves and digital websites.”
Gap Inc. (GPS) and Kanye West announced last month that they were ending a 10-year partnership signed in 2020 with his fashion company Yeezy.
Yeezy Gap’s first piece was a $200 jacket that immediately sold out online when it launched. A handful of subsequent launches from the brand, including more jackets and hoodies, also sold out immediately.
West expanded his sold-out Yeezy Gap line by bringing in luxury fashion powerhouse brand Balenciaga to launch the Yeezy Gap Engineered By Balenciaga collection. In July, the collection went on sale in Gap stores for the first time.
In mid-September, West said he was ending his partnership with Gap for “significant non-compliance.” Balenciaga announced last week that it would cut ties with Ye.
The rapper’s attorney, Nicholas Gravante, said in a statement in September that West had “no choice but to end their collaboration” because he alleges the retailer violated their partnership by not offering Yeezy-branded stores, among other things opened and did not sell his clothes as originally planned.
Gap confirmed the same day that it had ended the Yeezy partnership. But had originally said existing merchandise would continue to be sold in the company’s stores and website through the first half of 2023, a decision that has now been reversed.
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