Kanye West Cuts Up Adidas, Balenciaga, Gap Hoodies; Says He’ll Sell Them For $20

Balenciaga, Adidas, Gap, and YEEZY hoodies are slated to fly off the shelves at a heavily discounted price of just US$20. One catch: You’ll be buying them from the artist formerly known as Kanye West.

The fashion world was rocked to its core after a string of offensive comments, including anti-Semitic threats, led to the downfall of the highly successful career of Ye, who now legally goes by this name. The Gap, Balenciaga, and Adidas all severed ties with him, with the latter sportswear giant planning to continue stocking YEEZY products, as well as derivative designs, under the Adidas brand.

In his own unfettered way, West has somehow turned the division into a self-directed collaboration. The rapper recently gave celebrity news outlet X17 a tour around his workshop in Los Angeles, where he proclaimed that he was repurposing apparel that YEEZY had worked on with the three brands, as well as his streetwear label’s own, into affordable clothing.

“What we do here is I’ll cut up, you know, 100 hoodies from YEEZY, from Balenciaga, from the stuff we did at Gap… [and] Adidas,” and everything we do is going to cost $20,” West explained.

Brands and the public have learned to take West’s words with a grain of salt. Rain or shine, though, the designer has consistently insisted that wares under the YEEZY brand will eventually be priced at US$20. He said it when the Foam Runners were launched, when announcing the Ye Supply Store, when teasing futuristic sunglasses under the label, and even now, when his strongest backers have left him.

Presenting his rationale behind accessible designer fashion, West said everyone deserves “the same level of cuts… food.. water… education.”

“We’re engineering opportunities, we’re getting past the past, we’re focused on the future,” Ye added.

It seems the jilted fashion mogul is still getting his hands busy, as he also teased new jackets that he was working on.

The most astonishing part of the interview, however, was Ye’s announcement that he would be running for president in 2024 again, following a rather unsuccessful bid back in 2020. He’s already produced merchandise labeled with ‘Ye24’.

[via Insider and The Independent, cover photo 258802658 © Wirestock | Dreamstime.com]