Chicago rapper, producer and entrepreneur Kanye West has decided that enough is enough as he reaches the end of his tether with his current Yeezy collaborators. Only recently, West took to Instagram to blast fashion brand GAP as he accused them of stealing his designs but now, the two entities are officially ending their partnership following a request made by Ye’s lawyers to terminate their 2020 collaboration contract.
The rapper’s lawyers sent a letter to GAP notifying the company that Yeezy LLC would be terminating its agreement. According to Yeezy LLC, GAP breached the terms of its contract on multiple occasions. The rapper spoke to CNBC about why he had to sever his ties with the company in order to progress.
GAP president and CEO Mark Breitbard sent an official letter to his employees addressing the deterioration of the partnership. The letter reads, “While we share a vision of bringing high-quality, trend-forward, utilitarian design to all people through unique omni experiences with Yeezy Gap, how we work together to deliver this vision is not aligned,” Gap president and CEO Mark Breitbard wrote. “And we are deciding to wind down the partnership.”
West’s legal team insisted that within the contract, it was made clear that GAP had an obligation be selling at least 40% of its Yeezy GAP items in physical stores by the third and fourth quarters of 2021. Furthermore, it had an obligation to open up a total of five exclusive Yeezy GAP stores by July 31 2023. Ye obviously did not see this happening.
In a statement sent to music publication Pitchfork, West’s Attorney Nicholas Gravante wrote, “Gap left Ye no choice but to terminate their collaboration agreement because of Gap’s substantial noncompliance. Ye had diligently tried to work through these issues with Gap both directly and through counsel. He has gotten nowhere.”
You can watch Kanye’s CNBC interview in the video below.
