Kanye West's Brand Deals Falling Apart Amid Various Controversies

Kanye West appears to be in bad standing with many of the brands he's partnered with.

BYCole Blake
Surface Magazine's DesignDialogues No. 6 With Hans Ulrich Obrist, Kanye West And Jacques Herzog

The state of Kanye West's numerous brand deals are up in the air as the legendary rapper has spent the last several weeks tarnishing his reputation by wearing "White Lives Matter" shirts, sharing numerous antisemitic remarks, and much more. Gap, Adidas, Balenciaga, and others all appear to be distancing themselves from the Donda rapper.

As for Adidas, the company recently announced that they would be putting their partnership with West "under review." Ye has spent months calling out Adidas execs and accusing the brand of stealing his designs.

(Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images for Fast Company)

“After repeated efforts to privately resolve the situation, we have taken the decision to place the partnership under review,” Adidas shared in a statement. “We will continue to co-manage the current product during this period.”

As for his 10-year deal with Gap, West nixed that deal for himself in September. Gap Brands President & CEO Mark Breitbard confirmed the partnership to be over in an internal email shared by Page Six.

“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. And we are deciding to wind down the partnership,” Breitbard wrote.

Page Six also reports that West's relationship with Balenciaga has soured as well, with the Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga collaborations having been taken down from Farfetch. Vogue has also taken down pictures of West at the recent Balenciaga show for Paris Fashion Week.

West is even in trouble with his bank, JP Morgan. According to Candace Owens, the company asked Ye to take his money elsewhere with "no official reason given."

“I was told there was no official reason given, but they sent this letter as well to confirm that he has until late November to find another place for the Yeezy empire to bank,” Owens said.

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About The Author
Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.