Yeezy Gap, Kanye West’s much-awaited line with the retailer, is finally here—and it’s already flying off the shelves.
On Tuesday, West’s 44th birthday, a $200 blue nylon, unisex puffer jacket dubbed the “RoundJacket” became available to preorder. Within a few hours, the jacket, which will ship this fall, had seemingly sold out. A spokesperson for Yeezy Gap said that the jacket was still available to pre-order, but due to high demand, customers were seeing a “sold out” message.If the success of the jacket’s launch is any indication of how well Yeezy Gap will do, West stands to make a fortune from the 10-year partnership, which entitles him to royalty payments based on sales. West may also get up to 8.5 million shares of Gap stock if the line hits certain sales goals, a deal that could add tens of millions of dollars to West’s fortune based on the current stock price.
The Yeezy partnership has already been a win for Gap’s stock. When the deal was announced last June, Gap shares surged nearly 40%. As of noon Tuesday, the company’s stock had risen 2.5% from the previous day.
West is currently worth $1.8 billion, by Forbes’ estimates, with the bulk of that attributed to his Yeezy sneaker line The collection pulled in an estimated $1.7 billion in revenue in 2020 through its partnership with Adidas—earning West $191 million in royalties last year. The rest of his fortune is made up of his music catalogue (worth an estimated $90 million), his stake in soon-to-be ex-wife Kim Kardashian West’s shapewear company Skims (worth an estimated $64 million) and a handful of other assets, including cash, real estate, jewelry and even livestock (worth an estimated $160 million).
While bank documents Forbes saw earlier this year suggested Yeezy Gap was worth as much as $1.5 billion based on future projected earnings, Forbes declined to value the company until it started to bring in revenue. With the first batch of Yeezy Gap apparel hitting the market—and demand proving high—it seems the world’s richest rapper is about to get even richer.
